Former OC Kellen Moore - Discussion

[dmac_bolt]

Like instead of Air Cornell, he is Moore Air? Lol

[Big Dog]

The Chargers interviewed several OC candidates and were unimpressed. Then the OC from the #2 offense in the league over the last 4 years became available unexpectedly.

The Chargers bolted at the opportunity to get him.

No strategy, no long term planning, there was no time for that … just dumb luck.

And it doesn’t matter who picked him, I just hope Kellen does Moore with our QB and offense. And it doesn’t matter why he left Dallas, he is ours now.

Moore is an BIG upgrade over Lombardi !!!

End of story, full stop.

[Heatmiser]

The Chargers interviewed several OC candidates and were unimpressed. Then the OC from the #2 offense in the league over the last 4 years became available unexpectedly.

The Chargers bolted at the opportunity to get him.

No strategy, no long term planning, there was no time for that … just dumb luck.

And it doesn’t matter who picked him, I just hope Kellen does Moore with our QB and offense. And it doesn’t matter why he left Dallas, he is ours now.

Moore is an BIG upgrade over Lombardi !!!

End of story, full stop.

Timing is everything in most people's careers. I guess you can call that luck. Bottom line, when Moore became available he jumped at the chance to join our team, forsaking all other opportunities. And the time he spent with Staley and the Chargers in the last preseason was instrumental in that. That time may have planted the seed way back then for this move. And maybe Staley was talking to Moore pretty regularly and this was indeed a strategy, just one that could not happen until after the Cowboys finished their season and McCarthy and Moore talked.

TG

[ChargersPowderBlue]

Timing is everything in most people's careers. I guess you can call that luck. Bottom line, when Moore became available he jumped at the chance to join our team, forsaking all other opportunities. And the time he spent with Staley and the Chargers in the last preseason was instrumental in that. That time may have planted the seed way back then for this move. And maybe Staley was talking to Moore pretty regularly and this was indeed a strategy, just one that could not happen until after the Cowboys finished their season and McCarthy and Moore talked.

TG

Staley had seen Moore even before that. When Staley was DC for the Rams and played Dallas in week 1 of the 2020 season, and Staley's first year as Chargers HC when they played the Cowboys in week 2 of the 2021 season. He does his homework. Something Staley doesn't get enough credit for. He has seen what Moore has been able to do throughout his time with the Cowboys.

[powderblueboy]

Staley had seen Moore even before that. When Staley was DC for the Rams and played Dallas in week 1 of the 2020 season, and Staley's first year as Chargers HC when they played the Cowboys in week 2 of the 2021 season. He does his homework. Something Staley doesn't get enough credit for. He has seen what Moore has been able to do throughout his time with the Cowboys.

Up to now, Staley's habit has been to hire buddies from former staffs .... given his limited experience in the NFL, the pool of applicants was extremely narrow.
He would do his homework and get most things wrong.

the hiring of Ficken was a welcome change;
the hiring of Moore continued in this needed direction - although, if they didn't build a relationship last summer - who knows?
Would prefer that they just bring talented people in and not demand that they all sing Kumbaya.

We'll see if it leads anywhere: McCarthy was an offensive minded head coach who no doubt helped Moore.
He'll get no help in L.A..

Staley was given clearly more talent than anything McCoy & Lynn had their first two years: yet they got better results.
He compares unfavorably at this moment to two failed head coaches.

[sonorajim]

Up to now, Staley's habit has been to hire buddies from former staffs .... given his limited experience in the NFL, the pool of applicants was extremely narrow.
He would do his homework and get most things wrong.

the hiring of Ficken was a welcome change;
the hiring of Moore continued in this needed direction - although, if they didn't build a relationship last summer - who knows?
Would prefer that they just bring talented people in and not demand that they all sing Kumbaya.

We'll see if it leads anywhere: McCarthy was an offensive minded head coach who no doubt helped Moore.
He'll get no help in L.A..

Staley was given clearly more talent than anything McCoy & Lynn had their first two years: yet they got better results.
He compares unfavorably at this moment to two failed head coaches.

McCoy went 9-7 and crashed. Lynn won a playoff game yr 2. Yay Lynn! unfortunately his team went in the dumpster thereafter. Both has a vet probable HOF QB.
Staley's year 3 may separate him from their dumpster party. It was an impenetrable wall for them. TBD
The Chargers play will be the deciding factor. I look forward to one or more playoff wins personally.

[ghost]

https://sportdfw.com/2022/06/15/dall...e-safe-secure/

September 2022 - Over the course of roughly nine months, Cowboys Nation has cooled on their collective love for Kellen Moore. The Dallas Cowboys’ 33-year-old offensive coordinator began the 2021 NFL season as one of the hottest young coaches on the market.

