You're the one not grasping what this offense was doing. Stick routes were a staple of this team regardless of the situation. We ran 3 and 4 receivers running those routes on the same play, most not even varying the depth. We ran that play multiple times a game under Linehan, all WRs running 7 yd stop routes, they weren't the 3rd or 4th option, it was the only option because everyone was running one. The Seattle regular season game in particular, was maddening because we ran it over and over again. The defenders knew it was coming and camped out at the spot the WRs were supposed to break, they never even had to move more than a yard to cover them. The Philly game, Coop got frustrated with yet another comeback route called and told Dak he was going to dbl move him, why isn't Linehan seeing that and calling it? Nope good 'ol Linehan was content running yet another stop route that the defender was going to sit on.
It wasn't our WRs strengths to run all those stop routes. Linehan didn't adjust to the abilities of the receivers, those smaller less physical WRs are losing their biggest asset of speed and quickness, those routes are suited to the Dez type. Their advantage is forcing the defenders to stay with them, that means keep them moving not slowing them down. That's simply a cop out saying Dak doesn't throw horizontal or vertical routes well. If we want more YAC, then there needs to be schematic shift to do so, we have agile WRs to run more motion based routes.
As far as deep passes, we only run 2 a fly or double move fly, we rarely run deep posts, deep corner or deep crosses. You can't say it's because that Dak doesn't throw those well, the fly down the sideline is a harder throw and harder for the WR to track, those other routes are far easier for the WRs to adjust to.
The limitations weren't because of Dak, it was our OC and the Garrett offensive philosophy. Why didn't we run more pick or bunch routes, or RPOs, or use more pre-snap motion, or more PA or use Dak as a running threat more often? We have a FB, why don't we use him?