Cowboys Confusion: Why Is There A Lack Of Motion On Offense?

One of the odd things about the Dallas Cowboys' offense this season is how the unit has played as a whole.

Last season, we saw shifts, motions, explosive pass plays, everything.

This year? Not so much.

Tommy Yarrish of Dallascowboys.com posted on X that, according to Next Gen Stats, Dallas used motion on 67.6 percent of their offensive snaps last season, the 10th-highest rate among offenses in football.

This season? It has dropped to 56.6 percent, ranking them 30th in the NFL. 

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That is puzzling, as it feels like the offense has gone backward this season, and it makes us wonder if the Cowboys still view shifts and motions as a key part of their offense.

Well, according to Brian Schottenheimer, they do.

“We certainly have them in, we believe in moving, shifting, motioning," Schottenheimer said. "I think sometimes you don't do it when you're in certain situations, playing from behind. But we certainly have them. I've always been a guy that believes in that.

“But to tell you why they haven't shown up is different reasons. Again, couple games we've had to play from behind so you're not going to move because you're trying to speed up the game. We have different reasons based off the multiple things that we see going in the game plan. But make no mistakes about it, we do believe in shifts and motions.”

So, is that really the reasoning? Dallas is playing from behind too much?

Either way, going by Schottenheimer's words, the game plan does involve a lot of motion; we just haven't seen much of it because of the game script.

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There is an easy way to fix that. Get ahead in games with your GOTI offense.

But it might not be "just" Dallas playing from behind; it could be the offense as a whole this season.

According to our friend, John Owning, the Cowboys rank 32nd in motion at the snap, 30th in any kind of motion rate, 32nd in bunch rate, and 31st in the rate of plays that use bunch or stacks alignment with their receivers.

Now, I'm not an X's and O's guy, so I defer to John here, but Dallas' offensive plan seems to have changed a lot since last season, and it isn't for the better.

So, color me confused.

Schotty is saying one thing, while the film is saying another.