After allegedly rebuffing head coaching opportunities elsewhere, Moore stayed in Dallas to finish what he started: building one of the NFL’s best offenses. And the 2021 season began as good as anyone could have hoped; the Dallas Cowboys were top-5 in nearly every offensive category, they were breaking club records, and scored points at will. By the bye week, it seemed Moore’s trajectory was aimed higher than any other assistant in the league.

Then it happened.

As we discussed yesterday in, Fixing the Cowboys Offense: Beating the shell defense, the Dallas Cowboys stubbled mightily down the stretch. Aside from a few stat boosting performances against inferior opponents, the Cowboys were nothing short of pedestrian against the NFL’s newest defensive craze.

While the defense improved week after week, the offense struggled, putting up just nine points against the Chiefs, 22 points against the Cardinals, and 17 points in the home playoff loss to the 49ers (just to name a few notable offensive shortfallings).

Suddenly the man once known as “boy genius” was the now the man left holding the bag. And Cowboys Nation was all-too-happy to light the torches and grab the pitchforks to assist the Joneses in their upcoming offseason renovations. Kellen Moore is more secure in his posting than many Dallas Cowboys fans realize.

It’s understandable Cowboys Nation turned their backs on Moore so quickly. The 2021 Dallas Cowboys appeared to be something special. They were loaded throughout and seemed destined for greatness. The offensive collapse was one of the most disappointing developments experienced in years.

Blaming the OC seemed obvious and deserved.

But the manner in which the offense collapsed matters, because when you look closer, you can see it wasn’t the game-planning that failed the Cowboys, but rather the offensive line. Something we have been harping on all offseason is how bad the O-line played after the bye.

Tyron missed more games than he played after the bye week and the trickle-down effect of mixing and matching only made things worse. Teams realized Dak was carving them up when they blitzed so they stopped blitzing. They realized they could stop the run and pressure Dak with just four linemen.

Defenses knew that passing under duress into a secondary of seven defenders favored them greatly and Dak didn’t have time to let plays develop since he was often running for his life. More players kept in to help pass protect meant less players running routes. I don’t have to tell you, three WRs against seven defenders is not an ideal ratio for an offense. What was Kellen Moore to do?

Sure, he could have game-planned for shells coverage better and helped Dak diagnose this coverage better in games, but at the end of the day 75% of the blame fell on the offensive line. The best way to beat Cover-2 is with Air Coryell-like offenses, but in order for that to be effective the ground game has to work and the passer needs time in the pocket. Kellen didn’t have either.

With the exception of Dak Prescott’s missed games in 2020, the Dallas Cowboys offense has consistently ranked anywhere from No. 5 to No. 1 under the leadership of Kellen Moore. Moore, the key carry-over in the Jason Garret-to-Mike McCarthy transition, has blended multiple offensive philosophies, front office preferences (edicts, if you will), and his own personal creativity to give the Cowboys stability and success.

Keep in mind, transitioning from one head coach to another is no easy task. The Dallas Cowboys front office insisted on it much like they insisted Wade Phillips take on Jason Garrett for the same role a decade prior. Even though Mike McCarthy said the right things publicly, we know keeping Moore on staff (waiting in the wings) was not his idea.

And when pointed questions flew at McCarthy about how the offense was struggling, he was quick to defer those questions directly to Moore, rather than explain or defend his assistant himself. The situation wasn’t/isn’t toxic, but it’s not exactly a rose garden either.

In all, Kellen Moore has had to deal with an awful lot for a three-year offensive coordinator. When you think about the circumstances, he’s done pretty darn well.

This is in no way an apology piece for Moore, though. He has to get better as a play-caller and needs to get back to passing more on early downs (teams want Dallas to run early), relying less on third downs (take big shots early), use more motion at the snap (Cowboys are one of the worst), and be better prepared for coverage heavy looks (it ain’t going away).

But Kellen Moore is still a hot name on the NFL watch list and will be a highly sought-after coach regardless of what happens in 2022. If he can’t get the Cowboys back to a top-5 offense, it’s probably because Dallas failed to fix their offensive line (which is a GM issue) and not because Moore can’t figure out how to call plays.

For those thinking Moore is on thin ice this season, think again. He’s standing on solid ground and highly regarded in The Star as well as around the league. - Reid Hanson

The takeaway of what got Kellen Moore fired was injuries and bad offensive line play in 2021. I think if you sift through the 2022 Cowboys, Moore did fix the offensive line w/ his GM in the 1st Round (OT- Tyler Smith/Tulsa) and drafted a WR in Round Three.



