Scott Linehan isn’t the most imaginative offensive coordinator in the NFL, but blaming him for the Cowboys’ inability to move the football is unfair.
Dallas Cowboys fans are desperately searching for answers after watching their team struggle to move the ball against the Panthers in Week 1. Predictably, that’s caused fans to look for a singular scapegoat. Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan is not the man who should be shouldering the most blame for his unit’s struggles.
At least head coach Jason Garrett seems to grasp that reality. He insists that Linehan will continue to call the offensive plays for the foreseeable future. Garrett isn’t a perfect leader for the Cowboys, but he’s smart to leave Linehan alone for the time being. The issues plaguing this offense go much deeper than vanilla play calling.
If you want to find the man most responsible for this putrid offense, you don’t need to look very far. Owner and general manager Jerry Jones should be answering the tough questions. After all, it’s ultimately his personnel decisions that have left the offense entirely bereft of talent at wide receiver. When you talk yourself into Tavon Austin being a crucial playmaker in the offseason, it’s a clear indication your offense will struggle when the regular season begins.
The ugly truth is that the Cowboys have done almost nothing to replace Dez Bryant and Jason Witten in the passing game. As we referenced earlier, acquiring Austin doesn’t count. He was practically given away by arguably the best offensive coach in football. Sean McVay would not have traded him if he was capable of becoming a difference maker.
The most significant addition Dallas made at wide receiver in the offseason was drafting Michael Gallup in the third round. He may ultimately bloom into a productive wideout, but he only managed one catch for nine yards in his debut. Expecting him to be a key player this season is optimistic at the very least.
He is probably the only receiver on the roster who has the potential to be a starter. Cole Beasley is a nice backup, but he just isn’t athletic enough to be even a No. 2 option. Some scouts like Allen Hurns’ potential, but his 1,000-yard season for the Jaguars feels like a long time ago. His 2015 campaign seems much more like an outlier than a norm for his NFL career.
The team has some other lottery tickets on the roster, but betting on any of them to turn into a quality starter is an exceedingly poor bet. Jones and the team’s front office should have seen this issue coming a mile away. Finding another quality wide receiver or two should have been a huge priority for the Cowboys in the offseason.
Instead, they’re pinning all of their offensive hopes on Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott and a pretty talented offensive line. Elliott is a Pro Bowl running back, but he’s only human. Expecting him to grind out 150 yards every week while going up against eight man fronts just isn’t going to happen. He’ll have some good games, but don’t expect him to carry this offense all by himself.
Prescott has a lot of fans around the NFL, but he hasn’t shown the ability to be a quarterback who can elevate a suspect group of receivers. The likes of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers might struggle to turn this group of wideouts into a productive unit. Prescott would have to turn into an All-Pro signal caller this season to elevate the Cowboys passing game out of the NFL’s bottom third.
At the end of the day, Linehan is probably going to be one of the people who loses his job over the Cowboy’s offensive struggles in 2018. Jones will avoid any meaningful consequences because he owns the team. He’s still the person who deserves the most blame for this debacle. His arrogant personnel decisions have stuck his team’s offense in the mud.