Prediction: Dak-friendly offensive changes

[dallasdave]

Would help if some of the passes thrown in Dez's direction were catchable

Great point , last year DEZ had bad throws or he was thrown to when 3 people were sitting there waiting to take his head off !!!!

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

I think you're right about the 4 & 5 wide sets. Spread things out for Dak to make the defense easy to read. Then we can motion Zeke in to run when needed. This was very successful in 2016 for this team.

you think Dak 2017 was making 4 & 5 WR reads?

 

[Corso]

Always

I can vouch. Double D is an animal! A mammal, really...
But put some Te-kill-ya in him and he breaks the Food Chain.

It's incredible!

 

[DiResta]

you think Dak 2017 was making 4 & 5 WR reads?

Dak was often cutting off half the field and watching for a receiver to come open instead of anticipating it
then throwing it for 2 yards to Jason Witten because they were sitting on those routes

if hes doing that this year its going to be so ugly

sure would be nice to have a defense like Roethlisberger enjoyed where they got the ball right back every time he threw a pick
and he threw them a lot

 

[Bluefin]

Need to get a home run hittng WR that would open up the run game.

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. LINK

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.

 

[Corso]

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. LINK

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.

I have a weird take here... don't roast me. I'm addled.
Dak needs to get used to getting hit just after throwing the ball, in practice.
And not wussy, coach-with-a-pad hit, but hit.

Not that I'm advocating pounding on the starting QB... or hitting him anywhere near the head, or places to get him injured, or at 100 MPH, but hit.
Look at some of the greats: They will watch the play unfold, feel the pressure, step in and make that pass, knowing they are about to get clobbered. Aikman made a career of it.
He needs to get desensitized to that scare. I also believe it will force his brain to better analyze what to do in a pocket, rather than just PANIC the rest of a game, or 3, or 8.

 

[DiResta]

Get him the "HULK" for the offline and the "Flash" at Wr and Superman at Te and he will still need 7 seconds to finally decide where to throw the ball if he doesn't get sacked in the meantime ....or he will dink or dunk it ....whens its 3rd and 7 + Dak is at his worse....

he needs to learn to read coverage and throw the ball as the receiver is breaking not after waiting to see if hes open
and put it where its supposed to be
he is too conservative or something but you cant win with him playing like that

 

[DiResta]

I have a weird take here... don't roast me. I'm addled.
Dak needs to get used to getting hit just after throwing the ball, in practice.
And not wussy, coach-with-a-pad hit, but hit.

Not that I'm advocating pounding on the starting QB... or hitting him anywhere near the head, or places to get him injured, or at 100 MPH, but hit.
Look at some of the greats: They will watch the play unfold, feel the pressure, step in and make that pass, knowing they are about to get clobbered. Aikman made a career of it.
He needs to get desensitized to that scare. I also believe it will force his brain to better analyze what to do in a pocket, rather than just PANIC the rest of a game, or 3, or 8.

nah hes pretty tough
i watched him at MS hes not afraid of contact
he just forgets all his proper mechanics like footwork when hes pressured in the pocket
given time to roll out hes better but forced to make a decision NOW he needs to be much better

 

[Corso]

nah hes pretty tough
i watched him at MS hes not afraid of contact
he just forgets all his proper mechanics like footwork when hes pressured in the pocket
given time to roll out hes better but forced to make a decision NOW he needs to be much better

You're probably right, but something gives him the jitters after pressure that carries over to plays where he shouldn't be feeling it and my opinion is he needs to toughen up even more. Not that I doubt his toughness...
Just my maybe wrong opinion.

 

[TruBluSince1982]

Dak had a 52% completion rate to Dez last year.
Dak had a 70% completion rate to everyone else.
Dez has the worst completion rate of any WR in the NFL over the last three years.

Seems like a case of additional by subtraction if you want to be Dak friendly.

Could you possibly these stats in context?

