By HCR Staff | Jan. 17, 2020
Yesterday, new Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy announced that Kellen Moore will be the play caller in 2020.
In our view, that means Moore’s being groomed by owner Jerry Jones as the future head coach of the Cowboys.
McCarthy takes a lot of pride in being a play caller; he sees himself as among the very best–after all, his peer group includes New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, as they received their head coaching opportunities together in 2006.
Plus, in 2016, he publicly stated that he would “never give up” play calling duties ever again after briefly turning the job over to Tom Clements with the Green Bay Packers. That’s a pretty emphatic statement.
So what happened?
Our suspicion is that Jones strongly conditioned the Cowboys’ head coaching job offer to McCarthy on keeping Moore as the offensive coordinator. Moore, in his own regard, also had some leverage as the University of Washington was purportedly trying to lure him. So if he didn’t want to be an offensive coordinator in title only, he had some perceived leverage to demand the play calling.
As for McCarthy, he clearly was somewhat desperate to become a head coach again. He went on an orchestrated media blitz to demonstrate his personal growth in an effort to get an offer. After all, at age 56, there was no guarantee he’d ever get one again, notwithstanding a Super Bowl victory.
Clearly, Jones is fond of Moore, and if McCarthy stumbles, Jones would have a hedge in-house. Obviously, we are speculating, but we’ve seen this movie before; it’s how Jason Garrett ascended to his job.
Like Garrett was, Moore is young, and a former college star and NFL quarterback.
Jones likes to have ready answers for problems that don’t even exist yet. Hopefully they don’t, but in our view, Moore appears to be a “Plan B” in waiting.