The Dallas Cowboys ended the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2020 season in Week 16, 37-17. It was a combined effort of all three phases, but the offense’s efforts under backup quarterback Andy Dalton was on full display. Dallas managed to have two 100-yard …
The Dallas Cowboys ended the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2020 season in Week 16, 37-17. It was a combined effort of all three phases, but the offense’s efforts under backup quarterback Andy Dalton was on full display. Dallas managed to have two 100-yard receivers and a 100-yard rusher behind a makeshift line that no longer had any of their three elite-level protectors.
It was the second time in two seasons the Cowboys had put 37 points up against Philadelphia, and hardly the only time that offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s ability to command an arsenal was on full display. So it should be surprising that the Eagles, floundering in trying to find a head coach replacement for the fired Doug Pederson, were interested in speaking to Moore about their opening. On Tuesday, that meeting happened.
Moore, 32, has been an OC for just two seasons and a coach for just three, spending a year as QB coach before moving up. When his initial three-year contract was over this spring, he flirted with taking the head coach job at his alma mater Boise State. He decided against it, to maintain a direct line to a head coaching gig in the NFL. Dallas signed him for another three years, in what looks like establishing a possible line of succession to head coach Mike McCarthy.
But Moore’s opportunity may come before that. The Eagles have interviewed countless candidates as other vacancies across the league have been filled. Their ownership is hell bent on saving the career of Carson Wentz, drafted in 2016 and given a fat contract in 2019 but who has fallen on hard times and was one of the league’s worst QBs in 2020. Seeing the work Moore has done with Dak Prescott and his development, it makes perfect sense why they’d want to listen to Moore’s ideas.
And it makes perfect sense why Moore would take the interview. There are only 32 head coaching jobs in the league, and only a handful open up every year. It would behoove Moore to get as much experience in the interview process as possible, and if there’s a marriage to be made it’s not on him to worry about fan rivalries.
But it would leave Dallas in a position to try and replace him as the play caller.
McCarthy, of course, has called plays in his past as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. He did it for years and could easily resume that role with Dallas. A betting man would probably lean to that being the case if Moore left, but that is not a guarantee.
The team has several candidates from within the staff to move up to OC if Moore departed. That includes current OL coach Joe Philbin, who was McCarthy’s OC in Green Bay in two different stints. It also could be Doug Nussmeier, who has been on the Cowboys staff for three years across two regimes and went from tight ends coach to QB coach this past season.
Nussmeier was the offensive coordinator across four different college stops before coming to the NFL in 2018.
All of these, as well as outside hires would be on the table were Moore to leave the fold, but the Eagles may have just been doing due diligence, and picking the brain of a rival coach. They continue their search into Day 9.
[listicle id=662199][listicle id=657402][listicle id=662134][lawrence-newsletter]
