There was a possibility, albeit remote, that the Dallas Cowboys were going to be replacing three of the four major decision makers under head coach Mike McCarthy. With Dan Quinn taking over for Mike Nolan after one year of ineptitude, the defense assuredly was going to be led differently. The unfortunate passing of Markus Paul during the season led to the interim title of strength and conditioning coach to be lifted and Harold Nash, Jr. was given the job outright on Wednesday.
However both offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, he of a new three-year contract, and special teams coach John Fassel were under consideration to be poached by division rival Philadelphia. Moore interviewed earlier in the week and Fassel was said to be of interest. However the Eagles have settled on their replacement for the fired Doug Pederson and their choice is Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni.
#Eagles to hire #Colts OC Nick #Sirianni as their head via @thacover2NFL https://t.co/dq0stOvSci
— TheEaglesWire (@TheEaglesWire) January 21, 2021
Sirianni’s primary job will be to resurrect the career of quarterback Carson Wentz, who went from a huge contract extension in 2019 to being one of the league’s worst signal callers in 2020. That’s likely one of the reasons why Moore was of interest to Philly brass, for his work with Wentz’ draft-class mate Dak Prescott.
Prescott now gets to continue to work within Moore’s offense. The two have been together in some capacity since Prescott’s rookie season. Moore was a backup quarterback whose injury opened the door for Prescott to fill in for Tony Romo when the franchise QB suffered a broken back in the preseason. Prescott started every regular season game since until he incurred a compound fracture in his leg in Week 5.
Following being a backup to Prescott in 2017, Moore ascended to be his QB coach in 2018 and has been the offensive coordinator and play caller the last two seasons; one final year under Jason Garrett and this most recent season under McCarthy.
McCarthy brought Fassel over to coach the downtrodden special teams’ unit after being let go from the Los Angeles Rams and improved Dallas’ crew from the bottom of the league to No. 11 this past season.
With only Houston remaining as a head coaching vacancy, outside of one of their position coaches being tapped for a coordinator role with the Texans, it is now likely that additional disruptions to the coaching staff for the Cowboys is off the table.
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