The Brian Schottenheimer era in Dallas begins under a shroud of mystery. The long-time offensive coordinator has spent a large portion of his career under another coach’s thumb. With the Seahawks it was Pete Carroll and in Texas with the Dallas Cowboys it was Mike McCarthy. As such, it’s unknown exactly what type of offense he’s going to bring in 2025.
As the chief play-caller it’s safe to say it will finally be his own offense he intends to run. He’s discussed condensed formations, multiple personnel looks and a strong running game, but it remains to be seen which blocking concepts, what type of run-pass balance and which tricks of the trade he intends to add.
Many suggest he will use more play-action passing in order to build off a focused running game. It would be a shift in philosophy from last season but possibly just what the doctor ordered as the Cowboys try to resuscitate their offense.
Naturally there are concerns regarding Dak Prescott’s comfort and performance in running play action. Last season only 21% of Prescott’s dropbacks involved play action. It only produced a single touchdown and its Big Time Throw percentage (BTT%) of 3.7 was a full percentage point below that of his non play-action passing.
Looking through the narrow lens of 2024 it’s understandable some people are less than enthused that Schottenheimer might lean on a system gimmick like play action in 2025, but one needs only look back a little further into Prescott’s history to see play action is far from being foreign and actually a very consistent weapon in his arsenal.
In Prescott’s MVP-caliber campaign of 2023, he ran play action nearly 36% of the time. The year before was strikingly similar with 36% of his attempts charted as play action. And in 2021 34% of his attempts were play action. 2024 was an outlier and Prescott is far more accustomed to play fakes than people are giving him credit for.
Additionally, since 2021, Prescott’s play action attempts earned grades of 78.2, 74.4, 74.5 and 75.7 respectively. In that span of time the Cowboys switched play callers, their entire tight end group, most of their receiving corps, most of their offensive line, and all of their running backs, yet Prescott found a way to stay extremely efficient and consistent in play action year in and year out.
There are plenty of things to worry about looking towards the 2025 season but Prescott effectively handing an increase in play action this year isn’t one of them.
