One day after coach Jason Garrett wouldn’t say if he was going to continue calling the offensive plays, offensive line coach Bill Callahan repeated that stance on Thursday.
In a news conference introducing the Dallas Cowboys coaches for the 2013 season, Callahan downplayed any potential changes within the structure of the offensive staff.
“I checked my ego at the door a long time ago,” said Callahan, who has called the offensive plays with the Oakland Raiders and the University of Nebraska, where he was a head coach.
“It doesn’t matter who calls the plays. We know what the play is going to be so there’s no guessers, no surprises and I think the players can tell you that as well. If you’re a good football team and you have an identity of what you’re doing, they can tell you the play that’s going to be called and featured in that particular down and distance, there’s no mystery,” he said.
There seems to be a mystery regarding the playcaller, especially after team owner/general manager Jerry Jones wanted to make change within the coaching staff by saying he wanted people uncomfortable. Jones said it would be Garrett’s decision to decide if he didn’t want to call the offensive plays anymore.
Callahan said he embraces Jones’ thoughts and he hasn’t spoken to the owner regarding the playcalling but, “I would be very happy to speak with him.”
The Cowboys had the seventh-best offense in the league yet there was some game mismanagement issues with Garrett and the running attack finished 31st overall. Each year, Garrett said he’s delegated duties to other offensive coaches. However, after the 2012 season, Garrett said he expected the status quo to remain in terms of calling the plays.
Jones changed the dynamic at Valley Ranch insisting his coaching staff be open minded about things. Garrett has agreed, however, he won’t reveal if one of those changes is giving the play-calling duties to Callahan.
Garrett said the mechanics needed to be worked out before a final decision is made about the playcaller. When asked about the specifics, Garrett wouldn’t say.
“I got the upmost confidence in Coach Garrett and what he believes and how he wants to go about the process of going through playcalling, whatever it may be,” Callahan said. “So be it. My job and my function as an assistant is to serve the head coach and I’m going to do that to the best of my ability every day I come to work you put your best foot forward and compete.”
Callahan dismissed the notion that he would have to implement the West Coast offense, something he used with the Raiders, over Garrett’s timing-based passing attack.
Callahan said he’s been around long-enough to work with any offensive system. The only difference is the terminology.
“Again, I’ve partaken in playcalling during the games here,” Callahan said. “I’ve done it at several places. It’s a group effort whether it’s collecting thoughts on the sidelines between series as to what plays we’d like to run and getting those ideas from the staff, whether it’s doing it while we are online during the course of a series, whether it’s on the sidelines and somebody’s the primary caller, it really doesn’t matter because I just hearken back to the point I made about preparation of the game plan. It’s a group effort.”
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