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Why Jason Garrett Will Coach the Cowboys Next Season

By C-O-U-R-T-N-E-Y!

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America)

Every generation has a team that seems to have the talent to be elite but, when it comes getting time, time to deliver, for whatever reason, that team isn’t what anyone thought it was. Warren Moon’s Houston Oilers. Randall Cunningham’s Minnesota Vikings.  Joe Montana’s Kansas City Chiefs.  Donovan McNabb’s Philadelphia Eagles.  For these teams (and others I am forgetting), it seems that every year great expectations gave way to epic disappointments. For Warren Moon it was the Comeback, in which his Oilers surrendered 35 unanswered points in the second half to the Buffalo Bills (playing with their back-up QB, Frank Reich) to lose 38-35 in the playoffs.  For the Vikings it was going 15-1 in 1998 only to lose to a not-very-good Atlanta Falcons team, and then to  spend years pissing away wads of talent.  At least the Eagles made the Super Bowl.  But, the only thing I remember about that game is hearing after that McNabb was out of shape, dry heaving on the field.

Tony Romo’s Dallas Cowboys are undeniably that team for this generation. Every year, it seems, this team finds new ways to embarrass itself.  Hype, with these guys, has been badly out-paced by reality as this team has repeatedly dry heaved on the field when it mattered.  And, at this point, no one can know for sure if its that they lack heart (see December collapses, culminating with 2008 last game of regular season in Philadelphia with a playoff spot on the line), discipline (see penalties),  talent (see terrible defense all season long and poor offensive line play), or any combination of the three.

Earlier today, ESPN reported that the Cowboys were ready to name Jason Garrett the team’s permanent head coach.  This evening, however, Jones denied those reports, claiming that he had not yet made up his mind. While it is possible that Jones is being sincere, with Jones “sincerity” is more art than science.  He often speaks in hyperbole and has a love-affair with making a “splash” in the off-season.  What better way to keep the 6-10 Cowboys in the headlines for a few days than to kick around some marquee coaching names while Garrett hangs in limbo?

Mixed reports aside, though, Jones ultimately will make Garrett the next head coach.  Why?  Four reasons:

1. Because Jones– who “buys the groceries” for this team– doesn’t think that the problem is talent.  Simply put, Jones thinks this team has the talent to contend.  He likely understands that he needs to fiddle (good-bye Marc Colombo, Roy Williams, and Marion Barber) but wholesale changes are not in the cards.  Jones has to think this team has the talent: he has dumped long-term megabucks into a laundry list of players on this roster. Romo. Ware. Austin. Witten. Newman.  Fat contracts all along the offensive line.  He also is positively giddy over some of the young players on this team.  Dez Bryant.  Felix Jones.  Sean Lee.  There is no way that Jones brings in someone with the balls to say: “Jerry, I know you paid these guys a ton of money, and I know you love so-and-so, but these guys just aren’t that good.”   Holmgren might do that.  Gruden might do that.  Jason Garrett won’t.  He just won’t– too inexperienced, and too much involvement with picking these guys to disown them.   Jones knows that Garrett will be all in with the core they already have on the roster.
2. Because Jones Doesn’t Want Garrett to be His Next Sean Payton.  Sean Payton was the heir apparent who got away when Bill Parcells overstayed his welcome.  Jones liked everything about Payton- who is Jason Garrett (bright offensive mind) with some Parcellsian moxie (balls) built in.  Payton is undeniably a great head coach . . .  and he was right under Jones’ nose.  Nothing would embarrass Jones more than having Garrett come in, earn monster paychecks as an assistant, get some experience in a lost season as the interim coach of the Cowboys, and then coach the Raiders (or some other team) to the Super Bowl.  Call it the: how could Jones let Payton and Garrett get away factor.  (This is not to say that Garrett is the next Payton.  It is to say that Jones doesn’t want to find that out watching him coach someone else to the promise land.)
3. Because Jones Has Already Told Us Garrett Will Be the Next Coach.  If you listen carefully to what Jones has said about Garrett, he has told us that he thinks Garrett is the right man for the job.  Jones has said that what he likes about Garrett is that he is organized and a good motivator.  For a long time, Jones didn’t believe in “rah-rah” coaches.  For a long time, Jones didn’t believe in changing coaches mid-season, either.  In the wake of Wade Phillips’ 1-7 start this season, Jones has been forced to reconsider a lot of things and has finally realized what all of us already knew: Dallas isn’t disciplined and needs to be motivated.  Enter Garrett.  The antidote for what ails what Jones still believes is a talent-laden roster.
4. Because the Reasons Not to Hire Garrett Don’t Matter in Jerry’s View of the World.  One concern Jones has expressed is that Garrett is inexperienced as a head coach.  That would matter more if Jones thought there was a talent problem.  In Jones’ world, he doesn’t really care if Garrett can put a roster together– that just makes GM Jerry all the more indispensable.  Through half a season, Garrett’s game calling has been solid, and Garrett proved he could what Phillips could not– get this team’s attention.  Garrett got this team to play with passion when it had nothing on the line– something Phillips could not do even with plenty on the line.

Ultimately, Garrett remains attractive to Jones for the very same reasons he made him the highest paid assistant in the NFL.  Here is a former player– a former Cowboy– who has learned under Jimmy Johnson (how to motivate), Norv Turner and Ernie Zampese (how to scheme), and Nick Saban (how to lead).  He is friends with Aikman (a link to the glorious past!).  He is Ivy league, seemingly no nonsense, but not yet big enough to challenge Jones’ way of doing things (like splitting up training camp into two locations to make more money, but arguably to the disadvantage of the team).  Facts, though, are facts: the Jones’ formula for winning has yielded one playoff win in 15 years.   Whether Cowboys’ fans like or not, whether that trajectory changes is tied to Tony Romo and the cast that Jones has assembled around him.  By giving Garrett the gig, which will happen, Jones is making the safest of choices, a choice that effectively allows him to keep the gang (sans Wade) together in the hopes of better days to come.