Football fans who watched the Green Bay Packers on TV at any point between 2006 and 2018- and they were among the top-televised teams during that stretch- likely have a mental picture of Mike McCarthy. He’s standing on the sideline, pen in hand or stuck in his hat, holding a giant multi-colored laminated playsheet in front of him, maybe covering his mouth with it as he dialed up the next play for his quarterback to execute.
Among the many things the 56-year-old coach will have to adjust to in 2020, apart from coaching the cross-divisonal rival Cowboys, will be what to do with his hands during gameday. That’s because it will be 32-year-old offensive coordinator Kellen Moore calling the plays for Dak Prescott when Dallas has the ball. And McCarthy is okay with that.
Or so he says.
“I think the most important thing coming from the head coach position is you have to do what’s best for the football team,” McCarthy said on NFL Network, via Jon Machota of The Athletic. “Personally, I know I’ll miss it. I miss a lot of components of it already. But my sole responsibility is to make sure I can help Kellen be the best play-caller possible. He’s still young at it. He has a great mind. I’ve been extremely impressed with him every step of the way, from building the installs, the way he’s delivered it in the meetings to players, and his on-the-field coaching. So it’s the best decision for this football team. There is so much more that I want to and need to focus on as far as building the program the way I see it needs to be done. There’s a lot of energy that goes through it, and I just didn’t want to short the offense. I felt like I did that at times in Green Bay.”
That’s a stunning admission from McCarthy, whose Packers, when led by Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, could routinely hang a ton of points on nearly anyone on any given week.
But it speaks to the evolution that McCarthy apparently underwent during his season-long hiatus in 2019, when he bunkered in at home to watch tape and re-examine his own coaching tendencies as he prepared for a return to an NFL sideline.
It also says quite a bit about the club’s belief in Moore, entering just his second year as Cowboys offensive coordinator. It wasn’t a guarantee that the boy wonder would stay on staff when McCarthy took the helm, but the winningest quarterback in Division I FBS history made enough of an impression to retain his job.
Moore told the media this week that he’s not worried about McCarthy looking over his shoulder too much. In fact, he appreciates the input.
Kellen Moore on if it’s tough to be calling offensive plays, knowing that new Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has had so much success doing it for several years:
(Video via the Dallas Cowboys) pic.twitter.com/2SZWOyrYPx
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) August 19, 2020
Moore says he enjoys the collaborative efforts taking place within the offensive coaching staff with himself, McCarthy, quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier, and former Packers passer Scott Tolzein, now a coaching assistant in Dallas.
“I think it’s been a fun process to go through it, obviously, me being a younger guy,” Moore explained, “To go through it having an opportunity to learn from Mike and kind of build a 2020 Dallas Cowboys offense: pull pieces from things we’ve done in the past, pull pieces from things he’s done in Green Bay, and, quite frankly, pull stuff from all the rest of our coaching staff. We’ve got a really diverse group who’s come from a bunch of different places. It’s been a fun offseason- unique offseason- with all the circumstances, but fun nevertheless, being able to piece it all together.”
Whether it remains “fun” for Moore may depend solely on the results. McCarthy has, it’s worth noting, relinquished playcalling duties before.
After blowing a 2014 postseason game versus Seattle in overtime due to what many felt was overly-conservative play-calling, McCarthy turned over Aaron Rodgers’s offensive reins to his then-OC (who was promoted to associate head coach) for the 2015 campaign.
McCarthy claimed the move would free him up to focus on other areas of the team… much like he said on Wednesday in regard to Moore and the 2020 Cowboys squad.
“I did it for the right reasons,” McCarthy said then of the switch in Green Bay.
The change did not go well. The mighty Packers finished the year 15th and 29th in the league in scoring and yards per play, respectively. McCarthy resumed playcalling duties just before the season’s end and helped salvage a wild card postseason berth.
“I’ll never do that again,” McCarthy said after finally taking back the laminated menu of plays.
Except he just did.
Only time (and Kellen Moore) will tell if it sticks this time around.
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