USA TODAY International Edition
For Cowboys offense, no avoiding change
Prescott expected to take step forward this season
FRISCO, Texas – There have been times this spring that Cowboys offensive coordinator Scott Linehan has been surprised by the quiet air.
There’s never total silence of course, not with the whistles, air horns and chatter that provide the soundtrack to practice. But now that the Cowboys are deep into their offseason practice schedule, the void left by veteran tight end Jason Witten’s retirement and receiver Dez Bryant’s release are noticeable in the pauses in conversation in meeting rooms and the huddle.
“Sometimes, with our young guys it feels a little quiet, because they’re all waiting for some older guy that doesn’t exist to step up,” offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said Wednesday. “I’m about as old as they come. It might as well be me.”
Perhaps the most necessary voice for such a role would belong to third-year quarterback Dak Prescott, who saw his completion percentage drop (from 67.8% to 62.9%) and his interception total rise (from four to 13) last year after his stellar rookie season in 2016.
There are signs that Prescott is growing more comfortable in his role as the team’s franchise quarterback. On Wednesday, he loudly barked at offensive lineman Chaz Green after a penalty during a two-minute drill, one play after receiver Allen Hurns hauled in a deep contested pass down the left sideline.
It wasn’t that Prescott wasn’t vocal before, but now he has no choice but to speak up.
“You can see him thinking at a different level and just being more comfortable in our offense, and then challenging everyone else to play at that level with him,” center Travis Frederick told USA TODAY. “People gravitate to him naturally. People want to follow him. Guys are looking to him for that, and he’s accepting of that, and he knows his responsibility.”
Some things with the Cowboys offense won’t change. Linehan will still call the plays, though head coach Jason Garrett hired new assistant coaches for quarterbacks, receivers, tight ends and the offensive line. Running back Ezekiel Elliott will remain the focal point, though he could take on a larger role in the passing game.
But Dallas likely will no longer have a heavy reliance on a lead wide receiver and a No. 1 tight end.
The Cowboys don’t seem particularly interested in finding a true replacement for Bryant, who averaged 66 catches a year in his eight seasons in Dallas. The three-time Pro Bowl selection’s numbers dipped in recent years — he played just nine games because of injury in 2015, and he had a career-low 12.1 yards per catch last year — but he was the unquestioned alpha dog of the receiving corps.
Instead, Linehan said he’s looking for “balance” out of a group that includes slot receiver Cole Beasley, Terrance Williams (who is sidelined this spring while rehabbing a foot injury), and new additions Allen Hurns, signed as a free agent from the Jaguars, rookie third-round pick Michael Gallup and former Rams first-rounder Tavon Austin.
In Wednesday’s practice, Austin received extensive work with the firstteam offense, mostly as a receiver, though the team is officially listing him as a running back.
“I think our group is going to pick up the slack for I guess what is considered a true No. 1,” Linehan said.
The tight end group is even more unproven in the wake of Witten’s surprising late April retirement. Fourth-year veteran Geoff Swaim is the elder statesman of the group now but has nine career catches. Rookie Dalton Schultz or 2017 seventh-round pick Blake Jarwin, who played in just one game as a rookie and had no catches, could ultimately wind up as the team’s starter by September.
All of the changes in the passing game has yielded some ugly stretches during these offseason practices. But Frederick, a four-time Pro Bowler who has started every game since he was drafted in the first round in 2013, sees opportunity amid the shift. Frederick said that right now, and during next week’s mandatory minicamp, the Cowboys are hoping to get a sense for what works and what doesn’t before training camp in late July.
“It forces the coaches — not to say they ever slacked off — but it forces coaches to be innovative and work hard to make it fit for everybody,” Frederick said. “It’s easy when you have a guy like Jason Witten, and you can ask him to do anything and he will do it. It’s hard to be that caliber coming in, year two or three. But it’s good for everybody, because it makes everyone really zero in on the basics.”