Kellen Moore is entering his third year as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator. But this offseason has been dramatically different for him in one very big way. And what’s made 2021 unique for Moore should have opposing defenses more than a little worried.
“I think this year is really the first time I’ve ever been a part of a staff where we didn’t have a bunch of change,” the 33-year-old told reporters this week in Oxnard. “The previous year, we were a staff coming together. The year before was my first time coordinating, and so we were kind of trying to piece it all together that year as well. So I really enjoyed this offseason.”
As a first-time OC, Moore was handed the keys to a high-octane muscle car before he even really knew how to drive. In his second season, a bunch of parts ended up in the shop just a mile into the trip, and he had to navigate unfamiliar roads with the hazards on.
But now he’s had time to spend in the garage. Revving. Tweaking. Tinkering. Fine-tuning. And one gets the distinct sense he’s ready to fully fire the engine and see what this baby will do.
“It’s a fun task,” Moore said of juggling a roster full of playmakers. “We got a lot of guys that we feel really, really confident about. And so it’s a matter of viewing this thing [with] a little bit wider lens. This is a long season. Everyone’s hopes is to be in it in February. So we’re going to need all of these guys at certain times in certain games. I really don’t care. There may be a certain game we have to hand the ball off to Zeke [Elliott] 40 times. I don’t care if we’ve got to throw it 50 times. I don’t care. Every game’s going to present different challenges and different opportunities. We’ve got an opportunity to utilize all of these guys. And throughout the season, there is going to be different opportunities that Blake [Jarwin], Dalton [Schultz] may have- a tight end opportunity or a matchup- and maybe we need to spread it out a little bit more and utilize these receivers. We’re going to be able to utilize it all. It’s going to be fun.”
Obviously, having quarterback Dak Prescott back from his catastrophic ankle injury is the biggest piece of the puzzle. A newly-energized running back in Elliott leads a potent ground attack, with Tony Pollard as a dangerous change of pace. The wide receiver trio of Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and CeeDee Lamb may be the best in the game. All the way down to fourth- and fifth-string receivers and the tight ends he mentioned, Dallas is unequivocally loaded with versatile pieces that can be moved all around the field in a multitude of ways.
“This game’s a matchup game,” Moore noted. “Teams are going to play certain matchups. Some teams play a lot of man; they’re going to try to match up specific defenders on specific players. So if we can identify those matchups, we can put guys in certain situations that hopefully give us a really good chance and a really good opportunity.”
How they actually use all that talent is just as critical as having it in the first place. And while Moore may be an offensive mastermind in the making, he’s also smart enough to look anywhere he can for inspiration.
Consider it yet another benefit of a full offseason without major upheaval and under normal circumstances.
“It was actually really, really good for us. We were able to watch ourselves from 2020, but then just go explore the rest of the league. Because obviously, the league’s made up trends and themes, and when you get a chance to watch all those teams, you get to, maybe, find things that you’ll be able to utilize. Some of it we threw in: ‘Hey, that’s going right in from Day One. We’ve got to hop onto this and we’ve got to go.’ There’s other things that are going to be sitting in back pockets. It’s on your list of, ‘Hey, we could probably utilize this as the season progresses.’ So it was really good just to watch the entire league, every single team, as much as you could. Obviously, once you get to the college aspect of it, the NFL draft, you kind of start watching a lot of these prospects, and it just kind of [leads] you into different teams or schemes that you think, ‘Hey, there’s something intriguing about those guys; I want to watch that.’ And so it’s been a really fun offseason, I feel like, just to be able to do all that.”
But Moore was reluctant to identify exactly who he’d been impressed with, or even watching.
“I’m trying not to give too many secrets out,” he cautioned himself before continuing. “You know, I think the league is full of trends. And so you’re trying to stay on top of trends. I think that’s always, ‘What’s the next thing? Okay, I can go watch and see, obviously, some of these top offenses, the play-action game of L.A., Tennessee, all of these teams that are obviously utilizing the play-action really, really well.’ So you see where they’re at. ‘Maybe what’s the next step? How can we try to stay ahead of this thing a little bit?'”
Moore admitted that he also tries to chart trends on the other side of the ball, too, knowing that- in a copycat league- one team’s revolutionary defensive wrinkle often becomes everybody’s primary scheme in short order. If his offense ran into it once last season, Moore expects to see it over and over this time around.
“And so you’re always looking at these trends, okay?” he went on. “Where is this thing going to go? So you’re trying to stay ahead of that, watch the teams that maybe have had success against those types of teams in the offseason so that you’re better prepared when the season comes up.”
With the Cowboys about to break camp in California and the 2021 season opener less than a month away, the rest of the league- and Cowboys Nation- are going to find out soon if Kellen Moore’s first true offseason provides truly special results.
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