Here’s how new Cowboys OL coach Mike Solari’s units have fared over his career

The Cowboys have plenty of work to do in order to complete their 2023 coaching staff. After agreeing to part ways with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and not renewing a large number of expired contracts, head coach Mike McCarthy will have at least seven new assistants on his staff when offseason activities begin in mid-April.

The first of those positions was filled on the first day of February. While Dallas was interviewing candidates for coordinating the offense McCarthy himself will call plays from, the big man on campus had already identified who will be in charge of, well, the big men on campus. Before giving Brian Schottenheimer the promotion from consultant to OC, Dallas had agreed with former Seahawks OL coach Mike Solari to be the main man in the room for the offensive line.

Coaching resume

Solari, 68, has been a coach since the mid-1970s. After spending time on McCarthy’s staff in 2015 he then spent two years in New York with the Giants and then the last four years in Seattle. Here’s a look at his entire coaching history, which includes a stint under the one and only Tom Landry; Solari isn’t coming to Dallas, he’s returning.

• Mission Bay High School (1976–1977)
  Offensive line coach

• MiraCosta College (1978)
  Offensive line coach

• United States International (1979)
  Offensive line coach

• Boise State (1980)
  Offensive line coach

• Cincinnati (1981–1982)
  Offensive line coach

• Kansas (1983–1985)
  Offensive line coach

• Pittsburgh (1986)
  Offensive coordinator & offensive line coach

• Dallas Cowboys (1987–1988)
  Assistant offensive line coach & special teams coach

• Phoenix Cardinals (1989)
  Offensive line coach

• Alabama (1990–1991)
  Offensive line coach

• San Francisco 49ers (1992–1996)
  Tight ends coach & assistant offensive line coach

• Kansas City Chiefs (1997–2005)
  Offensive line coach

• Kansas City Chiefs (2006–2007)
  Offensive coordinator

• Seattle Seahawks (2008–2009)
  Offensive line coach

• San Francisco 49ers (2010–2014)
  Offensive line coach

• Green Bay Packers (2015)
  Assistant offensive line coach

• New York Giants (2016–2017)
  Offensive line coach

• Seattle Seahawks (2018–2021)
  Offensive line coach

Evidence of attention to detail

Hat tip to PFF editor John Owning, a trench maven, for unearthing this video of Solari from his time in San Francisco. He speaks to several things throughout the hour-long video, including hand techniques, splits, specificity of motions and so many other things.

It’s a must watch for those who crave insight into the details of the game.

Overview on Solari's technique and what to expect

Through his time at multiple stops around the league, Solari’s attention to detail is spoken of often. This is going to be a stark contrast to what Joe Philbin’s reputation has been. Philbin was saddled with a ton of injuries the last few seasons, but it’s not a stretch to say that the response to his techniques weren’t the best.

Solari has run multiple schemes, include a power scheme from his days with San Francisco under Jim Harbaugh, but also a ton of inside zone. That’s a difference from the Cowboys’ outside zone proclivities over the last several seasons.

How well Solari's OL's performed

There’s always plenty to consider when evaluating a coach, starting with the personnel they are given to work with. It’s difficult to separate the talent at their disposal vs the influence a position coach has. Surely, though, an offensive line coach is evaluated on how well he can coach up prospects with lesser draft pedigree. Taking Day 3 picks and UDFA signings and turning them into parts of a cohesive unit is the mandate, not the exception.

Few teams are going to continuously throw first-round picks at their offensive line the way Dallas did in the 2010s. Here’s a look at the season-by-season rankings of Solari’s teams.

• One can’t evaluate an OL without recognizing the skill position players it blocked for. Pressures are an OL stat, but QBs share equal responsibility for sacks. Through history, running QBs also tend to accrue more sacks allowed.

• Solari was phenomenal to start his NFL career with the Chiefs.

  • 6 of his first 9 years his teams were Top 5 in Adjusted Line Yards. 5x Top 6 in Stuffed Runs rankings. 8 of 9 times top half of league in Adjusted Sack Rate.

• The dropoff in Kansas City happened when the team moved from Dick Vermeil to Herm Edwards. Solari was OL coach from Marty Schottenheimer, Gunther Cunningham through Vermeil’s tour.

• Overall, outside of a very strong run in his Kansas City days, it’s been a lot of average or worse performances across several stops for Solari. It’s giving Mike Nolan vibes.

  • 12 of his 14 post-KC seasons have been outside Top 20 in sack rate. Only when Eli Manning was the QB was that not the case.

  • 9 of 14 seasons have been bottom half in PFF pass-block grade, 7 of them outside the top 20.

• Jim Harbaugh inherited Solari from the Mike Singletary/Jim Tomsula year and kept him in place from 2011 through 2014.

• Solari was the assistant line coach in Green Bay in 2015, but didn’t want to not reference the one year he and McCarthy worked together.

Stop by stop, here's a look at the before, during and after of Solari's units

A deeper dive is necessary. What was the status of the unit Solari was handed? How did they fare, on average, during his tenure? What happened to the line’s performance after he left?

Again, the changes in personnel certainly plays a role, but a pattern of whether or not Solari improved the line’s performance should be apparent across all of his stops.

When it comes to the run game, there’s a clear improvement once Solari arrived in San Francisco and returned to Seattle. At both of those stops, things returned to being miserable once he left. It’s never as simple as that, but it’s certainly something. Those are meaningful stats, and the rest of the run results indicate a floor of maintaining the status quo.

The issue is in pass protection.

Solari’s units either tread water or regressed when it came to the pass protection results. That’s troubling for a team where the biggest issue in their performance was the inability to keep Prescott confident in his protection.

The Cowboys dealt with injuries in abundance along the offensive line, so perhaps maintaining status quo with a little better injury luck would catapult Dallas into much better territory in 2023.

Story originally appeared on Cowboys Wire