A long goodbye to Jason Garrett turned into a quick hello to Mike McCarthy when the Dallas Cowboys agreed to a reported five-year deal with the 56-year-old to become head coach.

There’s still some ambiguity surrounding the scheme and coaching staff, but we know this: New Orleans Saints linebackers coach Mike Nolan is expected to be the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator.

Many have focused on how the McCarthy hire will affect the macro aspects of the team, like the culture, his potential win-loss record and how he’ll get along with the Joneses, but not many have narrowed their focus to how his presence will affect specific players.

Although it’s still early in the process -- we have to read the tea leaves to gain insight (McCarthy’s introductory press conference is Wednesday afternoon) -- we can use McCarthy and Nolan’s pasts to help predict the future of some of Dallas’ stars.

Let’s look at a few players who should benefit most from this coaching change:

QB Dak Prescott

Too many in the fan base and media are concluding that McCarthy won’t be a boon to Dak Prescott’s career based on his unceremonious end with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. If you’re going to place the blame for how things ended in Green Bay on McCarthy, then he deserves a ton of credit for developing Rodgers and helping build a perennial Super Bowl contender.

While fans are justified in their skepticism of McCarthy’s stale offensive scheme and play-calling during his final years with the Packers, what can’t be questioned is his ability to develop and improve a quarterback’s skill set.

McCarthy has developed a reputation as a detail-oriented coach who is very hands-on with his approach to developing quarterbacks.

At McCarthy’s famous Quarterback School -- a two-week venture during the offseason that consists of a ton of film study and some on-field work -- Rodgers improved his “fine motor skills: hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity, mechanics.” He also learned the reasons behind why teams run certain coverages and fronts, which has undeniably been beneficial to his career.

While Prescott may never develop into one of the best quarterbacks of all time as Rodgers did, McCarthy’s presence should have a positive effect on the Cowboys quarterback.

He showed a ton of improvement this season, but Prescott still has a ways to go in terms of his mechanics and footwork, in particular.

Pretty sure the high snap caused Dak to rush here. As a result, he got so lazy with his footwork, which led to an inaccurate throw and an INT.



If Dak sets his feet and drives on this pass, it's probably not an INT. He had plenty of time to set his feet but seemed rushed. pic.twitter.com/N73cQTn5v4 — John Owning (@JohnOwning) November 26, 2019

Prescott still has a tendency to get lazy with his footwork, especially on short throws. This forces him to make arm throws, adding a ton of variance to his ball placement. You can bet that McCarthy is going to work tirelessly to clean up Prescott’s footwork in an effort to improve his accuracy as a whole.

One of the few instances of a poor throw due to bad mechanics for Dak. Need him to reset his feet and fire after hesitating, as he had plenty of time and space in the pocket. He didn't incorporate his lower body, which led to the power drain on the throw. #Cowboys pic.twitter.com/IMPeLqCkdJ — John Owning (@JohnOwning) September 9, 2019

Another area McCarthy will try to shore up is Prescott’s tendency to not reset his feet after hesitating (above clip) when he has the space and time to do so. Prescott’s failure to reset his feet in these situations drains his ability to be consistently accurate in any fashion and often leads to incomplete passes like the one above.

Even if McCarthy’s promises of an attacking and innovative offense turns out to be empty, take solace in the fact that Prescott’s individual skill set should continue to improve under his new head coach.

There are many reasons why fans can be skeptical of the McCarthy hire, but Prescott’s development shouldn’t be one.

LBs Jaylon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch

McCarthy may not have a huge effect on the defense, but Nolan will. And while there’s still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the potential philosophical and schematic changes Nolan will make to the defense, one thing is clear: He will do his best to improve the play of the linebackers.

He wasn’t the defensive coordinator, but Nolan did phenomenal work as the Saints’ linebackers coach. After inheriting one of the NFL’s worst linebacker units in 2017 (his first year in New Orleans), Nolan has turned it into a respectable group. In particular, he helped turn Demario Davis into one of the best linebackers in football, as evidenced by Davis’ first-team All-Pro nod this season.

“One of the best linebackers coaches I’ve ever had,” Davis said of Nolan, via NOLA.com." Very experienced and knowledgeable about the game of football. He truly helped me become a better player.”

While that may seem like lip service or a cliche from a former player, Davis’ incredible and immediate success under Nolan indicates it’s not.

Before his stop in New Orleans and a year away from the field, Nolan spent 2015 as linebackers coach for the then-San Diego Chargers. Denzel Perryman is still trying to replicate his effectiveness from that year, in particular. That season, as a rookie, Perryman set career bests in solo tackles, tackles for loss and average tackle depth, according to Sports Info Solutions. He also limited broken/missed tackles better in 2015 than in any other season, missing just 4.2% of his tackling attempts. He has missed more than 13% of his tackle attempts in every season since.

This should be good news for Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch, both of whom took steps back this season after impressive 2018 campaigns.

Another missed tackle from LVE. You can see how frustrated he is with his tackling troubles by his reaction after the play. pic.twitter.com/eTODueA1UA — John Owning (@JohnOwning) November 19, 2019

One area where Nolan could help Smith and Vander Esch is tackling. They struggled mightily in that department this season, missing a combined 28 tackles.

The fact that team missed tackle data goes back just two years limits our scope, but fans should be excited to know that New Orleans proved to be one of the best tackling teams each year, finishing with the sixth-least missed tackles in 2018 (87) and third-least in 2019 (86). Both of those marks are huge improvements over Dallas’ 120 missed tackles this season (seventh-most).

Davis missed tackles less frequently this season (his second under Nolan) than in any other in his career -- his 5.8% missed tackle rate was among the best in the NFL this season, according to Sports Info Solutions.

On top of that, the end of Rod Marinelli’s tenure could also mean an end to Dallas undervaluing the nose tackle position. If Nolan’s presence means the Cowboys will start allocating more money to nose tackles, then that will be as big of a benefit to Smith and Vander Esch than anything else.

Quinn set a good edge, but it's hard to be successful when your NT gets displaced out of his gap at POA. pic.twitter.com/57I7pECPxQ — John Owning (@JohnOwning) November 13, 2019

Smith and Vander Esch are two of the most athletic linebackers in the league, but when interior offensive linemen are able to climb to the second level unencumbered, the Cowboys’ duo tends to struggle. That’s a huge reason why Dallas couldn’t stop the Los Angeles Rams’ running game in the 2018 playoffs and was an issue that continued throughout 2019.

While there are still questions as to the kind of defense Nolan will run, one thing you can be sure of is that it will be to the benefit of Smith and Vander Esch.