Tag: 2020 coaching staff changes

News: Cowboys coaching staff more intriguing than originally thought

The NFL is just days removed from the Super Bowl and already the 2020 offseason is in full swing. When it comes to the big changes in Dallas there is no time to waste. The public gets to know a little bit more about new Cowboys defensive …

The NFL is just days removed from the Super Bowl and already the 2020 offseason is in full swing. When it comes to the big changes in Dallas there is no time to waste.

The public gets to know a little bit more about new Cowboys defensive coordinator, Mike Nolan. There are predictions of who has the best chance to get to Super Bowl 55. A bold Jason Witten projection his fans may want to look away from.

If things don’t work out in Dallas, there’s a look at potential different landing spots for Amari Cooper. 2020 over-under bets are filing in for season win totals. An introduction to the new individual responsible for linebackers Jaylon Smith & Leighton Vander Esch’s growth. All this and more in this edition of News and Notes.

Mike Nolan wants Cowboys defense to have ‘swarming type of mentality’ :: ESPN

A great read from Todd Archer profiles new defensive coordinator Mike Nolan. Among the tidbits, there’s a glimpse back at Nolan’s introduction to the Cowboys as a five-year-old sitting atop the shoulders of Ring of Honor quarterback Don Meredith, the collaborative lengths he’s going to with his newly-assembled staff to marry his coaches’ various defensive philosophies, and the thing that Troy Aikman told him about Deion Sanders 15 years ago that still resonates with him today.

At the heart of everything Nolan does in Dallas, though, will be his emphasis on creating takeaways. “You want it to look like a swarming type of mentality,” Nolan says. He adds, “The number one thing in football is getting the ball for your offense.”

–TB

NFL’s biggest Super Bowl window? Chiefs, Ravens, 49ers top list :: NFL.com

Though some have been quick to already christen the Chiefs the league’s next “dynasty,” there are actually several teams for whom the proverbial window is wide open to win a championship of their own in 2020. NFL.com columnist Adam Schein ranks the nine teams for whom the time is now. Or at least now-ish.

The Cowboys come in fifth, thanks in large part to the hiring of Mike McCarthy as head coach. Schein thinks he’s the ideal leader to make the most of quarterback Dak Prescott hitting his football stride: “McCarthy and Prescott comprise the kind of coach-quarterback tandem that can carry a franchise to years of contention.”

–TB

Offseason predictions for all 32 teams :: ESPN

The Worldwide Leader tasked its NFL Nation reporters with making a “bold prediction” for the 2020 offseason for each team in the league. While some of the crystal-ball calls aren’t exactly exciting (The Browns will add two starting tackles! The Broncos will be active in making moves!), several are worthy of at least a slight eyebrow raise (The Rams will try to trade Todd Gurley).

As for Dallas, Todd Archer’s calling his shot on a topic that’s already gotten a good deal of traction with many fans: “Jason Witten will play a 17th season… but it won’t be with the Cowboys.”

–TB

Las Vegas Raiders announce hiring of Rod Marinelli :: Raiders

Rod Marinelli found a new home in the business, one with a familiar face, Jon Gruden. Gruden and Marinelli worked together for four seasons in Tampa Bay in the early 2000’s. On Wednesday, the now Las Vegas Raiders announced the hiring of two coaches. While his stint in Dallas didn’t end how he wanted, Marinelli’s resume speaks for itself and his time with the Cowboys was more positive than negative.

–AH

Eagles, Bills among potential landing spots for Amari Cooper :: NFL.com

Cooper, coming off his best season, is sure to attract looks for a number of teams in need of an upgrade at the position. Former NFL quarterback David Carr explains his top 5 landing spots for Cooper.

–AH

2020 Dallas Cowboys have an over/under win total set at 9. . . what would you take? ::Blogging The Boys

The 2019 Cowboys had and over/under set at 8.5 wins according to BetOnline and by the looks of things, they were pretty spot on.

In 2020, Dallas has been given the early over/under total of nine wins. RJ Ochoa goes on to explain that with the team being in win-now mode, nine wins would be a complete disaster. Whether it being losing close games, or just plain old bad luck, anything short of a double-digit win season would have Cowboys fans once again in a frenzy.

–DS

Troy Aikman believes it’s “inevitable” Cowboys, Dak Prescott reach a deal :: Pro Football Talk

There are many different opinions on the contract status of Cowboys starting quarterback Dak Prescott. Now, with the new reports that a franchise tag is coming, the new question is whether or not Prescott will show up to the off-season programs when the new NFL calendar year starts in just a few short months.

Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback, Troy Aikman told 96.7 FM/1310 AM The Ticket that he thinks that it’s “inevitable” that it gets done. He mentions that Prescott would be there for the off season programs because he wants to get better and that he would want to be there for his teammates.

