Prediction: Dak-friendly offensive changes

ilykdrama · Mar 25, 2018

What they essentially did is made the offense more competitive for WAY cheaper and I like it. Thompson will push Twill as a one trick deep threat pony, Hurns will push Dez even though Dez IS #1. Switzer or Beasley will be gone next year. Offensive line adding FA's and draft picks will push players that aren't gelling with Oline... Now all we need is a QB to push Dak into becoming a better passer. May the best man win.

glimmerman · Mar 25, 2018

Bluefin said:
I'm almost always going to lean on the optimistic side when it comes to the Cowboys, but the staff certainly appears to be making changes designed to compliment Dak Prescott this off-season.

As bad as the offense looked in the second half of 2017, some might forget the team averaged over 28 points per game in the first half of the season before Ezekiel Elliott's suspension. And it's NOT like the offense was hitting on all cylinders those first eight games, either.

There was plenty of room for improvement by the players and the coaching staff.

One area that gets brought up a lot is chunk plays.

It's very difficult to put together multiple 10+ play drives against NFL defenses.

Dak only had 34 pass plays of 20+ yards last season, good for just 21st in the NFL..

Interesting, Prescott only had 38 such plays in his remarkable rookie campaign, and actually ranked lower in a tie for 23rd place.

We've got to find ways to generate more explosive plays in the passing game.

I think taking those deep shots will result in more chunk plays.

But I also think that we are going to try to go back to underneath and shorter yard passes trying for YAC.

Get back to running the ball down teams throats. Getting the ball out of Daks hands early and then running the play action later. Play action may start getting us the chunk plays. We just have to be successful and execute. Keep the chains moving and if we have a 3rd down keep it manageable and short. Keep the penalties low. I hate those holding calls negating first downs.

Northern_Cowboy · Mar 25, 2018

waldoputty said:
i think the goal is not to run dak more but to scare other teams with the run more.
those rollouts worked well for dak until other teams adjusted.
these plays would help counter the adjustments by defenses, but took an offseason to incorporate them, which seems ridiculous.

running the ball from these formations also help the running game - some are calling it smashmouth spread

I get what you mean but in order for teams to actually be scared of Dak running he is going to have to run, if not the defences will never take the threat of him running seriously

TwoDeep3 · Mar 25, 2018

Part of Dak friendly is opening holes for Zeke.

Another part of Dak friendly is keeping defenses off of Dak so he can throw.

Another aspect of Dak friendly is a passing game where your receivers get open and expand the window for passes to get to receivers.

But a final, and perhaps one of the more important aspects to a Dak friendly offense is for Dak to work on his accuracy, work on his deep balls, open up the offense to deep passes, which forces the eight in the box to back the frick up, and to take calculated chances and be a bit less reluctant for the deep ball.

I am not meaning an all out san souci mind set of just sling it. But utilizing the deep pass as a threat to keep the defense off balance.

But then that's just me.

san souci: adjective, French. 1. without worry; carefree.

waldoputty · Mar 25, 2018

ilykdrama said:
What they essentially did is made the offense more competitive for WAY cheaper and I like it. Thompson will push Twill as a one trick deep threat pony, Hurns will push Dez even though Dez IS #1. Switzer or Beasley will be gone next year. Offensive line adding FA's and draft picks will push players that aren't gelling with Oline... Now all we need is a QB to push Dak into becoming a better passer. May the best man win.

you are building the offense around dak.
that same offense may have trouble with another type of qb.

waldoputty · Mar 25, 2018

TwoDeep3 said:
Part of Dak friendly is opening holes for Zeke.

Another part of Dak friendly is keeping defenses off of Dak so he can throw.

Another aspect of Dak friendly is a passing game where your receivers get open and expand the window for passes to get to receivers.

But a final, and perhaps one of the more important aspects to a Dak friendly offense is for Dak to work on his accuracy, work on his deep balls, open up the offense to deep passes, which forces the eight in the box to back the frick up, and to take calculated chances and be a bit less reluctant for the deep ball.

I am not meaning an all out san souci mind set of just sling it. But utilizing the deep pass as a threat to keep the defense off balance.

But then that's just me.

san souci: adjective, French. 1. without worry; carefree.

well a direct result of the rpo sets is to get rid of the 8-in-box defenses.
the design of the formations forces defenses to open wide for zeke and the ol to go stuff it up their ***.

waldoputty · Mar 25, 2018

Northern_Cowboy said:
I get what you mean but in order for teams to actually be scared of Dak running he is going to have to run, if not the defences will never take the threat of him running seriously

i dont think he is not going to run. but having better plays and the threat of running opens things up more for the overall offense.

waldoputty · Mar 25, 2018

Bluefin said:
I'm almost always going to lean on the optimistic side when it comes to the Cowboys, but the staff certainly appears to be making changes designed to compliment Dak Prescott this off-season.

