Offensive Lead Coach/Play Caller

[RiggoForever]

As a Skins fan, I haven't heard much mentioned about who is going to call offensive plays for the Cowboys next year. I know Payton is gone, whos replacing him with play calling duties, and whos decision was it to go to a primarily 2 TE set?

I looked on your team website, and it says Tony Sparano is the assistant head coach/offensive line/running game. Is he the guy?

 

[Duane]

Honestly I think Parcells will handle most of the play calling this year but game plan during the week with Sparano, Palmer, etc... One of the reasons for this is Zimmer being over the defense full time as opposed to position coach/defensive coordinator.

 

[NorthTexan95]

As a Skins fan, I haven't heard much mentioned about who is going to call offensive plays for the Cowboys next year. I know Payton is gone, whos replacing him with play calling duties, and whos decision was it to go to a primarily 2 TE set?

I looked on your team website, and it says Tony Sparano is the assistant head coach/offensive line/running game. Is he the guy?

We don't know. In his press conference last week Bill said they hadn't talked about how they will "manage" games yet. I bet we probably won't know until the season is about to begin.

 

[Alexander]

We don't know. In his press conference last week Bill said they hadn't talked about how they will "manage" games yet. I bet we probably won't know until the season is about to begin.

Coach Parcells said specifically that he hadn't decided. That means he will be calling the plays.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

As a Skins fan, I haven't heard much mentioned about who is going to call offensive plays for the Cowboys next year. I know Payton is gone, whos replacing him with play calling duties, and whos decision was it to go to a primarily 2 TE set?

I looked on your team website, and it says Tony Sparano is the assistant head coach/offensive line/running game. Is he the guy?

My guess is that Parcells will call the plays. If not, then they'll hand it over to Palmer who called the plays for him in NE and has experience doing so. Sparano came over originally as the TE coach and did a good job. He moved to O-Line coach last year and while the O-Line stunk, I'm not sure there's much he could do with the injuries they had. So they gave him a second year and I have no problems with that. Only thing is he doesn't have play calling experience, so I doubt he'll be calling the plays.

Personally, I'd prefer Parcells to call the plays. In his first two seasons, I only had a problem with one playcall by Parcells...in 2004 he went for it on 4th down vs. the Giants with too much time to play in Cowboys territory. They made a nice call that sort of fooled the Giants, but the G-Men defense made a nice play on the pass and stopped them short of the first down and that basically sealed the game quicker than it should have.

As far as Payton goes, I didn't have much of a problem with his playcalls until he got the team into the red zone. Almost every game last year Payton drove me nuts once they got into the red zone. They never set up any plays for Witten inside the red zone until like week 11. Not only is Witten good, but he has led all TE's for completion % on passes thrown his way in the last 2 years. Despite that, Payton couldn't figure out that they might just want to throw him the ball in the red zone. Other than that, Payton would almost always call "run, run, pass" in the red zone and when he didn't, it was usually with some cute pass play that usually doesn't work like a WR screen or something like that.

In essence, I'm glad to see Sean Payton finally gone.


Rich........

 

[big dog cowboy]

Coach Parcells said specifically that he hadn't decided. That means he will be calling the plays.

I believe that is his standard answer to that question every year.

 

[Eddie]

BP's in charge. He can't yell at Payton anymore for calling a conservative game plan.

It's all on BP.

 

[WoodysGirl]

BP's in charge. He can't yell at Payton anymore for calling a conservative game plan.

It's all on BP.

But he can still hit Haley, since he's the Passing Game Coordinator now. I'm really looking forward to the sideline dynamics this year.

 

[FLcowboy]

We don't know. In his press conference last week Bill said they hadn't talked about how they will "manage" games yet. I bet we probably won't know until the season is about to begin.

Right. He won't know until he goes through pre-season, trying different ways to do it. He'll pick the most successful, which is what we all know to be, Bill will call the plays, either directly, or indirectly. Which is good by the way. He's paving the way for Weis.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

BP will call our plays.....I really believe he missed it last year.

 

[AmishCowboy]

I think he'll let Palmer call the plays at first, but he'll have a short leash.

 

[AmishCowboy]

Whose calling the plays for Washington, Gibbs or Saunders?. I think the offense might open up some with Saunders, if you look at what he did in K.C.

 

[Chuck 54]

Please...anyone but Parcells.

1. He's too conservative...proven.

2. He's too old and slow...also proven...Bledsoe even said it was a relief and that his performance improved when BP quit calling the plays...Parcells was getting them in so late that even when we didn't get a penalty, they were rushing to the line with no time for Bledsoe to read the defense.

Parcells has to turn the playcalling during the game over to someone who will make the decision and get the play in to Bledsoe fast enough for the offense to take their time breaking the huddle...Bledsoe needs to have more time at the LOS to read the blitz and coverage.

My guess is that preseason will be an experimental time for determining who should call the plays during the game.

 

[JackMagist]

Please...anyone but Parcells.

1. He's too conservative...proven.

And he will Force whoever calls the plays to be conservative also. So that is sort of a moot point.

2. He's too old and slow...also proven...Bledsoe even said it was a relief and that his performance improved when BP quit calling the plays...Parcells was getting them in so late that even when we didn't get a penalty, they were rushing to the line with no time for Bledsoe to read the defense.

Ummm...when was it that Bledsoe said this? Last year was his first year in Dallas and Payton called the plays all year. Was this something from their old NE days?

Parcells has to turn the playcalling during the game over to someone who will make the decision and get the play in to Bledsoe fast enough for the offense to take their time breaking the huddle...Bledsoe needs to have more time at the LOS to read the blitz and coverage.

My guess is that preseason will be an experimental time for determining who should call the plays during the game.

Very true and I do agree that they will try a few different things in preseason. It will be interesting to see who ends up with the duties. Palmer has experience doing it for Parcells and with Bledsoe in NE so he has to get consideration. Haley is an up and coming young coach that Parcells might take a shot with (or a shot at for that matter). And Parcells seems to really like Sparano and I believe BP is trying to groom him to take over when he leaves so he too might get a try. Whoever ends up doing it will have to dance to Bill Parcells' tune though so all blame for the conservative calls will still go back to him.

 

[CowboyManDan]

Please...anyone but Parcells.
2. He's too old and slow...also proven...Bledsoe even said it was a relief and that his performance improved when BP quit calling the plays...Parcells was getting them in so late that even when we didn't get a penalty, they were rushing to the line with no time for Bledsoe to read the defense.

I do remember reading something about this. I can't remember for sure how it came out or if it was definitly Bledsoe. I want to say Parcells was calling plays early in the preseason and then switched to Payton, and Bledsoe commented the plays are coming in quicker with Payton, which gives him more time. Makes sense to get a tad more time to look at the defense.

 

[RiggoForever]

Whose calling the plays for Washington, Gibbs or Saunders?. I think the offense might open up some with Saunders, if you look at what he did in K.C.

From what I understand it will be Saunders...with Gibbs overseeing the operation and studying the offense and defense so that he can concentrate on studying the opposing defense and suggesting in-game and halftime adjustments, something for which he was renowned during his first run.

And of course, Gibbs makes the decision on all fourth down plays.