Cowboys' Mike McCarthy says 'new voice' calling plays will help Dak Prescott

INDIANAPOLIS — For seven years, Kellen Moore was the most constant voice in Dak Prescott's ear either as a Dallas Cowboys teammate, quarterbacks coach or offensive coordinator.

In 2023, Mike McCarthy will take that role over, as the head coach will be calling plays for the first time in his tenure with the Cowboys.

Prescott tied for the league lead in interceptions with a career-high 15 despite missing five games because of a fractured thumb, and McCarthy said he believes a «new voice» will serve the quarterback well.

«We all can use a sense of motivation and challenge and so forth. This is a new challenge for him,» McCarthy said from the NFL scouting combine Wednesday. «These are his words: He's very excited about it and I just think, like anything, he's had a chance to go from the different variations of the offense that was in place. He's getting ready to take another turn as far as a variation of what we're getting ready to do. We're going to build it off what he has established.

»My decision to stay with his concepts and so forth is still intact because I wouldn't have did what I did in 2020 if I still didn't believe in him. And we obviously as an organization, myself included, feel very strongly about him as our future, and we will definitely build this thing around him."

From 2019 to '22, Moore called plays and directed some of the best statistical offenses in team history while seeing Prescott set a team record for touchdown passes in a season in 2021. But not long after the playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers in January, McCarthy made a number of changes to his offensive coaching staff.

Moore and quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier left for jobs with the Los Angeles Chargers, and offensive line coach Joe