Kellen Moore is going to be connected to the Cowboys job a lot over the coming weeks.
When the Dallas Cowboys decided to walk away from five-year head coach Mike McCarthy, they made one thing abundantly clear: Fixing the offense was this offseason’s number one priority.
Even before quarterback Dak Prescott went down with a season-ending injury, the Cowboys’ offense was a big disappointment during McCarthy’s final season in Dallas. With Prescott healthy for the first eight games of the regular season, Dallas averaged just 21 points per game, scoring 24 or more points in a single contest twice.
If you dive a bit deeper into some more advanced stats, things don’t get much better. Dallas’ offense was in the bottom 10 in nearly every advanced offensive static, ranking 24th in EPA/Play (-0.052), 22nd in Offensive Success Rate (41.3%), 24th in Dropback EPA (-0.052), and 20th in Rush Success Rate (38.1%).
Dallas had no real run game to speak of, and there was a clear lack of creativity in the passing offense. While things did get a little better on offense in the second half of the season, albeit against weaker opponents, the lack of creativity still posed problems, coupled with some questionable play-calling.
This all led to McCarthy’s eventual departure, and now the Cowboys turn their attention to finding their next head coach who can get their offense back on track. There are plenty of candidates to consider, but one stands out as the best potential fit. He has a history in Dallas and helped their offense reach some of the highest regular-season heights in franchise history. That guy is current Eagles’ offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
While Moore’s time in Dallas did not end on the greatest note, there’s no denying he had the offense operating at a high level during his time as the team’s offensive coordinator. With Moore as their OC, here’s where the Cowboys ranked in some key team offensive statistics during each of his four seasons.
- 2019 – 1st in Total Yards, 1st in Y/P, 1st in NY/A (Passing), 6th in Points Per Game, 3rd in EPA/Play
- 2020- 14th in Total Yards, 22nd in Y/P, 22nd in NY/A (Passing), 17th in Points Per Game, 25th in EPA/Play
- 2021- 1st in Total Yards, 3rd in Y/P, 4th in NY/A (Passing), 1st in Points Per Game, 7th in EPA/Play
- 2022- 11th in Total Yards, 15th in Y/P, 10th in NY/A (Passing), 3rd in Points Per Game, 10th EPA/Play
Under Moore, the Cowboys were consistently one of the best offenses in football. The 35-year-old did plenty of good things during his time in Dallas, but arguably the best thing he did was get the most out of Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott.
Prescott had two of the best seasons of his nine-year career with Moore as his offensive coordinator. Even with an injury-shortened season in 2020 and undoubtedly the unluckiest year of his pro career in 2022, Prescott was one of the NFL’s best during the four years Moore was Dallas’ OC.
Over these four years, Prescott was in the top 10 in plenty of offensive statistics. Below is where Dallas’ signal-caller ranked in a few key statistics among all NFL quarterbacks over these four years. (Min 1,300 snaps)
- 9th in EPA+CPOE (0.119)
- 7th in EPA/Play (0.167)
- 3rd in Success Rate (52%)
- 7th in Air Yards (8.4)
Prescott also posted a 52.4% passing success rate, 5.5% TD%, 99.3 Passer Rating, and 71.9 QBR, all higher than his career averages in those categories.
Moore knows how to get the most out of Prescott, and by all accounts, the two have an outstanding relationship. As their competitive window moves forward, getting Prescott back to the MVP-caliber football he was playing as recently as last season should be Dallas’ top priority. Moore would be able to do just that, and probably much quicker than any new candidate the Cowboys would hire.
Kellen Moore has many qualifications that set him apart from other potential candidates. First, he understands how things work in Dallas and what being a coach for the Cowboys entails, one of the most important qualifications to become the Cowboys’ head coach. Second, he has a good relationship with Dallas’ key offensive stars and elevated their play consistently during his time as the offense coordinator. Finally, Moore is an innovative play-caller who can provide some much-needed creativity to a Dallas offense that has lacked it for the past couple of years.
If the Cowboys want to get their offense back on track and return to being one of the most dominant offensive units in all of football, hiring Kellen Moore as their next head coach would be the fastest way to do so.
Dan Graziano of ESPN predicts Kellen Moore will get the nod in Dallas.
The Cowboys are obviously still extremely early in their process, and we have no idea how extensive their interview list will be once they get rolling. But Moore — who played for the Cowboys from 2015 to 2017 (including two years as Dak Prescott’s backup quarterback), then spent a year as the team’s quarterbacks coach and then four more as the offensive coordinator — has an obvious connection to the organization and its current QB. He has interviewed for head coach jobs in recent years and is on some teams’ interview lists in this cycle, as well.
The Cowboys’ offense averaged 18.9 points per game this season, 25th in the NFL. Moore’s offense in Philadelphia was sixth at 26.7 points per game.
Many around the league expect Jerry Jones to check in on some college coaches, with names such as USC’s Lincoln Riley, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman, Iowa State’s Matt Campbell and even Colorado’s Deion Sanders being speculated. And Jones could also lean toward someone with previous NFL head coaching experience, given that he believes his team is always in win-now mode. But Moore makes a ton of sense at this very early stage.
Saad Yousuf and Jon Machota of The Athletic point out that some relationship-mending might be in order before signing Moore.
The separation between the Cowboys and Moore in 2023 wasn’t under the best of terms, but a lot of that was because of the involvement of McCarthy, who is no longer in the picture. Jones has always shown great admiration for Moore, to the point that he forced McCarthy to keep Moore as offensive coordinator and play caller when McCarthy took the job in 2020.
Moore’s one season in Los Angeles with the Chargers wasn’t great but he has Philadelphia’s offense humming, thanks in large part to a plethora of weapons. With the Eagles two wins away from a Super Bowl appearance, momentum could pick up in favor of Moore getting serious consideration for a head-coaching job somewhere in the NFL. If that’s the case, Jones could view it as a homecoming.