Will re-energized, play-calling Mike McCarthy lead the Dallas Cowboys to Super Bowl?

Mike McCarthy is certainly having fun again.

He is back in his element, doing what he does best.

Doing what he believes he does better than anyone else in the game.

You may or may not agree.

But that’s not the point.

McCarthy has a different focus, a new bounce in his step in his fourth training camp as coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

For the first time since being hired as the ninth coach in franchise history, the eighth under owner Jerry Jones, McCarthy is in complete charge of the offense following the decision to jettison offensive coordinator Kellen Moore following the 2022 season.

McCarthy — who won a Super Bowl in 2010 as the head coach and play-caller for the Green Bay Packers — made himself the play-caller. He hired Brian Schottenheimer as the offensive coordinator.

But this is McCarthy’s baby.

“He is re-energized. He’s excited,” said Schottenheimer. “When you’re a competitor, right? And you’re a play-caller and that’s what you love to do. Right? Like, you know, you think you’re the best in the world, and that’s what you want to do. So he’s re energized and excited about that opportunity. And quite honestly, he’s a hell of a play-caller.”

It was a surprise in 2020 when McCarthy was hired to replace the fired Jason Garrett that McCarthy didn’t take over the offense and play-calling. He kept Moore in place because of his close relationship with quarterback Dak Prescott.

But distasteful playoff losses to the San Francisco 49ers the past two seasons, as well a thought process that he might not survive another early exit, prompted a change.

“I just think it’s all part of your offseason evaluation,” McCarthy said. “It was a change I felt like I needed to make.”

It wasn’t a decision made in a vacuum. Owner Jerry Jones and vice president Stephen Jones were on board with the decision.

As much as they liked Moore, they have a greater desire to win and get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995.

That’s why they hired McCarthy in the first place.

The foundation of McCarthy’s career is as quarterback guru and offensive mastermind. Might as well let him do what he does best.

“We’re just at a point as we have evolved,” Jerry Jones said. ”I think we have evolved over the last two or three years that it was not so much about what Kellen wasn’t. It was about what Mike is. And so I think that we gain on it. I think we give ourselves a better chance if Mike has that kind of emphasis. It was just an asset that we had that we needed to use that frankly.

“When he initially joined the Cowboys, it looked better for Kellen to be involved more in those areas. But it has involved to this particular point. So it was it was really something we all felt would improve our chances to win this year.”

Make no mistake about it. It’s about winning this year. Nothing else is promised for McCarthy, though he is signed through the 2024 season.

McCarthy — whose 155 career wins are fifth most among active NFL coaches and 20th all-time — would have it no other way.

He is confident. He believes in himself and his scheme.

And yes, he is excited.

“The pure competition of it is what I missed most,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy started mouthing play calls to himself in the shower and driving to work in the spring. He also looked back at call sheets and quarterback school tape from when he got his first offensive coordinator job with the New Orleans Saints in 2000.

When asked how he did back then as a play-caller, McCarthy responded with an answer right out of the “Google Me” generation.

“It worked out okay. I think I was assistant coach of the year. Look it up,” McCarthy said with a laugh.

How will this new Cowboys offense look?

Prescott dubbed it the Texas Coast offense as McCarthy is implementing the philosophies of his favored West Coast offense with some the things the Cowboys have done with Moore over the past few seasons.

“I will not say we are moving away from anything we have done in the past because it’s our foundation,” McCarthy said. “You go back to the first day when I arrived here, it was important to keep the language for Dak Prescott. Every concept has a history. The scheme design in my view always fits into a family. It’s important to keep growing those families and variations of it. Our approach is to build off of what we established as an offense.”

McCarthy kept Moore in place out of deference to what made things easier for Prescott. That remains his primary focus with the new scheme and their approach.

“Spending a lot of time with him, just getting to know him and understanding what he wants on these plays, what he wants in each situation,” Prescott said. “Just understanding his purpose allows me to play a little bit quicker and a little bit more free. And he’s told me 100 times, it’s about making the quarterback comfortable. It’s about putting the quarterback in the best situation and allowing him to feel free. And I feel that. I felt that all spring, and I’m feeling it as we move forward. That’s what it’s about is.”

For Prescott, that should manifest itself in getting through his progressions and getting the ball out faster

“The West Coast is all tied to the quarterback’s feet,” Schottenheimer said. “So when you see a quarterback playing really well on the West Coast offense, you’ll see his feet are decisive. He’s firm on his back foot. That’s a big part of that. But when the design of it is how do you spread people out, get your guy running vertically into the defense and have the quarterback get the ball accurately to them.”

The early results so far are the player expressing a better understanding of the offense and knowing what everyone is supposed to do.

That should cut down on confusion, turnovers and allow Prescott to make quicker decisions.

“I can just play freely out there and making sure the guys know where to be and understand where I want them to be,” Prescott said. “And that’s been a huge jump. Just the details since.”

Receiver CeeDee Lamb said things have been simplified and easier to understand.

“You’ve got to make it simple for the players because if you play fast ... you get the most out of everybody,” Lamb said.

Was there confusion in the past?

“We weren’t really always on the same page,” Lamb said. “Now, it’s a bit different. You understand, put yourself in the quarterback’s shoes. Obviously, everyone can’t play quarterback, but get in the mind of why he’s doing things. I feel they made it much more easier for us to understand.”

That’s McCarthy at his best.

Now they just have to win.