‘All The Information I Can’: Dak Prescott Explains What Pre-Snap Motion Gives A Dallas Cowboys Quarterback

FRISCO, Texas — Dak Prescott said Thursday that pre-snap motion for the Dallas Cowboys depends on the play, sometimes dressing up a core concept and sometimes giving him the coverage information he needs before the snap.

Dallas ranked 11th in the NFL in motion usage last season and sits 30th this season, according to figures cited at Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer’s news conference Wednesday.

Motion has two jobs, in Prescott’s explanation.

“It depends. It depends on the play really, and the play that’s being called. Sometimes it’s just to dress it up and give the defense a different look of us running a core play and breaking some tendencies with motion to get this play done,” Prescott said. “And then sometimes it’s used strictly for me to read… 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.”

“I mean, sometimes you can just move guys just to move guys, and then there’s other times that it’s a must to be able to get the coverage identification and help me, help quarterbacks decide how we’re going to attack this defense because of that,” Prescott continued.

Dak Prescott Says Some Motion Changes Nothing

Not every motion accomplishes something. Sometimes a receiver crosses the formation and the defense does not budge.

“You could just throw a hustle, and a guy goes from one side of the formation to the other when it’s really not doing anything other than, hopefully, making the defense switch their call or making two guys communicate. Hopefully they mess up that communication,” Prescott explained. “But you could be doing that and those guys could be locked regardless of motion or not on what you’re doing. And then the motion was irrelevant. So it’s all truly play dependent. And I would say defense would probably tell you the exact same about us.”

Offensive lineman Tyler Smith said motion does expose things in a defense, but defenses use it as a key too.

“It definitely does, and it will expose things in the defense. But at the same time, defense is using some things as keys. Like sometimes they may move here or there depending on what’s happening in the backfield. And so that’s something that we have to understand as well,” Smith said. “It goes deeper than just what we’re doing at the line of scrimmage. Understanding the flocks, the mocks, the motions, the rotations, running back alignments, things like that is extremely important for understanding how, when that ball is snapped, the picture may change.”

Brian Schottenheimer Says Dallas Still Believes In Motion

Schottenheimer said Wednesday that playing from behind has limited the motion Dallas uses, and that the staff has not stopped believing in it.

“A 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,” Schottenheimer said. “And then sometimes you do cloud the picture, and so 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.”

The Cowboys visit the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Kickoff at Lucas Oil Stadium is set for noon CT on FOX.