Jerry Jones confirms Mike McCarthy will call plays, bring former Packers offense to Dallas

Kellen Moore and the Dallas Cowboys decided to “mutually agree to part ways” following a playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Head coach Mike McCarthy gave the first sign of a change being made during his end-of-season press conference, saying Moore would be “evaluated” as others had been. News came of the breakup in the coming days.

To find a new play caller, Dallas will not be looking too far. McCarthy is expected to take over the Cowboys’ offense, with Jerry Jones confirming on Wednesday at the Senior Bowl. Jones says McCarthy will bring back versions of what we saw in Green Bay from McCarthy.

“Jerry Jones said Mike McCarthy will call the plays and a version of the offenses he ran in Green Bay will be coming to Dallas,” Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News tweeted.

From a statistical standpoint, McCarthy will have high expectations to live up to. Moore had Dallas as one of the league’s top offenses over the past three seasons, with Dak Prescott running the show when healthy. The tune changed this year though, with a top-10 rushing attack being deployed with Tony Pollard and to some extent, Ezekiel Elliott.

Dallas still plans on filling the offensive coordinator roles though, with Thomas Brown and Jeff Nixon interviewing for the job. But if one of the two does get the OC title, they will have McCarthy calling plays on Sundays.

Looking at Mike McCarthy offenses while with Green Bay

McCarthy has plenty of his doubters and most likely will only see an uptick in them with play-calling duty. But there is a reason he has been a head coach in the NFL for 16 seasons and was hired by Dallas in the first place — his offensive mind.

A couple seasons of Brett Favre started the McCarthy era while in Green Bay before the keys were handed over the Aaron Rodgers. That’s when things began to really flourish for McCarthy and did so on a consistent basis.

Seven different times the Packers finished in the top 10 in both points scored and offensive yards gained, including a No. 1 rating in scoring average in 2011 and 2014. Having Rodgers certainly helped but McCarthy played a major role in the success at Lambeau Field.

Of course, anything anyone cares about in Dallas is adding another Super Bowl ring. McCarthy accomplished the goal back during the 2010 season with a 10-6 record. A McCarthy play-called team averaged 30.25 points in the playoffs, lifting the Lombardi Trophy at AT&T Stadium.