Cowboys fire Kellen Moore, empower Mike McCarthy in surprise shakeup
By Adam Weinrib
With all eyes on the Philadelphia Eagles’ NFC Championship celebration and the requisite pole-greasing, the Dallas Cowboys tried to steal back the spotlight Sunday evening in unexpected fashion.
Long after Black Monday’s exhales had seemingly indicated his safety — and following several head coaching interviews — the Cowboys have dismissed offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Moreover, they’ve handed his play-calling duties to head coach Mike McCarthy, insinuating the head man is safer than safe moving forward.
Or, perhaps, he’s been set up to fail doubly if the Cowboys take a decided step back in 2023, with Sean Payton still waiting on the sidelines through a largely uninspiring coaching carousel.
Moore, the 34-year-old coordinator who’d held the OC position in Dallas since 2019 (after one season as their QB coach), will now enter the free agent pool alongside Tony Pollard, albeit with a slightly stronger leg to stand on.
I look forward to Kellen Moore crushing at where-ever his next stop is & McCarthy taking the offense back a step. Or three.
— Matthew Berry (@MatthewBerryTMR) January 29, 2023
The off-season of Head Coaches throwing their coordinators under the bus continues. https://t.co/1ONhDJgCAm
Dallas Cowboys give Mike McCarthy play-calling duties, fire Kellen Moore
Moore’s existence has long been a point of contention for the more reactionary Cowboys fans. After all, if a team struggles to win titles and playoff games, the chief culprit is typically (A) the quarterback and (B) whoever empowers that quarterback.
That said, even casual viewers seem to understand that most of Dallas’ success can be attributed to their sought-after coordinators in Moore and Dan Quinn. Quinn announced this week that, against all odds, he’d be returning to Dallas for the 2023 season after entertaining a promotion elsewhere.
Moore? He fell victim to the Cowboys’ stagnation. It didn’t take a detective to discern that Moore might be in trouble after McCarthy bristled at a question regarding his future earlier in the week.
Asked again about Kellen Moore, McCarthy said "I don't want to play this game. Kellen Moore will be evaluated." https://t.co/kJUPLGerjB
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) January 26, 2023
Apparently, that evaluation was completed over the weekend, and according to McCarthy, it showed that he deserved a more hands-on role in balancing the Cowboys’ backfield carries and making Prescott’s offense more explosive.
Perhaps Moore’s fate was sealed the day Amari Cooper was traded to the Browns for salary relief. After all, without any sort of genuine CeeDee Lamb supplement, this offense was doomed from the start.
