Without question, the offense needs to generate more big passing plays of 20+ yards.
It's extremely difficult to string together a 10+ play drive in a game almost every time you want to score.
Creating short fields with turnovers and returns dramatically increases our chances of scoring. The same holds true for 20+ yard passing plays.
More speed at WR will help, but there's more to it than just that.
I feel everything starts with attempting to make the QB comfortable, i.e. 'Dak friendly.'
The most obvious thing here is pass protection.
As with most passers, Dak Prescott is much more effective operating from a clean pocket than when he is constantly under duress. The OL regressed in 2017, most notably when LT Tyron Smith was out of games. Dak was under a lot more pressure in 2017 than in 2016, he had 8 games facing heavy pressure on roughly 40% of his drop backs as opposed to only 3 games the prior year.
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Dak doesn't respond well when facing constant pressure, even when the pocket is clean in those games, he continues to struggle.
If he expects to be pressured, it doesn't matter whether the rush materializes or not.
Some will say that kind of mental reaction can NOT be coached out of a quarterback.
I believe Dak can get better when under pressure, but the easiest solution is to simply avoid being put in those kind of games.
As bad as it got when D4K was under siege half of last season, his numbers are astounding when given sound protection, even on attempts when the pocket wasn't clean in those games.
So it starts with creating a clean pocket. That places a premium on OL.
Step two is designing the scheme around what Dak knows and likes.
Guess what, Dan Mullen (Dak's college coach) and Urban Meyer (Mullen was his assistant) were taught the spread offense in 1999 by none other than Scott Linehan!
Meyer and Mullen would eventually create their offense by putting a mobile QB in the shotgun with a single RB and installing reads and options. Meyer defined it as 'Power football with a spread set.'
The QB must be a running threat. An unblocked edge defender must respect the QB run threat or he will collapse down on inside runs.
I don't want a 'running QB' per se, but Dak needs to get more carries than he has to date and he needs to be unafraid to leave a clean pocket if an open lane presents itself instead of always waiting for a receiver to get open.
RPOs.
We were told to look at what the Chiefs and Panthers do on offense and both feature a lot of run/pass option plays. Kansas City ran it more than anymore and Carolina was 6th, per PFF.
The Cowboys ranked 12th.
I expect Dallas to be in the top five this year, hopefully challenging for the top spot.
Diversify.
Design packages with 4 wide receivers on the field and give Jason Witten a breather once in a while. You can run so many looks with that personnel grouping on the field. Bigs on the outside with Cole Beasley and Ryan Switzer in each slot. Motion one of the slots to the other side, one of the bigs into a slot, etc. Maybe find a second TE that can actually go out and catch passes instead of having a glorified third offensive tackle
All with Dak frequently reading the defenses and determining whether to hand the ball to Ezekiel Elliott, keep it himself or throw it.
