Bill Callahan: Anything I can do to help Jason Garrett, that's what I'm here for
IRVING – Bill Callahan had a decision to make when it was determined in January that he'd be calling the Dallas Cowboys' offensive plays.
Should he call the game from the sidelines or do it up in the coaching booth?
Callahan chose the booth.
"I think it's a great view," Callahan said Thursday. "I talked to Jason [Garrett] about it, just because when you're up stairs, you're really looking at the game from that viewpoint or that vantage point in the sense that you look at film. When I'm looking at a version of a sideline film and I'm up in the box, it looks identical, it looks the same, so the ability to recognize coverage, what the defenses are doing, I think it's a lot easier from up top than it is from the bottom. … I just like the vantage point."
Callahan has experience doing both. While at Nebraska, he called plays from the field. With the Oakland Raiders, he was in the booth.
"We're going to try it out and see how it works out and if it's comfortable," Callahan said. "If it's a good communication sequence for everybody, if it is, we'll roll with it, and if it's not, then we'll alter it."
Since joining the Cowboys staff last season as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator, Callahan says he's been willing to help in any way to lighten some of Garrett's load as head coach, which includes becoming the team's play-caller.
And while some are quick to point out that Callahan's background is in the West Coast system, Callahan has experience with the "digit system" that Garrett runs. Brian Schottenheimer ran the same type of system as the New York Jets offensive coordinator when Callahan was the team's offensive line coach from 2008-2011.
"This was perfect," Callahan said. "This was an ideal situation. I really wanted to come down here, wanted to be a part of this organization. I had heard tremendous things about Jason, so I wanted to be a part of this franchise and a part of this staff, and as along as I can help him, I told Jason, ‘Anything I can do to help you in any capacity, that's what I'm there for.'"
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