FRISCO, Texas — The change in leadership around the offense has been a hot topic of discussion so far this offseason for the Cowboys with Mike McCarthy taking over play-calling duties. And while there isn't too much difference than the 2022 product, there is an overwhelming comfortability that hasn't existed before.
McCarthy stated at the beginning of OTAs that the offense is operating in "Dak's language" to give him the most authority possible in the huddle and in pre-snap on the field. For Prescott, it has simplified everything for him and the weapons around him to maximize everyone's strengths.
"I think I'm in a good spot," Prescott said. "I feel like when you have Mike [McCarthy] as open as he is about communicating about making sure what I like and what I feel great about, it's been easy to master what I'm good at. I feel great about the things we've put in and what we've done."
The offense has created a unique layer that the quarterback room has coined as the "Texas Coast" offense with its combination of horizontal concepts that open up the opposing defense with tempo, pace and concepts that have worked for the team in years past.
"This is the Texas Coast, we've just re-named that," he said. "It's definitely got some West-Coast principles, but it has a little bit of what we've done in the past and just marrying them together with a lot of detail into a system that's not out there."
Along with more clear communication, pace has been a theme that has stood out with multiple offensive playmakers in the offensive approach in 2023 with McCarthy leading the way. As a result, the Cowboys hope it will only create more opportunities for everyone involved.
"When you can change your pace, you're gonna catch [the defense] off-guard," Prescott said. "You want as many at-bats so we'll try to get as many plays as we can, as many chances to make big plays. Lastly, we want to be the aggressors. We want to attack these guys and push the tempo. We just want to make sure that we're dictating the pace and being the aggressors so the team is on our pace and not theirs."
While there has been a big emphasis on simplifying complex details of the offense in a tempoed manner, the ability to remain complex as an offense on paper exists for Prescott with the ability to do more from a signal-calling perspective.
"I'm 100-percent able to change things, I'm expected to change things much more than anything," he said. "There are certain plays and certain situations that he can call one play and there are three or four plays within that call depending on the defense I get, and I'm expected to get to that look. The cerebral part, just sharpening that and the signals are firing. It's awesome and it's fun."
The excitement around the offense from the players involved has only grown with each day that has passed both in OTAs and during minicamp this week, but Prescott's behind-the-curtain look helped to envision exactly how much freedom exists not only up top with himself, but with each weapon that's a part of it.
If the excitement has created anything so far that hasn't existed in the past, it's manifested a linear and consistent way of feeling about how this season will go from an offensive perspective.
And after a season where not being on the same page became a recurring theme, that can only spell improvement at this point in the process.
