Jerry Jones isn’t leaving any room for interpretation: Kellen Moore is no longer in Dallas because of him.
The Cowboys parted ways with Moore over the offseason, installing Brian Schottenheimer as his replacement as offensive coordinator. Moore was the play-caller on offense, but after he departed head coach Mike McCarthy took over. McCarthy was used to calling plays in Green Bay, but when he came to Dallas Moore was already established in the role, so they left things as is.
Moore’s departure was framed as a mutual parting of ways, which was interesting given he effectively made a lateral move by becoming the Chargers offensive coordinator.
With the Cowboys set to face the Chargers on Monday, Jones made abundantly clear on the K&C Masterpiece that he was responsible for Moore's departure.
“Well, I had everything to do with that,” Jones said Friday. “I really wanted, and Mike wanted too, but I wanted Mike – normally with Mike’s background, when he came in, normally he would have come in in charge of the offense and specifically calling the plays. I normally would have done that. But we didn’t do it because we had Kellen and we wanted to – we thought that was the best way to win games.
“I don’t have to speculate, I know exactly what we did, and I know the same dynamics, the same decision making last year decided to go forward with Mike calling the plays. And by the way, installing. You don’t call if you don’t install, and so Mike installs and he calls.”
It’s worth noting that Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer indicated “things weren’t great between” McCarthy and Moore. McCarthy was largely complimentary of Moore after his departure, but did say he wanted Moore to “run the damn ball” more so the defense could rest.