4 things Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy needs to do to keep his job this year

2. Use the Hot Hand

Last season, fans saw just how often this Cowboys coaching staff tended to use their starters over their backup players, and never was that more apparent than in the usage of Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard. Both had strong stats, but when you look back at the games, the more productive of the two was almost always Pollard. Yet despite that, as well as the knee injury sustained by Elliott, McCarthy and staff still elected to go with Elliott over the more productive Pollard near-constantly, which was mind boggling to the outside world.

This season, that needs to change, and McCarthy needs to get his staff to realize that just because the player is a bigger name doesn’t mean they will always be the more productive player for the ‘Boys at any given time. Taking a more hot hand approach to snaps on the field will help this team in the long run, developing depth at all positions and stirring competition among the players. Often, that leads to more effort on the field and wins. These are all things that will help a younger Cowboys team for years to come. Staying the course and relying on your big names isn’t always the best course of action.

Last season, the team seemed to be trying to move in that direction with the insertion of Pollard into more of the offensive game-plan, but it will be on McCarthy to make sure they don’t fall back into their old habits. It was clearly not enough of a shift.