As bad as the offense looked in the second half of 2017, some might forget the team averaged over 28 points per game in the first half of the season before Ezekiel Elliott's suspension. And it's NOT like the offense was hitting on all cylinders those first eight games, either.

There was plenty of room for improvement by the players and the coaching staff.

One area that gets brought up a lot is chunk plays.

It's very difficult to put together multiple 10+ play drives against NFL defenses.

Dak only had 34 pass plays of 20+ yards last season, good for just 21st in the NFL..

Interesting, Prescott only had 38 such plays in his remarkable rookie campaign, and actually ranked lower in a tie for 23rd place.

We've got to find ways to generate more explosive plays in the passing game.

i think dak and the offense caught others by surprise in his rookie year.
they adjusted to his scrambling, and there was no counter.
tsmith got hurt and there was no backup.

Bluefin · Mar 25, 2018

glimmerman said:
I think taking those deep shots will result in more chunk plays.

But I also think that we are going to try to go back to underneath and shorter yard passes trying for YAC.

One of the cool things with RPO plays is it gives the QB opportunities to throw against single coverage with the defense often thinking it's a run. All it takes is a bad angle or a missed tackle from a cornerback and a simple 12 yard slant might pop for 20+ yards.

We need more diversity and better, quicker adjustments from the coaches. The receivers need to run crisper routes in order to get open quicker with better separation. The OL has to play better as a whole, starters and reserves when needed. And as @TwoDeep3 posted, Dak Prescott must address his accuracy issues.

Putting a pass on a wideout's back shoulder with a trailing defender when it should be in front of him can be the difference in a chunk play for us or an interception/pass defensed for them.

There's so many things involved.

Dak has been pretty conservative so far in the NFL and he needs to take more deep shots to help loosen up defenses. But he also has to learn how to take those shots with different receivers running the routes. Dez likes to stop, jump and high point a lot of his deep balls whereas Terrance Williams prefers to run under it.

glimmerman · Mar 25, 2018

Bluefin said:
One of the cool things with RPO plays is it gives the QB opportunities to throw against single coverage with the defense often thinking it's a run. All it takes is a bad angle or a missed tackle from a cornerback and a simple 12 yard slant might pop for 20+ yards.

We need more diversity and better, quicker adjustments from the coaches. The receivers need to run crisper routes in order to get open quicker with better separation. The OL has to play better as a whole, starters and reserves when needed. And as @TwoDeep3 posted, Dak Prescott must address his accuracy issues.

Putting a pass on a wideout's back shoulder with a trailing defender when it should be in front of him can be the difference in a chunk play for us or an interception/pass defensed for them.

There's so many things involved.

Dak has been pretty conservative so far in the NFL and he needs to take more deep shots to help loosen up defenses. But he also has to learn how to take those shots with different receivers running the routes. Dez likes to stop, jump and high point a lot of his deep balls whereas Terrance Williams prefers to run under it.

Dak will also likely be throwing to some new WR this year. But in JG Offense he don’t like to use 1st year players as much. If Noah makes the team we will see more of him and Switzer this year. Butler will be gone. Our new signings Hurns and Thompson will be thrown into the mix as well. Dak needs to throw a lot of balls this offseason and work with these guys hard in practice.

He for sure needs to take these shots or teams are gonna play is the same way as last year. They won’t change unless we make them. It’s gonna be interesting to say the least.

OUCowboy · Mar 25, 2018

glimmerman said:
Dak will also likely be throwing to some new WR this year. But in JG Offense he don’t like to use 1st year players as much. If Noah makes the team we will see more of him and Switzer this year. Butler will be gone. Our new signings Hurns and Thompson will be thrown into the mix as well. Dak needs to throw a lot of balls this offseason and work with these guys hard in practice.

He for sure needs to take these shots or teams are gonna play is the same way as last year. They won’t change unless we make them. It’s gonna be interesting to say the least.

I'm not familiar with the workings of the off season, so a quick question. Is a QB and WR allowed to work together during the off season, to work on their timing, craft, chemistry, etc., before the official team activities begin? Or is that against the rules of the NFL?

glimmerman · Mar 25, 2018

OUCowboy said:
I'm not familiar with the workings of the off season, so a quick question. Is a QB and WR allowed to work together during the off season, to work on their timing, craft, chemistry, etc., before the official team activities begin? Or is that against the rules of the NFL?

