What will Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys offense look like?

The Super Bowl is over, and every team is now in off-season mode. As we all know, Kellen Moore is no longer the play caller for the Dallas Cowboys.

Brain Schottenheimer was hired as the new offensive coordinator, but the playbook will be in the hands of Mike McCarthy next season, and the change will put him center stage for 2023.  

McCarthy called players for all but one of his 13 seasons as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Yes, he won many games and ended the Cowboys' season twice in 2014 and 2016 in the playoffs, but he only won one Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers.

West Coast

The good ol' west coast offense. The style we should see next year from the Dallas offense. 

This scheme is based on short, quick passes to try and stretch the opponents' defense horizontally, which should open up for big plays down the field.

The offense heavily utilized the quarterback under center instead of the shotgun set we see running around the NFL today. It is play-calling that entailed a significant amount of three-and five-step drops out of primarily 21 personnel, which featured a running back and a fullback aligned as a split back. 

During his time with the Packers, McCarthy's offense with Rodgers was second in the league from 2010-2014 in early down pass rate. Look, I am not big into all these metrics and all that stuff, but we all know numbers don't lie. 

While the Cowboys don't have Rodgers, plenty of talent is in place with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott, Dalton Schultz, and more if they bring everyone back for the 2023 campaign.

McCarthy's offenses tend to trend toward the league's top every year. This offense is built to run this west coast style of offense. We may not know how it'll look for a couple of months, but Lamb is already on board. 

“I don't know what to expect, but I'm very excited,” Lamb told Yahoo Sports at Radio Row at the Super Bowl. “You look at what he's done. He was calling a couple plays out in Green Bay. So it's nothing new to him. He's been in this position, and he knows what he's doing.”

If the Cowboys can get the old Michael Gallup back, Pollard to play on the franchise tag, and add one more pass catcher outside, this can be an excellent style of offense.

Nonetheless, this off-season is a big one for the Cowboys. Elliott will take a pay cut and open some relief for Dallas to use some of that money on another wide receiver. That is what they need RIGHT NOW to have a chance to make a run at a title. 

They have the defense, the offensive line will get better with Tyler Smith in his second year, and if Pollard plays on the tag, the Cowboys' core will be back. It once again sits on the shoulders of Jerry Jones to make a splash, and Lamb speaking up will hopefully get his attention. 

I expect the offense to stay near the league's top in points and yards, but I want to see more down-the-field plays. We needed to see more of that this season, and in a passing league, you need to stretch the field.