Bye Week Fix: Is Cowboys' secret weapon on offense wasting away on shelf?
The Dallas Cowboys have the opportunity to do something to fix their stumbling offense, but they won’t. They didn’t have the foresight to prepare for it, because they lack imagination. The organization, as a whole, has become timid and scared to think outside of the box. It’s seen in how they approach free agency, never taking a financial risk anymore, much less rolling the dice on a situation that could blow up.
And it seems to be part of the fabric of their coaching staff; with their inability to think outside the box. Dallas spent the offseason seeing if they could potentially let Dak Prescott walk, by gauging what Trey Lance could provide under center. In the end, they inked Prescott to the richest deal in NFL history, and because of their straight-line thinking, may have missed the chance to turn Trey Lance into their version of Taysom Hill.
Hill, the 6-foot-2, 221-pound offensive weapon in New Orleans, came into the league as a quarterback but has morphed into so much more than that. He plays tight end, wideout, running back and quarterback, and he’s been used to great effect over the years as someone who is capable of taking the pounding. The Saints have never truly given Hill a starting opportunity at QB, though he has several starts under his belt.
And the truth is, with Prescott locked in and Lance a free agent at the end of the season, there’s no starting job waiting for Lance at any point in his career. At least not in Dallas. So why weren’t the coaching staff prepared to use his considerable gifts in ways that could diversify the Cowboys’ offense?
Let Lance run. Let Lance play some read option snaps. Let Lance run a few patterns. The window has certainly been missed in giving him real opportunity to learn those roles for 2024, but that doesn’t mean that after his disastrous final preseason performance that shouldn’t have immediately clicked in the heads of the coaching staff.
Perhaps it did. Perhaps starting with Week 8’s post-bye date with the San Francisco 49ers there will be some level of usage for a player the club spent a fourth-round pick on and is paying $5.3 million as inactive insurance insurance every week.
But the Cowboys have a supreme athlete who could cause defensive coordinators to spend some time preparing for and aren’t using him. That seems like malpractice.
Post a Comment