“I think the Cowboys, they’ve said it, I believe they really want him back. I have no reason to think otherwise,” Aikman said. “I believe Mike McCarthy really wants him back. Dak wants to be there. I think it’s inevitable that they are going to reach a deal.

“I think everyone understands that he’s the quarterback of the future.”

–DS

McCurley’s Faith In McCarthy Led Him To Dallas :: Dallas Cowboys

The majority of the coaching staff has been changed and revamped under the new direction and vision of head coach Mike McCarthy. For a few weeks the focus has been on all of the coordinators such as Kellen Moore (offensive), Mike Nolan (defensive)and John Fassel (special teams).

This article focuses in on a position coach with very high expectations due to  the group of individuals he’ll be working with; the linebackers. Scott McCurley will be tagging along with Mike McCarthy for a second time as he begins his job as Cowboys linebackers coach. McCurley started with McCarthy in Green Bay as an intern in 2006 and after Mike McCarthy was fired in 2018, McCurley remained loyal. The journey of getting to Dallas and how McCurley turned down an opportunity to latch on with the college football National Champions, LSU, is quite the read.

–DS

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Cowboys promote Markus Paul to lead strength and conditioning department

To replace the outgoing director and his 6 Super Bowl rings, Dallas turns to his longtime assistant, who has 5 championships of his own.

It’s tough to replace a guy who has six Super Bowl rings. But backfilling him with a guy who has five of his own is an awfully good start.

After being informed by new head coach Mike McCarthy that he would not be retained by the club, Cowboys strength and conditioning coach Mike Woicik chose to retire. Markus Paul, a 22-year coaching veteran and member of Woicik’s staff in Dallas for the past two seasons, will move up to assume the lead role, it was reported on Friday.

Paul and Woicik had been linked off and on going all the way back to the late ’80s, when Paul was a safety at Syracuse and Woicik was the football program’s strength and conditioning coach. During Paul’s five-season NFL career, mostly with the Bears, Woicik was on staff with the Cowboys, where he won three championships as part of the 1990s Dallas dynasty.

A few years after hanging up his cleats, Paul embarked on a coaching career. He reunited with Woicik, who was by then with the New Orleans Saints.

The two joined the New England Patriots staff together in 2000. Paul and Woicik were on the Super Bowl-winning staffs there in 2001, 2003, and 2004. Woicik stayed in Foxboro another six seasons before returning to Dallas in 2011.

Paul remained with the Patriots until after the 2004 season and then joined the Jets staff for two years. In 2007, he began a long stint as an assistant with the Giants, where he won his fourth and fifth Super Bowl rings. Paul joined Woicik once again in Dallas prior to the 2018 season.

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WR coach with ties to OBJ, Jarvis Landry heading to Cowboys staff

Adam Henry has coaching stints with LSU, the Giants, and Cleveland on his resume, and looks to be nearing a deal to coach the Cowboys’ WRs.

Mike McCarthy may have found his target to be the new coach for Dak Prescott’s targets. According to multiple sources as of Friday evening, the Cowboys are closing in on a deal to make Adam Henry the new wide receivers coach in Dallas, replacing Sanjay Lal.

Henry spent the past two seasons in the same role in Cleveland, where he worked with Browns wideouts Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry. The 47-year-old Henry had previously been Beckham’s position coach in New York in 2016, and the wide receivers coach for both Beckham and Landry during their final two years at LSU.

Coincidentally, Henry also has history with the man he is expected to replace. Henry and Lal were on staff together in Oakland from 2007 through 2011. Both served as offensive quality control coaches in 2007-2008. In 2009, Henry was named tight ends coach, while Lal was promoted to lead the wide receiver group. Both held those roles with the Raiders until the conclusion of the 2011 season.

Under Henry’s watch with the Browns, Landry enjoyed a career-high season in 2019 with 1,174 receiving yards. Beckham also topped 1,000 receiving yards in Cleveland in 2019; his best season in number of receptions came in 2016 as a Giant, also with Henry as his position coach.

Rumors of Beckham joining the Cowboys have circulated for some time, dating back to his tenure in New York. A newly-hired wide receiver coach who has been with him at three previous stops won’t do anything to help quiet those whispers now with Cowboys fans who still aren’t sold on free agent Amari Cooper as a long-term solution for the club.

Report: McCarthy bringing two former Green Bay assistants to Dallas

New Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy continues to build his staff, reportedly tapping two of his former assistants from Green Bay for key roles.

