Revisiting the Issues of Kellen Moore's Plan

Before contemplating a return, perhaps remembering why he left is a great exercise.

News in the last few days that Kellen Moore and Jerry Jones are “interviewing for the head coaching vacancy in Dallas” has confirmed what Vegas has been saying all along; that Moore is the odds-on favorite to be the next head coach in Dallas.

I am not too excited about this.

Now, I won’t elaborate on the obvious follow-up here today, which is rightfully, “Then who is your choice, Bob?” because I am not sure I am too enamored with any of the available names at the moment. It is possible that I remain a believer that they should be casting a much wider net than we expect, but for now, it is kind of the usual suspects.

So, let me keep this to Kellen Moore.

I hope you had a chance to read up on “scheme vs. culture” a few days ago, and we all know the correct answer is definitely going to be “both.” You need both. You need the guys with a strategic advantage but also a leader who gets everyone unified and full of belief in a common cause. “Willing to run through a wall for their coach” is a nice way to say it.

Well, my biggest issue with Kellen Moore is that I cannot convince myself that he is an NFL-head-coach-level leader of men. I just can’t. I always had that problem with Jason Garrett, too. Heck, you could argue that Jerry Jones is attracted to coaches who are not exactly Jimmy Johnson alpha males, if you think about it. Almost every coach since, besides Bill Parcells, has not seemed like the kind of guy who would want to speak publicly if he had a choice about it.

We could also argue that this might not matter as much as NFL Films has led us to believe, but being a big culture-building guy and a believer that if you aren’t building a culture in Dallas, then the default will be back on the Jerry Jones circus culture. This, amazingly, seems to argue that the only culture on the short list that has a chance is Deion Sanders. We just don’t know if it is wise to prefer adding him to this stew.

We could also argue that the “scheme” is what Kellen is all about (aside from already proving he is compliant with the Jones Family Circus biosphere and won’t upset the “way things are around here” at a Garrett level).

But yet, the scheme has been no different in Los Angeles and Philadelphia as it was in Dallas. Really strong numbers and league rankings, decent enough success for the team, and yet in both cities, everyone constantly is upset at the offense for lacking the performances that were promised. In other words, he did not transform Justin Herbert into a superstar, and he does not have the Eagles feeling any better about their offense because of his solutions. They are great because they have a great player at almost every spot on the offense, not because they are tying opponents in knots.