DALLAS — By now you have processed the fact that Sean Payton isn’t coming through that door. Dallas nearly froze for three days in the wake of this news but the delayed realization that Kellen Moore isn’t coming back brought the sun out Friday morning.
Actually, neither of these developments felt like they mattered much once the Jones Boys got to talkin’ in Mobile, Ala. The Senior Bowl — where the Dallas Cowboys have had a strong presence for a generation, given that it takes place while two other teams are preparing for the Super Bowl — is a reminder that the shuffling of coaching faces in the annual team photo is rarely at the heart of this franchise’s long meanderings through the darkness.
Some of you really wanted Payton. Despite his almost identical resume to Mike McCarthy’s, I get that. Payton is a hell of a lot better self-promoter. Might even be a better head coach, although that‘s a debate involving fractions. But I wouldn’t have traded a first-round pick and then lost a second-round pick in exchange for a third just to see if he could build a better staff here. Never mind the fact he costs about $10 million more per year — that’s a Jones issue. I just don’t see shedding assets to see if he’s inches ahead of McCarthy.
As for Moore landing so quickly with a better quarterback in Los Angeles, it’s not surprising the Chargers see the former Cowboys offensive coordinator as a good hire. It’s not like he was terrible for four years here. The numbers strongly say otherwise. But when a quarterback starts sliding off a cliff the way Dak Prescott did this season, someone has to come to the rescue. No one did. And Moore, who produced very meager offensive results in both playoff games against the 49ers, had to go.
His absence doesn’t make the Cowboys better, just different. The fact that McCarthy is now expected to call plays and invoke more principles of the West Coast offense means Dak’s passes are likely to get even shorter. Aaron Rodgers has been king of the passes thrown behind the line of scrimmage for years, ranking near the top in that strange category. Some of us feel like Prescott already throws a lot of quick slants and short passes to the tight ends, but whatever that number is, it’s only likely to grow.
The thing McCarthy cannot control is the roster, where the Joneses remain steadfast in their belief that the Rams a year ago and Eagles this year are doing it the wrong way.
“I’m really hesitant to bet it all for a year,” Jerry Jones said in Mobile. “There’s a lot of things that can happen for that year.”
He went on to say the Eagles would “pay for it later.” My guess is that Cowboys fans would take two or three lean years in a heartbeat to get to a Super Bowl, and I don’t see any guarantees that the Eagles are falling off the Walt Whitman Bridge after this season. They have two first-round picks. They have Jalen Hurts. They have tremendous depth in the defensive line. Yes, they have some players they picked up on short-term deals that might be gone, but they built a Super Bowl team around a quarterback 10 years younger than Matthew Stafford.
Their Super Bowl journey is substantially different from the Rams.
Jerry went on to say, in discussing the Cowboys’ long absence from Super Bowls, that “San Francisco is in the same boat.” When it comes to counting Lombardi Trophies, he‘s correct. When it comes to competing and giving your fans value for their allegiance, the 49ers have played in six of the last 12 NFC Championship Games. With two different coaches, with several quarterbacks, the 49ers have produced high-quality teams that do more than eliminate the Cowboys.
Those are two different boats, something Jerry should understand better than anyone.
And just to make sure his father didn’t capture all the silly headlines, Stephen Jones announced in Mobile that he did not see any drop-off in Ezekiel Elliott this season. Both Joneses said they wanted him back in 2023 under a reduced contract.
Elliott gained 100 yards on his last 50 carries. His 3.8 average for the season was a career low and the lowest among the top 30 running backs in the league. With the idea of continuing to hand off to Elliott as a featured play, with Michael Gallup returning at a $13.8 million cap hit and with Dak needing to rediscover his efficiency in a new scheme, how much magic can be expected of McCarthy or any coach to fix a broken system?
To try to end on a high note — this week has been tough on all of us — Jerry Jones did say he intends to draft a quarterback and that he likes TCU’s Max Duggan’s work at the Senior Bowl. Is there a Frog turning into a Prince somewhere at the end of this Cowboys’ tale?
One dares to wonder.