Mike McCarthy is moving quickly to round out his new coaching staff in Dallas. And he’s drawing from a pool of familiar faces to do it. According to ESPN’s Todd Archer, McCarthy will tap two former assistants from his Green Bay tenure for key roles with the Cowboys for the 2020 season.

Jeff Blasko is expected to serve as an assistant under new offensive line coach Joe Philbin, and Scott McCurley looks to have a position awaiting him coaching the Dallas linebackers. Both have experience with McCarthy after being a part of his staff with the Packers at the end of his tenure.

McCurley was a member of McCarthy’s original staff in Green Bay, joining the team as an intern in 2006. He was let go by the club last January, a month after McCarthy had been fired.

During his time there, McCurley filled several jobs on the defensive side of the ball, from defensive quality control coach to assistant linebackers coach to defensive assistant. Among other achievements, McCurley helped Packers linebacker Clay Matthews transition from outside to inside linebacker in 2015; Matthews received a Pro Bowl nod in his first year in the middle.

McCurley will help with a Cowboys linebacking unit that currently features Pro Bowlers Jaylon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, and Sean Lee. But there are question marks McCurley will need to address: Lee’s future with the team is undecided, Vander Esch missed the final five games of 2019 with a troublesome neck injury, and Jaylon Smith was widely criticized for a down year in his first season as a captain with a mega-contract.

Blasko spent the 2019 season as the assistant offensive line coach in Cleveland after spending three years with McCarthy in Green Bay. Originally hired by the Packers in 2016 as a coaching administrator, he was promoted to assistant O-line coach, where he helped tackle David Bakhtiari earn All-Pro honors three straight years.

Before that, Blasko spent eight years on college coaching staffs: at Akron, Florida, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. In Dallas, he’ll inherit a line that boasts three 2020 Pro Bowlers in Zack Martin, Travis Frederick, and Tyron Smith.

McCarthy has shown loyalty to his former staffers and a noted affinity for blue-collar guys from his hometown of Pittsburgh. Blasko hails from Bessemer, about an hour north of the Steel City, and went to Pitt for college, where he played linebacker for the Panthers. McCurley is also a Pittsburgh native.

Doug Nussmeier expected to replace Jon Kitna as Cowboys QB coach

The Cowboys appear to be leaning on an internal candidate to be Dak Prescott’s new position coach, but who will coach the tight ends?

Doug Nussmeier and Jon Kitna both played integral roles in the revamping of the Cowboys offense under first-time offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Their contributions to a scheme that strove to be more versatile and multidimensional resulted in one of the top offenses in the league. Dallas finished 2019 ranked tops in the NFL in yards per game and scrimmage yards per offensive play, and they placed 6th across all teams in points per game.

But those rankings didn’t translate to enough wins, and a change at head coach has brought the inevitable reshuffling of staff, regardless of the year’s statistical success. Kitna now looks to be headed out of Dallas, according to reports, with tight ends coach Nussmeier taking his place as quarterbacks coach under new skipper Mike McCarthy.

Nussmeier came aboard in early 2018, after serving in the college ranks since 2008 with the programs at Fresno State, Washington, Alabama, Michigan, and Florida. Nussmeier was charged with the development of the Cowboys tight ends, who were suddenly without veteran Jason Witten as the 2018 season approached.

The former college, NFL, and CFL quarterback stayed on in that role with the Cowboys when then-quarterbacks coach Kellen Moore was promoted to offensive coordinator and Kitna was brought in just prior to the 2019 Pro Bowl, where the Dallas staff coached the NFC squad.

Kitna had been a journeyman quarterback with several pro teams including the Cowboys before transitioning into coaching at the high school level. He then accepted a position as the offensive coordinator for the San Diego Fleet of the AAF, but took the Dallas quarterbacks coaching job before that league began play.

Kitna was known for a detailed approach to mechanics- especially footwork- and is credited with playing a major role in the dramatic uptick in the play in 2019 of Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. In one year under Kitna, Prescott enjoyed his best season as a pro in terms of passing yards, yards per attempt, touchdowns, and sacks.

As a collegiate quarterback at Idaho, Nussmeier built an impressive body of work. He is one of only five quarterbacks in NCAA history to amass 10,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards, on a list that includes Steve McNair, Daunte Culpepper, and Colin Kaepernick.

As ESPN’s Todd Archer points out, Nussmeier would be Prescott’s fourth position coach in five NFL seasons.

And as many Cowboys fans are pointing out, Nussmeier’s move would leave an opening for a tight ends coach. And the Cowboys already have in the building a veteran tight end- a future Hall of Famer at the position- who has shown a proclivity for breaking down the nuts and bolts of the game and a strong allegiance to the franchise that drafted him in 2003. Could this be the toppling of the first domino that eventually brings Witten to the coaching staff?

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