Like say Compare these percentages to Rodgers and his receivers, Big Ben, Matt Ryan etc

 

[CowboyRoy]

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

Deep threat Twill and Thompson? LOL I wouldnt call that friendly at all. Has to be the most pathetic deep threats of all time.

 

[Bluefin]

I have a weird take here... don't roast me. I'm addled.
Dak needs to get used to getting hit just after throwing the ball, in practice.
And not wussy, coach-with-a-pad hit, but hit.

Not that I'm advocating pounding on the starting QB... or hitting him anywhere near the head, or places to get him injured, or at 100 MPH, but hit.
Look at some of the greats: They will watch the play unfold, feel the pressure, step in and make that pass, knowing they are about to get clobbered. Aikman made a career of it.
He needs to get desensitized to that scare. I also believe it will force his brain to better analyze what to do in a pocket, rather than just PANIC the rest of a game, or 3, or 8.

I get what you're saying.

Bill Parcells used to tell Tony Romo that he would eventually be excited to see a blitz coming because it would represent an opportunity to make a big play.

The question is how to help Dak Prescott become more comfortable when under pressure.

No coach is going to allow his defenders to hit the starting QB in practice, that just isn't up for discussion. And practice snaps are very limited during the season, where they focus on running the plays they expect to use against the upcoming opponent versus our scout team.

How do you attempt to train a QB to remain calm and heighten his reads/decision making versus the blitz with the above limitations?

It's probably difficult to simulate in practice.

 

[Corso]

I get what you're saying.

Bill Parcells used to tell Tony Romo that he would eventually be excited to see a blitz coming because it would represent an opportunity to make a big play.

The question is how to help Dak Prescott become more comfortable when under pressure.

No coach is going to allow his defenders to hit the starting QB in practice, that just isn't up for discussion. And practice snaps are very limited during the season, where they focus on running the plays they expect to use against the upcoming opponent versus our scout team.

How do you attempt to train a QB to remain calm and heighten his reads/decision making versus the blitz with the above limitations?

It's probably difficult to simulate in practice.

Yeah... I agree.
It's what he needs though. He needs to rely more on his instincts too and I think it would force him to do that.

But true: Not happening and there is no easy solution to this conundrum.

 

[Bluefin]

Dak had a 52% completion rate to Dez last year.
Dez has the worst completion rate of any WR in the NFL over the last three years.

Prior to the finale against the Eagles, Dez Bryant had caught 63 of 72 catchable passes with 9 drops on 112 targets per PFF.

In 2016, Dez had 50 receptions on 52 catchable passes with 2 drops on 89 targets.

Dez dropped way too many balls last season, I don't think anyone will dispute that. His head wasn't always in the game.

I'm looking at improving the quality of Dez's targets.

38% of Dak Prescott's throws to Dez have been deemed 'uncatchable' by PFF.

This falls on everyone.

Dez, Dak and coaches.

Dallas isn't a high volume passing team, so do it better.

 

[waldoputty]

Would help if some of the passes thrown in Dez's direction were catchable

why would the passes to dez be any worse than to anyone else?

 

[waldoputty]

Prior to the finale against the Eagles, Dez Bryant had caught 63 of 72 catchable passes with 9 drops on 112 targets per PFF.

In 2016, Dez had 50 receptions on 52 catchable passes with 2 drops on 89 targets.

Dez dropped way too many balls last season, I don't think anyone will dispute that. His head wasn't always in the game.

I'm looking at improving the quality of Dez's targets.

38% of Dak Prescott's throws to Dez have been deemed 'uncatchable' by PFF.

This falls on everyone.

Dez, Dak and coaches.

Dallas isn't a high volume passing team, so do it better.

given:
Dak had a 52% completion rate to Dez last year.
Dak had a 70% completion rate to everyone else.

and 38% throws to dez is deemed uncatchable.
wonder what % to other wrs is deemed uncatchable?
is he forcing passes to dez he should not?

 

[Aviano90]

Prior to the finale against the Eagles, Dez Bryant had caught 63 of 72 catchable passes with 9 drops on 112 targets per PFF.

