How Dallas Cowboys can make run to 2023 Super Bowl

By Matt Mosley
Special to FOX Sports

DALLAS — Now that Mike McCarthy has retained his title as head coach (almost by default), let’s figure out what the Dallas Cowboys must do to make a deep playoff run next season. 

That might seem like a tall task for a team that couldn't advance past the first round of this year's playoffs. However, the NFC East champions boast a talented roster with two somewhat coveted coordinators. 

The Cowboys haven’t been to an NFC title game in 26 years, but at some point, they will become a popular pick to return to glory because, quite frankly, we can’t help ourselves.

Let's identify five things the Cowboys need to do this offseason to have any hope of reaching Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona, next February.

1. Unleash the full Mike McCarthy experience

That’s right: Actually hand the keys to the guy you brought in based on his Super Bowl-winning pedigree and expertise on the offensive side of the ball.

If McCarthy’s going down, it’s time for him to do it swinging. The head coach suggested that he didn’t want to overstep and suggest something to offensive coordinator Kellen Moore when things were spinning out of control in the wild-card playoff loss to San Francisco. However, McCarthy is supposed to have oversight of Moore, not serve as some grandfatherly mentor. 

Having watched Jerry Jones with both Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett, the owner doesn’t mind making head coaches uncomfortable. And McCarthy has embraced his role of Jerry’s buddy a little too comfortably.

I like that Jones called out the coaches for not making immediate adjustments against San Francisco. The owner was slow to address McCarthy’s status after that game because he wanted to see what happened with Dan Quinn. With the Cowboys' defensive coordinator not landing a head-coaching gig, Quinn is basically a head coach in waiting with the Cowboys. 

And, of course, there’s Sean Payton looming in the wings as he sits out the 2022 season. This arrangement should irritate McCarthy more than I think it does. It certainly irritated Phillips when Garrett was retained as offensive coordinator and given a salary that matched the head coach’s.

It’s time for McCarthy to show a little fight and take a more active role in the offense. You can come up with whatever excuse, but Dak Prescott was not the same guy in the second half of this season. Why didn’t McCarthy do more to address that situation? That needs to change. 

McCarthy should feel free to look at that play chart and actually make a suggestion or two. If he behaves like he did last season, there’s a great chance he’ll have to return to the analytics barn. 

2. Figure out what happened to Dak Prescott — and fix it

It seems like years ago that Prescott was an MVP candidate, but it was actually October. The Cowboys had finally knocked off the Patriots, and they looked like legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Then the bottom dropped out. 

Prescott fell into a slump that never actually ended, despite some of the haughty answers from McCarthy and his quarterback. 

It could be as simple as Prescott not trusting his body following a calf strain. In fact, that’s probably the best-case scenario. To the QB's credit, he did not use health as an excuse.

But it’s impossible to ignore that the Cowboys and Prescott were one-and-done in the postseason after a 12-win season that was inflated by a six-game sweep of the dreadful NFC East. Jones and son Stephen have not placed any blame on Prescott, in part because there’s no upside to doing so.

Given his $40 million per year contract, Prescott has to be the biggest part of the team's solution. When fans want to criticize Prescott, they suggest he’s basically Kirk Cousins. I continue to see Prescott as having greater upside than Cousins, but he’s now entering his seventh season at age 29.

This is not a guy who’s considered part of the "young guns" crowd of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert and, of course, Joe Burrow. He might be more like a younger Russell Wilson, if you take away Wilson’s postseason success. Prescott is a quarterback whose intangibles seem to outpace his production. That doesn't need to sound all that ominous, but the clock is starting to tick. 

There’s a chance that after free agency, the Cowboys won't feature as deep a receiving corps in 2022, which makes the end of the season even more disappointing. Much like with McCarthy, Prescott needs to be more assertive. He always sounds great after losses in terms of taking responsibility, but at some point, he has to turn the corner.

3. Find left tackle Tyron Smith’s replacement

I hate to single out Smith because it’s about more than him in the upcoming draft, but he started only 11 games in 2021. The season before, he started just two games. 

