Cowboys Coaching: What Will McAdoo Do?
FRISCO - Former New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo is now part of the Dallas Cowboys organization, at the behest of head coach Mike McCarthy, who, if you track McAdoo's ascent in football, has sort of served as his guardian angel.
Yes, as we've reported previously, one of McAdoo's greatest attributes is that he happens to hail from a small Pennsylvania town about a stone's throw from where Pittsburgh native McCarthy grew up.
But ... can he coach?
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“He’s a great resource,” McCarthy said. “I’ve had a long history with Ben.''
Yeah, yeah. But can he coach? And what exactly is it the deposed Giants boss - dumped in 2017 after compiling a record of 13-16, then out of the NFL for two years before going to work for the Jacksonville Jaguars as the QB coach before being dumped again after the Jags were the worst team in the NFL - will be doing in Dallas?
"He’s going to work primarily with both offensive and defensive coordinators, focus more on a pre-game-plan focus,'' McCarthy said. "I think he’s a great asset particularly in that role.”
Color us skeptical, not because McAdoo is definitively lacking in talent; that would be an unfair guess on the part of cynics - but because the odds are that McCarthy has mostly given a buddy a break here, and hired a boss-friendly sounding board.
McAdoo was added to the staff as a consultant, and we're told there was no firm definition to his role or even a specific job title; that is all being worked out. He does have a long history of working with McCarthy, back in New Orleans and then in San Francisco and then Green Bay, with McCarthy overseeing or recommending his hire every time.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a football coach,'' said McCarthy, and we will buy that. But this idea that he'll be a helper to offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and to defensive coordinator Dan Quinn? How that will work - and how receptive Moore and Quinn are to making it work - that we do not know.
“I know Dan (Quinn) was particularly excited about it because he’ll give some other-side-of-the-ball perspective,” McCarthy said, “as far as doing some pre-game-planning projects on a weekly basis when we get into the in-season work.''
Well, OK. Is McAdoo one voice more than gets Trevon Diggs one more interception? Gets Randy Gregory one more sack? Gets Dak Prescott one more touchdown? Those would be the measurables. Those would also be the unknowns.
READ MORE: Randy Gregory on 'Loving Himself,' Not Worrying About Dallas Contract
"It was a very easy decision,'' McCarthy said, "because I know the value of what Ben McAdoo can bring to your staff.”
Well, OK. Here's hoping this hire really is about being Cowboys-friendly ... rather than being friend-friendly, you know?