In 2016, Dez had 50 receptions on 52 catchable passes with 2 drops on 89 targets.

Dez dropped way too many balls last season, I don't think anyone will dispute that. His head wasn't always in the game.

I'm looking at improving the quality of Dez's targets.

38% of Dak Prescott's throws to Dez have been deemed 'uncatchable' by PFF.

This falls on everyone.

Dez, Dak and coaches.

Dallas isn't a high volume passing team, so do it better.

What they are more than likely considering "catchable" is the number of catches + the number of drops. That gives you what should definitely be caught as a receiver because they are pretty generous in not giving a receiver a drop for a ball that shouldn't definitely have been caught.

That doesn't mean the other targets coudn't have been caught at all. Of course, some of those can't be because some were throw aways, some were just horrible passes, but some of those passes are balls that a receiver the caliber of Dez CAN actually make. It's what made him worth $12.5 million a year. Failure to catch the ball though will not count as a drop, so according to them it is "uncatchable".

Can you look at the other receivers stats and see if their receptions + drops = catchable passes?

 

[waldoputty]

I have a weird take here... don't roast me. I'm addled.
Dak needs to get used to getting hit just after throwing the ball, in practice.
And not wussy, coach-with-a-pad hit, but hit.

Not that I'm advocating pounding on the starting QB... or hitting him anywhere near the head, or places to get him injured, or at 100 MPH, but hit.
Look at some of the greats: They will watch the play unfold, feel the pressure, step in and make that pass, knowing they are about to get clobbered. Aikman made a career of it.
He needs to get desensitized to that scare. I also believe it will force his brain to better analyze what to do in a pocket, rather than just PANIC the rest of a game, or 3, or 8.

corso, weird, roast, ...
talking about hitting our start qb in practice
interesting

 

[Corso]

corso, weird, roast, ...
talking about hitting our start qb in practice
interesting

Yeah, but I stand by it.

 

[Bluefin]

and 38% throws to dez is deemed uncatchable.
wonder what % to other wrs is deemed uncatchable?
is he forcing passes to dez he should not?

I don't currently pay for PFF, so I don't have the access to find out. The numbers I posted came from a DMN story back in December where they used PFF for reference.

Without knowing what was deemed a 'catchable' pass, ESPN shows Jason Witten with 63 receptions on 87 targets, Terrance Williams with 53 receptions on 78 targets, Cole Beasley with 36 receptions on 62 targets and Dez Bryant with 69 receptions on 133 targets.

Wit and Beaz both averaged under 9 yards per catch as they were running shorter routes, Williams' average was also over 1 yard less than Bryant's.

I would expect Dez to have the most targets and the most 'uncatchable' throws in his direction, but I have no doubt that Dak Prescott simply forced too many throws towards #88 last season for whatever reason.

Stopping that would be a huge priority for me and I'm hopeful the forthcoming changes in the scheme allow for that.

What they are more than likely considering "catchable" is the number of catches + the number of drops. That gives you what should definitely be caught as a receiver because they are pretty generous in not giving a receiver a drop for a ball that shouldn't definitely have been caught.

That doesn't mean the other targets coudn't have been caught at all. Of course, some of those can't be because some were throw aways, some were just horrible passes, but some of those passes are balls that a receiver the caliber of Dez CAN actually make. It's what made him worth $12.5 million a year. Failure to catch the ball though will not count as a drop, so according to them it is "uncatchable".

Can you look at the other receivers stats and see if their receptions + drops = catchable passes?

PFF simply determines if a pass was deemed catchable or not, they don't expect superior talents to haul in throws lesser players would not. They just say if the pass should be caught by the receiver or that it should not.

All such things are subjective.

As I posted above, I don't currently have a subscription with PFF in order to post all the Cowboys drops and catchable passes.

That said, I believe most fans know Dak threw a lot of bad balls towards Dez last year.

The wideout needs to run better routes, the QB needs to improve his anticipation and accuracy, the coaches need to add some new plays.