Smith can still play at a high level, but it would be unwise to count on him to get his body right and be the answer for two or three more seasons. Stephen Jones loves to talk about being in position to take the best player available in the draft, and the Cowboys shouldn’t shy away from that approach at offensive tackle. 

Sometimes the media works off old talking points, such as the Cowboys having the best O-line in the NFL. That hasn’t been the case since Travis Frederick’s career was cut short by illness and injury.

Dallas doesn’t seem to have a great answer at left guard or center at this point. I think the interior O-line has become the biggest need on the roster. The Cowboys are no longer a team that bludgeons opponents with the run game, and they must do better on the ground. It’s obvious that Prescott functions much better with the threat of a running game. He simply didn’t have that in 2021.

4. Address one of the biggest negotiating blunders of the Jones era

Zeke Elliott’s holdout before the 2019 season panicked the Cowboys so much that they handed him a contract that is unthinkable three years later. 

It was such a one-sided deal in Elliott’s favor that the team can’t move off it in 2022. His cap number will jump to $18.2 million, so it’s less prohibitive to watch Elliott limp through another season than to cut him. That sounds pretty miserable if this team continues down the path of refusing to acknowledge that Tony Pollard is more dynamic than Elliott. 

One of the times McCarthy shirked responsibility was when he was questioned about Pollard’s lack of touches (six) against the Niners. He said that the guy who installs the game plan should get to call the shots, another moment of the head coach being too passive. 

It’s also laughable that Pollard had 19 fewer targets in the passing game than Elliott in 2021. He’s clearly the better receiver of the two and has displayed his ability to be a home-run back. He finished 41st in carries last season. Nothing screams that Moore needs more oversight in this offense more than the lack of touches for Pollard. 

Elliott said immediately after the playoff game that he’d been playing with a knee injury (posterior cruciate ligament) for much of the season, but the Cowboys stubbornly refused to offer him any rest. It was almost like they feared things could get awkward if Pollard put up big numbers in Elliott’s absence.

5. Shore up the strength of this team: the defense 

Another season of Quinn as the defensive coordinator is a win for the organization. In Dallas, Quinn has restored his image as a brilliant defensive mind following his demise in Atlanta.

Quinn's deployment of Micah Parsons as a hybrid player who could line up anywhere became a huge storyline. Parsons has emerged as one of the best defensive players in the league, and he has given Quinn a lot of the credit. 

If the Cowboys don’t experience playoff success next season, look for Jones to consider Quinn as a replacement for McCarthy. He comes across as anything but passive, and he seems to have a better rapport with players than the current head coach. 

Also in 2021, cornerback Trevon Diggs went from an intriguing rookie to one of the best playmakers in the NFL. He had 11 interceptions and made his first Pro Bowl.

The Cowboys must decide what to do about defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence’s contract and how to approach negotiations with Randy Gregory in free agency. Jones believes Gregory will show loyalty to the franchise based on how they’ve dealt with him missing so many games due to suspension. 

Gregory emerged as a force last season, with six sacks and 19 quarterback hits. The Cowboys won’t be active in free agency because they are roughly $20 million over the cap and no longer seem interested in adding big-money players. Gregory will likely be their biggest priority in free agency.

What will be different as we ramp up for the 2022 season is that the Cowboys know defense is their calling card. That was a happy surprise in 2021 — hence the renewed interest in Quinn as a head-coaching candidate.

If the Cowboys have another great season on that side of the ball, Quinn will become their head coach or someone else’s. 

The Cowboys could be "NFC title game or bust" next season. Have at it, Mike. 

Matt Mosley has covered the Cowboys for The Dallas Morning News, ESPN, FOX Sports and Texas Monthly Magazine. He also co-hosted afternoon-drive radio in Dallas for 10 years and is now heard on ESPN Central Texas, home of his alma mater, Baylor. He makes regular appearances on "The Herd" on FS1 and Fox Sports Radio.