Is Dak Prescott’s Relationship with Scott Linehan Broken?

As the final whistle sounded last Sunday with the Carolina Panthers coming away victorious over your Dallas Cowboys, it was pretty clear there were a lot of things wrong with the offense. Many pointed to Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan and the play calling. Others to the offensive line. Others to Quarterback Dak Prescott. And others to the wide receivers.

There was plenty of blame to go around in an offensive performance that left Cowboys Nation struggling for answers. Simply put, there wasn’t much good from that side of the football in their 16-8 loss.

Well, as this week has gone on in preparation for the New York Giants Sunday night, there have been answers to questions from within the organization that make me, an outsider, feel really awkward about the relationships inside the organization. Particularly on the offensive side of the football.

There was this from Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan responding to Troy Aikman’s critique of a lack of creativity in the play calling of Linehan.

“People have their own opinions. It’s hard to be super creative when you’re having loss-yardage plays, to be honest with you. But I thought we had some really good stuff for the game that we couldn’t use. But he’s entitled to whatever opinion he has about that. It’s our job to go out and show him that we have some stuff that maybe he’ll be impressed with.”

Scott Linehan – via Jon Machota, Sports Day DFW

Then this from Wide Receiver Allen Hurns.

https://twitter.com/DMN_George/status/1040443638071939072

With Dak Prescott speaking to the media on Thursday, some interesting nuggets of information came out about the communication that takes place on game day between Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan, Quarterback Coach Kellen Moore, and Quarterback Dak Prescott.

Namely Dak described Kellen Moore as a “mediator” between the quarterback and the offensive coordinator.

“Kellen, I guess you call him the mediator at that point, when I come to the sideline. Me and him talk about what we saw and then he gets on the headset and he’s talking with Linehan. Then he’ll get back to me with what Linehan’s thinking with the plays and stuff that we’re working towards, so it’s been great.”

Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys Quarterback

Count 1310 The Ticket’s Bob Sturm as one of many confused by Dak’s statement about Moore as the go between.

https://twitter.com/sportssturm/status/1040382682847428608?s=21

It’s becoming clear that there is a huge disconnect between the play caller and his quarterback and this disconnect is affecting everyone on the offensive side of the ball.

Everyone, after one week, appears to be placing blame on someone else, which is really odd to me. Normally, when a unified group of players is asked a question that may lead to finger-pointing, they don’t really answer the question.

Above, you can see that Hurns basically said, it wasn’t the wide receivers’ fault. Linehan, reacting to Troy Aikman’s comments about the lack of creativity in the offense, placed the reason for the lack of creativity on the players. And Dak Prescott appears to allude to a really odd communication structure.

It has me wondering, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, if there is a trust issue with the Dallas Cowboys offensive staff and players.

Trust is a very important aspect of any group of people who work together to meet a common goal. Football is no different. As far as team sports go, the NFL requires a strong sense of trust and commitment to one another to make the intricacies of an NFL offense work.

Oct 8, 2017; Arlington, TX, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) congratulates wide receiver Cole Beasley (11) after a touchdown in the first quarter at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

The coach has to trust that the player he’s calling the plays for. If the play caller doesn’t trust the players to execute, he’s going to be much more conservative than he should be. A play caller who trusts his players will allow them to play and will be aggressive in his game planning and play calling.

The player has to trust that the play caller is putting the player(s) in the best position possible to succeed. If the players don’t trust the play caller, they aren’t going to buy in to the offensive scheme. If they don’t buy in to the offensive scheme then there may not be the necessary effort put in to see the scheme succeed.

From the outside looking in, the relationship between quarterback and play caller seems fractured.  It’s not a good sign for the relationship of the two men tasked with guiding this offense that there is a mediator involved in their communication. If there is an issue in the relationship that is leading to poor communication, then the Dallas Cowboys leadership structure — Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones, and Jason Garrett — need to make a change to better enhance offensive communication.

They aren’t going to change quarterbacks at this point in the season. The move they can make that Head Coach Jason Garrett appears unwilling to make, is changing who calls the plays. If the relationship between Linehan and Prescott is such that Kellen Moore needs to act as “mediator,” then the time has come to change the play caller. Whether it’s Moore who takes the reigns or Garrett who returns to calling plays, the change may need to be made soon to salvage this season.

Trust is a very valuable resource in any organization. It’s the reason that Jason Garrett has remained head coach for as long as he has. The ownership trusts him.

The lack of trust that appears to exist between Dak Prescott and Scott Linehan is something that not only hurts their relationship, but the chemistry with the entire offense.

Football may be the greatest team sport in the world. And as such it requires a high level of chemistry . It requires everyone on offense and defense buying into their respective schemes and trusting each other to execute those schemes.

Obviously a win against the Giants would go a long way toward healing whatever wounds exist between Prescott and Linehan. A loss however could potentially deepen a divide between the quarterback and his coordinator.