Cowboys take a massive L with Kellen Moore replacement

The Dallas Cowboys have replaced Kellen Moore in-house, as they promoted offensive analyst Brian Schottenheimer to offensive coordinator.

Kellen Moore and the Cowboys parted ways at the end of the season, with the Boise State product taking on a new challenge with the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Chargers feature one of the most talented position groups in all of football. Justin Herbert is one of the better young quarterbacks in football. Austin Ekeler is among the best running backs in the game, and Mike Williams/Keenan Allen form an elite wide receiving group. For Moore, leaving Dallas was an upgrade. He’d done all he could there.

In his place, Mike McCarthy will call plays next season, hoping to draw back from his Green Bay days when Aaron Rodgers was at the helm. The Cowboys announced that Brian Schottenheimer will be the team’s offensive coordinator, running the day-to-day operations in practice.

Cowboys take a step back with Brian Schottenheimer

Kellen Moore got the most out of a group with Dak Prescott at the helm. Brian Schottenheimer, meanwhile, is a coordinator who thrives in the running game. If they bring back Tony Pollard along with Ezekiel Elliott, it’s a safe bet that the Cowboys will have a rather run-heavy scheme.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, Jerry Jones pays Prescott way too much money to be a game manager. A Cowboys offense led by Schottenheimer would thrive with, say, Cooper Rush as signal-caller. But with Prescott? Dallas is paying him to be the face of their franchise.

In 14 seasons as an offensive mind, Schottenheimer has never ranked better than 14th in passing yards per game. It suggests that Dallas is down on Dak, which we arguably already knew given Jones’ insistence on drafting a quarterback this cycle (hello, Max Duggan).

Overall, this doesn’t seem like a positive for the Cowboys, especially with their current roster construction.