So now that Dallas has Dez Bryant, will Garrett get him the ball?

Last season, the Dallas Cowboys accumulated 4,287 yards passing in 550 pass plays.  The Cowboys ran 274 pass plays from formations utilizing three receivers or more. Dallas gained 1,861 yards from those sets.

The Cowboys also gained 1,961 yards through the air from sets with two or more tight ends (Note: 5 plays gained 21 yards with two tight ends and three wide receivers).  Dallas passed 247 times from formations with two (or more) tight ends.

Ranking the formations in regards to production (as defined by yards gained per pass attempt):

Jason Garrett called 484 passing plays (88% of all passing plays) from the above packages.  Depending upon how one wishes to interpret the data, an argument can easily be made that Garrett called the most successful passing plays most often.

Makes sense.

Plays involving S11, S12, and 12 personnel were called 450 times (82% of the total offensive passing plays).  The Cowboys also ran 128 times out of those three personnel groupings. 

Again, it seems that Garrett goes with what works.  Look at how few times the Cowboys ran out of a two tight end set from shotgun.

Why?

The Cowboys averaged a lowly 3.78 yards per rush attempt from that personnel package.  3.78 yards per attempt is good for Indianapolis, Houston, and San Diego (ranked 30th through 32nd in rush average in 2009), but the Cowboys averaged about 4.8 yards per rush attempt.

Dallas ran more plays from S11, than any other package.  The Cowboys averaged 6.47 yards per carry and 7.04 yards per pass attempt from that personnel grouping.

The second most productive offensive rushing package was the 22 grouping.  Dallas ran the ball 140 times from the 22 package (5.8 yards per rush attempt), 70 times from the 21 package (4.3 yards per rush attempt), and 75 times from the 12 package (4.28 yards per rush attempt).

The 22 personnel package was the second most used by the Cowboys in 2009, but it was primarily a running package.  Dallas only passed 41 times (4.61 yards per pass attempt) from that grouping; probably because it was not effective.

So will Garrett get Dez the ball?

If Dez is productive, history suggests that Jason will find a way to get him the ball.  I would expect to see much more S11 from the Cowboys next season with Roy, Dez, and Miles terrorizing secondaries.

Reference:

http://insidecorner.dmagazine.com/2009/09/09/garrett-08-vs-garrett-09/