Are you worried about Kellen Moore joining the Eagles?
Kellen Moore is the new offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles. This could be good news or bad news, depending on how you feel about the former Dallas Cowboys play-caller. He was loved from the beginning, but his lack of results in the postseason made him the latest scapegoat.
He is currently writing a play in Philadelphia. While some Cowboys fans are laughing at Philadelphia's decision, others aren't exactly thrilled with the move. Many around the Cowboys respect Moore as an offensive coordinator.
Before we start joking about how this will blow up in the Eagles' faces, let's take a moment to remember just how good Moore was during his time in Dallas.
debut season
Moore was hired as the Cowboys' offensive coordinator in 2019 after serving as quarterbacks coach for just one year. In his debut season, he helped the Cowboys offense gain 6,904 total yards. It was the most yards in franchise history and the fifth-most in NFL history. Similar to Peyton Manning's record-breaking season in Denver and the Rams' Greatest Show on the Turf, his offensive line was in great shape.
Everything went well for Moore offensively. The group of Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and Randall Cobb became the first trio of Cowboys receivers to all have at least 800 receiving yards. This season is often overlooked as the Cowboys finished with an 8-8 record as a team, but it wasn't because of the offense. They were second in the league in offensive DVOA.
That season, the Cowboys had horrible special teams (last in DVOA), with Brett Maher missing 10 field goals. Of the eight games they lost that year, six were by one point, most of them on Maher's missed field goals. If they had had decent kicking efficiency that season, their final results could have been much different. Either way, it was very impressive to see the offense look so good in Moore's first season as offensive coordinator.
changing duck
There was a time, not too long ago, when people thought Dak Prescott was a bus driver. His yards per pass attempt began to decline and he was labeled as a dink-and-dunk quarterback.
Things changed the moment Moore took over the play calling. Prescott began to fly the ball as both his yards per attempt and yards per game skyrocketed. At that point, we knew what type of quarterback Prescott could be.
pro football reference
In 2022, Moore's final season as coach, his form declined again. Many factors were at play, including play calling, Dak's performance, and the lack of offensive weapons, including WR2 Noah Brown. Still, Prescott's turning point coincided when Moore stepped in and cut him loose.
when everything comes together
Moore had a great debut season, but suffered a setback the following year in 2020 when Prescott lost the season. But once Dak was healthy again, the Cowboys' offense took off. CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper led a strong receiving attack for the Cowboys. The Cowboys led the league in both points and yards that season. It was the first time in 50 years that they led the league in both categories since the 1971 season when they won the Super Bowl.
Stats are just stats and people want wins, but it's hard to overlook how efficient the Cowboys offense was under Moore. Moore's Cowboys have ranked among the top seven in total yards in NFL history twice.
statistics museum
Myths of the run game
Moore was on a passing-heavy Boise State team in college and has been criticized for being too good at passing. Sure, he loves to show it off, but that's not to say he's not effective in the running game. Moore brought a lot of smart outside zone runs to the Cowboys' offense, but he showed he can be beaten in a variety of ways.
Oddly enough, the offense struggled mightily to run the ball last season, even though Mike McCarthy vowed to focus more on the run game. The 4.1 yards per rushing attempt was the team's worst in the past decade. When the defense crowded the line of scrimmage, the Cowboys had no counters. Additionally, the lack of explosive plays meant the defense didn't have to respect big plays and could bunch up more defenders than the center.
final thoughts
We can talk about how Moore's offense struggled against better teams and how it underperformed in the postseason, but that's just the Cowboys' offense we just saw last season. It is also the epitome of offense. Perhaps these shortcomings are not as dependent on Moore as we thought.
But if you look at his four years with the Cowboys, during that time the Cowboys offense ranked second overall in both yards gained. What's surprising is that they were without Dak Prescott for a total of 17 games over three different seasons. Even with Andy Dalton, Garrett Gilbert, Ben DiNucci, and Cooper Rush, the Cowboys' offense was still the second-best group in the league during Moore's tenure in Dallas.
Hopefully, he's not the answer in Philadelphia, but if he is, it wouldn't be a huge surprise to Cowboys fans who have had a front row seat to Moore's body of work in recent years. It should be.
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