Are Dak Prescott’s problems pushing Cowboys toward a rebuild?

To paraphrase the doctrine of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones this week: Don’t panic with this leaky offense. Remain calm while the team keeps rowing through choppy waters. Because, well, what option does this franchise have at this point?

Let’s stop for a moment and recap the offense in Dallas after three games: the offensive line needs repair to give quarterback Dak Prescott time to be accurate; Prescott has to be accurate because the wide receivers can’t separate; the wide receivers have to contribute to keep the opposition from loading up on running back Ezekiel Elliott; Elliott needs to thrive so the offensive coordinator can call his ideal scheme; the offensive coordinator needs to flourish so the head coach doesn’t have to manage play-calling; and the head coach needs to worry about all of the above because jobs are on the line.

Jones looks at that reality and just wants to keep rowing, like he’s in a canoe with some leaks and not a colander with oars.

But there’s a reason why Jones is urging calm and patience. The Cowboys have essentially no options to meaningfully change anything on the depth chart or in the coaching staff for the next four months. This team is what it is. Either it finds a way to improve with the existing talent and play-callers, or it will have to consider opening the door to another 90-degree turn in a decades-long cycle of re-tooling.

That’s what Cowboys fans should seriously consider here. They might love certain parts of the roster and see youthful pieces in place and say “We just need a new staff” while failing to consider that a new group won’t be sold on some of those same pieces – or the schemes that make the young pieces a proper fit.

Significant coaching staff changes invite chaos. And that leads to rebuilds. It’s one of the most fundamental truths of the NFL’s Super Bowl era. New coaching staffs want their own guys and their own schemes. Nobody wants to be told they’re winning with someone else’s pieces or coaching games by following someone else’s well-laid blueprints.

Look at the Oakland Raiders 13 months ago. That franchise entered the 2017 season believing it was stepping into the first year of a prolonged Super Bowl window. It had foundational cornerstones on offense (quarterback Derek Carr) and defense (edge rusher Khalil Mack), a seasoned head coach (Jack Del Rio) who led the franchise to the postseason, and a supposed swath of supporting veterans and budding young talent.

One poor season later, the franchise deep-sixed the entire coaching staff and completely recalculated its trajectory. Largely because the new head coach has an entirely different design and belief in the talent base – and also doesn’t appear to be on the same page with the front office that carried over from the previous regime.

Cowboys fans should take note and scream about coaching changes with significant caution. And they should also consider that the gutting of the Raiders serves as an example to Jones about why coaching staff changes need to be handled very carefully. Not to mention Jones’ own history, which has featured multiple regime changes that always altered key parts of the roster while also attempting to reshape the culture in the building.

That’s what is at stake here in the next four months. A shakeup that could result in a serious rebuild of this Dallas roster. It shouldn’t be surprising to fans or Jones or anyone else who understands how the NFL works.

The Cowboys have an elite running back and an elite edge rusher. They have an offensive line that has a massive investment but isn’t showing the collective return that it should. There is a rotation of pass-catchers (from wide receiver to tight end) that is almost universally underwhelming. And there is a defense built around DeMarcus Lawrence that is young and developing – but still not a finished product. Looming over all of that, there may be a serious problem with both the coaching staff and quarterback.

Does that sound like a finished product? Does that sound “close” to a finished product?

If you said yes, you’re kidding yourself. In reality, that’s a collection of positives and negatives that leaves Dallas in middling territory. The kind of situation that – at best – typically results in 7-9 or 8-8 or 9-7. These aren’t the results that Jones or fans will be satisfied with.

All of which brings us back to this critical four-month stretch and why it’s the difference between getting this all on the rails or potentially throwing it into a Raiders-like situation where a tear-down could happen sooner than anyone thinks.

For Garrett and this coaching staff to survive, Prescott has to be turned back into the player the team was so overjoyed with developing back in 2016. And for Prescott to be that player again, the offensive line has to get itself in order. Maybe not to the point of playing as well as 2016, but at least a reasonable facsimile. Start there. If they can’t resolve all their problems at once, start in the place that at least allows a succession of possible remedies.

Fix the line, give Prescott more time to operate. Give Prescott more time to operate, the short to intermediate passing game can at least be adequate. Make the short-to-intermediate passing game more adequate and Ezekiel Elliott’s job gets a little easier. Improve the offense steadily and make it to an offseason where keeping the coaching staff and adding pieces is an option. Take the four-month window and extend it to a 16-month period that takes Dallas through the final year of Prescott’s rookie contract.

Some Cowboys fans won’t like the sound of that. Some will want to get rid of Garrett and his staff and maybe Prescott, too. They’ll say there is enough existing talent in place to hire a new staff and find a new quarterback and get this all up and running next season. But they’ll be discounting what Jerry Jones isn’t: the fact that new coaches bring new ideas and new evaluations … and new ideas and evaluations bring new players and schemes. That can mean wholesale changes, including the quarterback.

There’s a word for that: Rebuilding. And make no mistake, this Cowboys team is going to spend the next four months flirting with it.

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