What many people fail to realize is that just one block can make all the difference. An offense’s line, like a defense’s secondary, is a single point failure system. It doesn’t matter how good four of the linemen are doing, if the fifth lineman can’t execute his block, the play is vulnerable.

Pro Football Focus crunched the numbers on this in the offseason and found a play in which all blocks were executed properly, the offense enjoyed a success rate of 60.2%. That’s leaps and bounds better than what Dallas was getting in the second half of last season (39.1% SR).

On plays in which there were one or more failures in blocking, success rate dropped to 25.7%. Often times, it doesn’t matter a hill ’a beans who’s toting the rock, if the play isn’t blocked well, it’s probably going to get blown up.

https://sportdfw.com/2022/06/11/dallas-cowboys-running-game-failing/

[jubei]

having the D defend all parts of the field is coach-speak. I wanna see it done IRL. I'm holding onto optimism for Kellen Moore...Moore offense please!

[sonorajim]

https://sportdfw.com/2022/06/15/dall...e-safe-secure/



What many people fail to realize is that just one block can make all the difference. An offense’s line, like a defense’s secondary, is a single point failure system. It doesn’t matter how good four of the linemen are doing, if the fifth lineman can’t execute his block, the play is vulnerable.

Pro Football Focus crunched the numbers on this in the offseason and found a play in which all blocks were executed properly, the offense enjoyed a success rate of 60.2%. That’s leaps and bounds better than what Dallas was getting in the second half of last season (39.1% SR).

On plays in which there were one or more failures in blocking, success rate dropped to 25.7%. Often times, it doesn’t matter a hill ’a beans who’s toting the rock, if the play isn’t blocked well, it’s probably going to get blown up.

https://sportdfw.com/2022/06/11/dall...-game-failing/

Good article, thank you! The highlighted works both ways for the 2022 Chargers.
Is OL a high priority for Moore's Chargers?

[sonorajim]

having the D defend all parts of the field is coach-speak. I wanna see it done IRL. I'm holding onto optimism for Kellen Moore...Moore offense please!

Kellen's a plus.
D has to defend vs what the offense is trying to do. 11 vs 11, not 11 vs the field.

[ghost]

Good article, thank you! The highlighted works both ways for the 2022 Chargers.
Is OL a high priority for Moore's Chargers?

Great question. I believe that Kellen Moore is sitting in his office watching 2022 tape of the Chargers offensive line play. When he looks back, does he see Pipkens missing time as the reason the running game was stagnant?

Terence Steele and Tyron Smith, their injuries combined hurt Dallas' offense to close out the season. I don't want to have the Chargers make a move like they did with Jason Peters entering the preseason.


Offensive line coach Joe Philbin and head coach Mike McCarthy made a change, a ballsy one, but a needed one, as in the late going he called on veteran offensive tackle Jason Peters to replace Josh Ball at right tackle. Ball, the second-year offensive tackle, replaced an injured Terence Steele, who went down right before the end of the first half.

And now on Monday, the MRI results: it’s a torn ACL for Steele, ending his season.

A second Dak Prescott interception occurred when Ball was overwhelmed, the Texans hitting the QB's arm as he threw. Dallas held up with a goal-line stand, setting up a final Cowboys shot.

That's when Peters, 40, entered to finish the game at right tackle. He was part of the long and successful drive, engineered by Dak, that pushed Dallas to 10-3.

It was the first time since 2005 that Peters had played on the right, and the move surprised him.

"I had no idea (I'd be going in),'' Peters said.

Peters got the sign-up call from the Cowboys near the beginning of the season after an injury sidelined starting left Tyron Smith. The plan for Peters was to have him be an insurance option and someone who could mentor the young left tackle, Tyler Smith.

But when his number was called?

"That's a real Hall of Fame dude." Tyler said.

With the injury to Steele, the Cowboys could have two Hall of Fame 'dudes' playing at both tackle spots when Tyron makes his return to play, which is on the horizon, likely this week at Jacksonville.



https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/...move-on-o-line

[sonorajim]

Great question. I believe that Kellen Moore is sitting in his office watching 2022 tape of the Chargers offensive line play. When he looks back, does he see Pipkens missing time as the reason the running game was stagnant?

THE reason ? No. Part of it, I think so Sore ankle, some. Working next to a rookie, some. Zion Johnson has all that's needed, minus experience.
Linsley missing some games, some. Clapp was several steps down.
Feiler- some. Working next to another rookie, some. He looked better between Slater and Linsley.
Salyer saved the season pass blocking at LT. He was not as good at run.
Slater- Salyer-Linsley-Johnson- early draft pick may be what he would like to work with.
It's a cinch that run improvement will require an OL group of quality players that have trained together...and Moore.