Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott offered a direct assessment of his team's offensive identity through eight games of the 2026 season. "Is it one we're proud of? I don't know," Prescott said Thursday. "We'll be better, I can promise."
The Cowboys are scoring 27.4 points per game this season, but their offensive scheme has become less varied under offensive playcaller Brian Schottenheimer. The team has significantly reduced pre-snap motion, play-action and under-center formations compared to the previous season.
Last season, Dallas ranked in the top half of the NFL in several offensive categories. The team used play action on 28.2 percent of snaps, operated from under-center formations 38.4 percent of the time and incorporated motion on 56.6 percent of plays.
In 2026, the usage has shifted sharply. The Cowboys rank second-to-last in motion rate at 36.5 percent, 22nd in under-center rate at 30.4 percent and 21st in play-action rate.
Dallas averages 94.1 rushing yards per game, the eighth-worst in the NFL, and runs on just 32.5 percent of plays—the fifth-lowest rate in the league. The offensive imbalance reflects struggles in establishing a consistent ground attack.
Schottenheimer reportedly believes motion can be difficult to use when trailing and can "cloud the picture" for a quarterback.
Prescott sees motion differently. He said it is sometimes used "just to dress it up and take the defense, give them a different look of us running a core play and breaking some tendencies with a motion to get this play done."
Motion also serves as a diagnostic tool for Prescott. "Sometimes it's used strictly for me to see the disguise, to see the matchups that we've got or to create different matchups by moving them from one side to the other and really just getting all the information I can through motion," he said.
The reduction in these elements suggests a departure from strategies that ranked Dallas highly in key statistical categories. The current approach appears to limit Prescott's ability to leverage pre-snap adjustments and disguise.
