Dallas Cowboys: One thing offense must change in 2022
Unless the Miami Dolphins shock the NFL by hiring Kellen Moore to be their next head coach, the 33-year-old offensive coordinator will be back with the Dallas Cowboys in 2022. Moore lived the tale of two seasons in 2021. By now, you know the story. The Cowboys' offense was clicking early in the season only […]
Unless the Miami Dolphins shock the NFL by hiring Kellen Moore to be their next head coach, the 33-year-old offensive coordinator will be back with the Dallas Cowboys in 2022. Moore lived the tale of two seasons in 2021. By now, you know the story. The Cowboys' offense was clicking early in the season only to see a significant decline as the year went on.
With Moore set to return along with HC Mike McCarthy, one has to wonder what will be done differently next year. Recency bias might get in the way of seeing this, but the Cowboys have something to build on.
As Dalton Miller pointed out on Twitter, the Cowboys ranked near the top of the NFL in plenty of categories. Sure, there are a lot of things to clean up, and you definitely want to see more from Kellen Moore.
What the Dallas Cowboys' offense can do differently next season has been widely discussed. Improve the passing quick game, use tempo, involve Amari Cooper more, scheme up better run plays, reduce the screen passes, so on and so forth.
One specific thing the Cowboys and Moore should be looking at is significantly increasing their use of motion at the snap.
Such a trend has been highly effective for a lot of NFL teams in recent years. The theory behind it is clear. With pre-snap motion and motion at the snap, offenses can gain advantages in different ways.
Actually, vIQtory Sports breaks the benefits down into three categories. 1) Momentum (from the player in motion), 2) deception, and 3) leverage. The San Francisco 49ers have mastered motion in their running and passing game. The Kansas City Chiefs consistently get Travis Kelce in favorable leverage situations to exploit opposing defenses.
Yet the Cowboys seemingly refuse to implement that to their own attack. In fact, according to Seth Walder, they rank near the bottom of the league in their usage of motion at the snap.
The above graph shows the Dallas Cowboys are the team that uses the least motion at the snap on designed run plays. They rank 29th in motion at the snap in dropbacks.
The question becomes why? Why does Kellen Moore's offense shy away from a tool that's been proven to increase offensive production league-wide?
In a recent episode of The Athletic Football Show, it was speculated that the team is doing what makes Dak Prescott feel more comfortable. Dak is considered a master of pre-snap reading, so maybe this is the Cowboys trying to exploit that by avoiding a moving picture of the defense.
Quarterbacks take two mental pictures of the defense in every play. One pre-snap, another one post-snap. The Cowboys could very well be trying to exploit how good Prescott is at taking that first one.
That's only a theory, but it would be reminiscent of what actually happened in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers a few years ago. But Green Bay shifted towards using motion at the snap, having ranked above average in the NFL in their usage of it.
If that's the case in Dallas, Kellen Moore and the Cowboys might be forced to consider pushing Prescott out of his comfort zone for him to realize it can actually make things easier for him and the offense.
Whatever the case may be, the Dallas Cowboys have a lot of details to clean up to get to the next level. Increasing motion at the snap should be one of the priorities.
Featured image via Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
