News: BTB: Cowboys Coaching Staff Changes (Offense): Scott Linehan Moves In, Bill Callahan Moves Over

[NewsBot]

The Cowboys made moves on both offense and defense yesterday. On offense, a new play-caller was hired, but the old play-caller stayed on staff.

Earlier today, we asked you, the BTB community, what you thought about the change in coaching duties on the defensive side of the ball. Now, let's flip over to the offense and see what the prevailing thought is for those changes. As you know by now, the Cowboys brought in former Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan to take over the play-calling duties and to coordinate the passing game. That means that Bill Callahan is losing his play-calling duties but will still be the overall offensive coordinator and will still work with the offensive line. With Garrett also an offensive-minded head coach, and Tony Romo getting input into the process, that's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Can the Cowboys find a way to make that work smoothly?

Must Reads

Kiffin Moves Up, Marinelli Moves In

Dave Halprin

The Cowboys waited a while, but they finally made a move to their defensive coaching staff. Monte Kiffin gets kicked upstairs and Ron Marinelli takes over.

What The Scott Linehan Hiring Means For The Dallas

Joey Ickes

The Cowboys added another voice to their offensive game planning meeting, while changing the one who will be pulling the plays off the play sheet into the headsets. So what in the world does this all mean?

Must Reads

Kiffin Moves Up, Marinelli Moves In What The Scott Linehan Hiring Means For The Dallas

Bill Callhan in some respects is getting the Monte Kiffin treatment. He'll still have a lot more power on offense than Kiffin does on defense, but you have to think that this move was brought on by Jason Garrett. And if Jerry Jones is allowing it, then it probably means that Garrett is getting all the room he wants in order to try and make 2014 a successful season. Obviously, Garrett's job depends on the 2014 season so it looks like he's going to do it his way. And that means he'll rely on Linehan for the last word, not Callahan. In the "Must Reads" box accompanying this article, there's an article by our own Joey Ickes. In it, he makes the strong case that Garrett has trust in Linehan unlike with Callahan.

The interesting thing here is that Dallas didn't let Callahan walk away, especially since it's known the Browns wanted to interview him for their offensive coordinator. Is this Jerry showing he still has power even though he is giving Garrett a lot of leeway? Or do the Cowboys think that Callahan's work with the offensive line and in the running game was a big key to the good numbers that part of the offense put up in 2013?

Whatever the case in the Garrett-Jones-Callahan triangle, the fact is Scott Linehan will be calling the plays now. As we've mentioned before on this site, he has a penchant for passing just like Garrett as a play-caller before that. But with the Cowboys new-found success in the running game, will Linehan utilize that to its full potential? He runs a similar system to Garrett so the transition to him probably won't be that jarring. Linehan's previous offenses have found a lot of success stats-wise, but that hasn't translated to a lot of big-time winning seasons.

This situation isn't as clear as the moves on defense. What do you think BTB?

Poll
Your thoughts on the Cowboys coaching changes on offense...

• I like the fact they brought in Linehan and kept Callahan
• They should have dumped Callahan and hired Linehan
• Neither of them are the answer, start with someone new

70 votes | Results

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