Since the Dallas Cowboys lost in the NFC Divisional Round against the San Francisco 49ers, the team has been making major changes to the coaching staff.
Former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has moved on to the LA Chargers and the Cowboys hired Brian Schottenheimer as their new OC, though head coach Mike McCarthy will be calling the offensive plays.
Mike McCarthy
However, ESPN’s Monday Night Football analyst and Cowboys hall of fame quarterback Troy Aikman doesn’t think it’s a good idea for the head coach to be calling the plays for Dak Prescott.
“I like it better when you have an offensive coordinator who is calling the plays,” Aikman said on Thursday via the Dallas Morning News. “[The OC] is the one who the quarterback is meeting with regularly. So in the traditional sense when you have a head coach who just kind of oversees both sides of the ball, and then the offensive coordinator calls the plays.”
Troy Aikman
Aikman said he liked the offensive coordinator to call the plays because they are the ones who practice the plays all week and he feels like McCarthy may be taking on too much by calling the plays himself. He also feels it might take its toll on quarterback Dak Prescott.
“Where I think it becomes challenging is, for a quarterback, most of his interactions during the day each day will be with the offensive coordinator who will not be calling the plays,” Aikman said. “So there’s a lot to it, but the quarterback situation that is about to happen in Dallas, and the way that it is in Kansas City, the quarterback has more interaction with the coordinator/ quarterback coach than he does with the actual play caller.”
Having the head coach call the plays seems to work in Kansas City, but time will tell if it will work in Dallas.