I think they can meet privately and throw the ball around anytime. I ha e heard of them working out together at high schools.

OUCowboy · Mar 25, 2018

glimmerman said:
I think they can meet privately and throw the ball around anytime. I ha e heard of them working out together at high schools.

I wasn't sure. I suppose if they are really serious about getting everyone on the same page, it would behoove them to find a football field somewhere and work on their craft. Maybe Dak, Dez, and the rest of the WR crew should make a call to the new guys and make arrangements to do just that.

TheMarathonContinues · Mar 25, 2018

OUCowboy said:
I wasn't sure. I suppose if they are really serious about getting everyone on the same page, it would behoove them to find a football field somewhere and work on their craft. Maybe Dak, Dez, and the rest of the WR crew should make a call to the new guys and make arrangements to do just that.

I don't think it will matter. We heard all offseason how good Dez looked..how him and Dak were on the same page just for them not to be when actual defenses csme through.

FuzzyLumpkins · Mar 25, 2018

We have already been using RPO.

What Dak needs are more quick shifty receivers like Beasley so teams cannot double team them all. The guys we signed plus Switzer with another year are a good step in that direction.

Add in desperately needed OL help and the offense is in much better shape. I expect we will go heavy again on defense in the draft.

TheCritic · Mar 25, 2018

The best thing that ever happened to Dak was Kellen becoming his QB coach. With Kellen's brain behind everything Dak does, it doesn't get more Dak-friendly than that!

Verdict · Mar 25, 2018

waldoputty said:
There has been reports of the offense changing to be more Dak friendly RPO offenses.
So the signing of 2 wrs may be confirming some of these plans.
they still must fix the ol

1. more 4 or 5 receiver sets (zeke lining up wide sometimes). hopefully these RPO sets with better receivers would be less predictable.
2 less emphasis on TEs - so witten may not stay long and his contract can pay for the 2 wr signings
3. we may keep 6 or 7 wrs while less TE's, but the wr's with the worst hands are in danger (twill, dez)
-- possession - dez, hurns and brown
-- slot - beasley and may be switzer
-- deep threat - twill and thompson
4. players in danger of cut/trade
-- 2018 - witten and perhaps twill (june 1st)
-- 2019 - dez, twill, witten
5. final signing
-- swing ot, possibly fs if cheap
6. projected draft - no wr in 2018
#1 guard or ot such as hernandez or mcglinchey
#2 lb or 1tech
#3 lb or 1tech
#4 rb
#4a ol or 1tech or fs
#5 ol, fs

I really like the way you think and have so eloquently stated in this OP. I think it has merit. I want to buy into it. I truly do.

But in ALL SERIOUSNESS, you already have to assume two things:

1. Slow as molasses Witten is going to be short of the sticks ( but he will catch the ball).

And

2. Dez is probably going to run the same two routes and drop the ball about 1/3 of his catchable passes.

So that leaves the other receivers to do something different. I think they can --and will.

But wouldn't it make more sense (since it appears we are keeping Witten) and go with the same old, same old there----- to cut Dez and get another receiver who will run a route?

Bluefin · Mar 25, 2018

OUCowboy said:
I'm not familiar with the workings of the off season, so a quick question. Is a QB and WR allowed to work together during the off season, to work on their timing, craft, chemistry, etc., before the official team activities begin? Or is that against the rules of the NFL?

glimmerman said:
I think they can meet privately and throw the ball around anytime. I ha e heard of them working out together at high schools.

Yes.

The players can get together and work "unofficially" whenever they like during the off-season before team supervised activities begin in April.

Coaches are not allowed to be on the field with players directing their activities until the rookie mini-camp following the draft.

glimmerman · Mar 25, 2018

OUCowboy said:
I wasn't sure. I suppose if they are really serious about getting everyone on the same page, it would behoove them to find a football field somewhere and work on their craft. Maybe Dak, Dez, and the rest of the WR crew should make a call to the new guys and make arrangements to do just that.

If I was Dak I would take all the practice I could get with them. Maybe even call the db and see if they wanna join in.

blueblood70 · Mar 25, 2018

its really simple you help your QB with better playcalling and this will keep defenses guessing more..they make it too easy on the defense last year..they did this thinking they would help Dak making things more simple being the FT QB for the first time with more responsiblitys and No ROMO,Moore, or Sanchez helping..it backfired..just call plays to keep defenses off balance..call plays lije you have seasoned vet in there until the critical situations like the seatle game comes up and you take that out of his hands and just call runs that cant be changed in the big real big moments until hes more comfortable..

Prediction: Dak-friendly offensive changes

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