Report that Kellen Moore is making more to be Cowboys OC than Boise State head coach

Over the course of the last two weeks the Dallas Cowboys have locked up both their offensive and defensive coordinator for the long-term. Kellen Moore was given an extension the night before the regular-season finale, and Dan Quinn was hired on the defensive side of the ball this week.

Details surrounding the contracts of coordinators rarely make it to the public light. Head coaches are a bit of a different situation given the status associated with those jobs. You’ll recall that Mike McCarthy reportedly signed a five-year, $30M deal to be the Cowboys main man a little over a year ago.

While Dan Quinn is the new guy on the block as far as Cowboys coordinators go, it is Moore’s name that is still of more interest this week. This mostly has to do with the fact that the Philadelphia Eagles requested to interview Moore for their vacant head coaching position. Dallas cannot prevent him from interviewing (or obviously accepting) here because it is an upward move from coordinator to head coach, regardless of Moore’s recent extension.

We might know the details of Kellen Moore’s new salary

Speaking of Moore’s extension, when it happened many people were a bit surprised that he would be staying with the Cowboys. At the time Boise State University was looking for a new head coach and Moore is one of the most prolific players in the program’s history so the fit is rather obvious.

As is usually the case when news of Moore’s extension dropped various theories began to float out as to why he stayed with the Cowboys as opposed to taking the Boise job (which Troy Aikman intimated was in fact going to be Moore’s). One of the suggested reasons as to why Moore stayed had to do with the associated salary, but again, without knowing the details it’s hard to draw a legitimate conclusion there.

On Thursday’s edition of NFL Now, various NFL insiders were talking about the league as they normally do. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport was discussing the news of Philadelphia wanting to interview Moore and happened to make mention of Moore’s new extension... and how he believes it is worth “almost $2M a year.”

This does seem to be the first public discussion of the financial side of Moore‘s extension with the Cowboys. $2M per year is obviously on the higher side for coordinators in the NFL and it is a third of McCarthy’s reported salary. These values are not calculated by any sort of salary cap so being America’s Team obviously has its perks.

Not to say that Moore’s decision to stay with the Cowboys was about money since we obviously do not know what his thought process was; going back to Aikman though, the quarterback did note he didn’t believe Moore believed in the commitment Boise State was making as a university to the football program, but the numbers do sort of speak for themselves.

If we are to assume that Moore is being paid “almost $2M a year” with the Cowboys then it stands to reason that he is making more than he would have had he taken the Boise State job. The Broncos would up selecting Andy Avalos to be their new head coach and his contract details are well-known, and it seems like Moore’s might be of more value on a year-to-year basis.

Whatever the reason was, Kellen Moore obviously chose to stay as the offensive coordinator with the Cowboys and that is the end of the story... for now. Whether Moore takes the interview with the Eagles and whether or not things progress there remains to be seen, but his name is clearly a hot one in present and likely future coaching circles.