What Does Jerry Jones Mean By Saying 'Dak-Friendly'?
FRISCO (105.3 THE FAN) - What does it mean when owner Jerry Jones suggests the 2018 Dallas Cowboys offense will be more "unpredictable,'' more inclusive of "college stuff'' and more "Dak-friendly,''?
Mostly, it means that it's March, that tape recorders were turned on and that Jerry's mouth was moving.
Otherwise - pending seeing such alterations truly unfolding in Oxnard - all of this is simply Jerry 'jibber-jabber.'
"Some of the college stuff needs to be thought about here,'' said Jerry while at the NFL Scouting Combine, giving voice to ideas to help Dak Prescott and the offense succeed. "That's a big part of the conversation that's going on (in-house) … I think ("Dak-friendly'' means) it's an offense that lets him be unpredictable. It gives him the best way to be hard for the defense in the sense of game-planning for him. I'd certainly love for him to be able to hurt them from the pocket, we'd love for him to be able to hurt them on the run - and to run.''
So wait … "Dak-friendly'' means the Cowboys are going to expose a QB they consider a "franchise player'' to the wear and tear of injury risk as if he was at Mississippi State, when he carried the football 14 times a game?
"We're not necessarily interested in increasing the number of runs,'' Jones said.
Oh.
Prescott has averaged 3.5 carries per game in his two NFL seasons. If Dallas isn't "interested in increasing the number of runs,'' how does he better "hurt'' defenses as a runner?
"I think we've got a lot more options as far as how to get him on the run in the passing game, and giving him a better pocket and having better blocking,'' Jerry said. "You might say protection, but the way to get that done is to be imaginative in the running game.''
There are certainly subtle ways to be "imaginative'' in the running game in ways the naked eye of the layman will never see. Meanwhile, there are also in-house calls to be more creative in the passing game. And there will certainly be an argument to simply go retro to 2016 when Ezekiel Elliott played 16 games and Dallas' offense out-muscled and out-talented foes.
The challenge, for this coaching staff and for any coaching staff, is to truly be willing to be an old dog learning (and teaching) new tricks. The Dallas Cowboys, at this moment, say they are poised to be more "Dak-friendly'' and more "Zeke-friendly'' and more explosive, more creative and more imaginative, right down to threatening to adapt the wide-open look of some college offenses.
And the reason Jerry-Jibber-Jabber can say all of that?
Because it's March.