Longtime Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is now a Patriot, and former Cowboys backup quarterback Will Grier recently signed with the Patriots as well. And the Cowboys expect Elliott and Grier to give the Patriots inside information this week.
With the Cowboys playing the Patriots on Sunday, Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said that he will change hand signals because he assumes Bill Belichick & Co. will be asking the former Cowboys on the team what to be looking for.
“We’re always aware of it,” Schottenheimer said. “Those are things we monitor every week. But, certainly, we know Will knows where a lot of the bones are buried. Zeke does as well. So those are things you talk about and you think, OK, let’s adjust this. We certainly have more than one hand signal for most of our core concepts.”
Schottenheimer says that if the Patriots are too reliant on what Elliott and Grier are telling them, the Cowboys will be able to catch them off guard.
“You can use it to your advantage because they think they know what’s coming and they hear something and they think, ‘It’s this’ and we’re smart enough to adjust those things,” Schottenheimer said. “Everybody does it, you get a player that’s been somewhere, you talk to him about different things, and then you’re very selective about how much you put into it. Excited to see Will, it’ll be great to see him, but I’m sure he is definitely being interrogated and spending a lot of late nights with their defensive coaching staff.”