News: BTB: What we think about the Cowboys’ coaching situation

CCBoy

Well-Known Member
Messages
45,472
Reaction score
21,741
What we think about the Cowboys’ coaching situation

Jason Garrett and Scott Linehan need to get the offense on track to keep their jobs. But even if they do, it might not be the best thing for the team.

https://www.bloggingtheboys.com/201...ation-jason-garrett-scott-linehan-jerry-jones


The Dallas Cowboys are in a place that has become all too familiar this season. They face a game where they badly need a win to keep pace in the NFC East, but have an offense that so far has been inconsistent, and often has just been absolutely bad. The onus would seem to be on head coach Jason Garrett and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan to get it fixed. There is a widespread assumption that they are both coaching for their jobs this season, although owner and GM Jerry Jones is still refusing to even discuss moving on from Garrett.

A win against the Jacksonville Jaguars would, at least temporarily, calm the unrest in the fan base. And if Dallas can just get that offense producing, then Garrett and Linehan will probably be back for another go next year, especially if they win the division. Given the state of the NFC East and what we have seen from the Cowboys’ rivals this season, that is really not something you can automatically rule out. The odds are that it would not be much of a run in the postseason, but it still would almost certainly mean Garrett, at the least, is safe.

But is that really a good thing? Jones thinks Garrett can get the team to a championship, and the offense is really a jointly shared area of responsibility for the head coach and the OC, with Garrett’s fingerprints all over the way things are done. There is a huge question about whether they can really lead this team to success in a league where there has been something of an offensive evolution in the past few years. I asked the rest of the BTB staff the question of whether it would really be a good thing for the Cowboys to win the NFCE and ensure Garrett and probably Linehan would stick around another year. Here is what some of my colleagues had to say...
 

acr731

Jerry learned to GM from Pee Wee Herman
Messages
8,479
Reaction score
23,489
".... the offense is really a jointly shared area of responsibility for the head coach and the OC, with Garrett’s fingerprints all over the way things are done."

There's the problem right there. The problem is it won't matter if the team loses their next 25 in a row, Garrett isn't going anywhere. He could pee in Jerry's coffee and take a dump on Jerry's desk and keep his job. He has the most secure job in the universe.
 

LetsBeReal

Well-Known Member
Messages
618
Reaction score
550
I think it’s easier to replace the qb with legit talent, than it is the coaches. But hey, I don’t enjoy being 8-8 at best every year like majority of cowboy fans
 

LetsBeReal

Well-Known Member
Messages
618
Reaction score
550
Can guarantee you Jason Garrett will have a hell of a lot easier time finding a job than dak Prescott would in the nfl right now. Garrett has more trade value than Dak.

Can Garrett turn Brandon weeden or dak into a super bowl qb? No. Neither can anyone else.

Jason Garrett has his flaws. Dak has a lot more flaws
 

zekecowboy

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,906
Reaction score
2,206
One.Cool.Customer: One of the flaws of Jerry Jones the GM is that he doesn’t keep his foot on the pedal all of the time, seemingly easing off when things go half-way right. When things go terribly wrong, he has no problem stepping in, as he did when he canned Wade Philips midseason in 2010, but there seems to be a distinct lack of urgency when things are looking up.

Things didn’t go too well in 2017, but things went well enough for Jones to buy into the idea that a few changes here or there would somehow turn a 9-7 team into a Super Bowl contender the next year. So when the Cowboys weren’t able to land a premier wide receiver in free agency, the GM thought a bunch of undrafted free agents would be good enough to make up for that, no sweat. It’s that lack of aggressiveness that has become a hallmark of the Dallas Cowboys and their GM. That strange complacency with the status quo in Dallas is particularly irritating because it is the exact opposite of what made Jones such a success early in his tenure as the new owner of the Dallas Cowboys, but those times are long gone.

So here’s why another year of middling results that keep Jason Garrett and his staff in Dallas for another year (and another year, and another year...) is bad for the Cowboys
Sometimes familiarity breeds complacency, and that’s where the Cowboys look to be at right now. Think about how we used to laugh at the Bengals for keeping Marvin Lewis around for seemingly forever. Joke’s on us, folks, the whole league is laughing at the Cowboys for doing the exact same thing. Change for the sake of change is never a good strategy, but sometimes a personnel change can provide new impulses to an organization that may have gone stale - and maybe light a fire under the GM’s ***.

Dave Halprin: Generally, I’m a win at all costs type of guy (within reason). Because of this, I could never actively root for the team to fail this year just to get rid of the Garrett/Linehan. So I’m stuck in the middle. If Garrett can turn around this team to the point where they make the playoffs, and not just from a weakened NFC East by going 9-7 and squeaking in, but really accomplish a turnaround where the offense looks legitimate again, then I can’t say that would be bad for the team long-term. There is a lot of talk about
scheme, play-calls, and whether being a run-first team in the NFL is a bad thing, but we weren’t complaining much about that when we were winning big in 2014 and 2016. As the great OCC usually reminds us - recency bias. That’s not to say that complaints about how this team is built, or how the scheme is being adapted, aren’t legitimate. There are absolutely things the coaching staff could change. But if Garrett/Linehan can somehow find a groove and make this team into a genuine playoff team this year, it’s hard to say that’s bad for the team, long-term or short-term. To me though, we’re really asking the wrong question. The only way this team is ever going to be good, with this coaching staff or another, is if Dak Prescott rediscovers the form he showed through his first 24 games. His poor mechanics, uncertainty in the pocket, failure to progress through his reads, and inaccurate passing is just killing this offense. If he can just return to being efficient and accurate, this offense can succeed and the Cowboys can succeed. One caveat, if Jason Garrett ever punts in another situation like he did against Houston, I would fire him on the spot and turn the team over to Kris Richard as interim coach.

Michael Sisemore: It’s all going to depend on how this hypothetical “turn around”
is orchestrated through the play of the quarterback. If Dak Prescott is able to return to the level of play he showed against the Lions or prior to the Atlanta game last season and actually stay there, then maybe this staff can right this ship. However, if Dak and the offense continue to struggle whenever the running game isn’t working perfectly, we’re going to see new coaches. It’s much harder to find a new quarterback without mortgaging a lot of assets and the Cowboys won’t be bad enough to be Top-5 in the Draft. Plus, the Cowboys need better offensive skill players regardless. There is an influx of younger upstart coaches, be it former NFL assistants or college coaches that are taking jobs at the highest level. Trust it, there will be someone walking in telling the Jones’ family, “I like Prescott, I can coach him.” That’s what Jerry, Stephen, and McClay will ultimately want to hear. Dak is the key to this whole thing because it’s hard to picture them dumping him after this season, not yet anyway. If there is a turnaround, it’s going to be because of improvement at quarterback, which is going to make it hard to get rid of the coaches. In that case, it’s hard to say that’s bad for the long term, it will signify that the coaches got it right.

DannyPhantom: Absolutely it would be a good thing. We want this process to work. You may not feel it in your heart of hearts, but if the Cowboys hit the reset button, they’re not going to be able to just jump back into championship contention with some “fresh young mind.” New coaches
typically fail. That’s why there is such a large turnover each year. They miss, they miss again, and then they keep missing until they finally hit…unless you’re the Browns, in which case you never hit.

Many Cowboys fans live and die by simply the outcome on Sunday so they know whether they can boast or hide from their peers at work on Monday. And that’s fine. But we have set that aside and really look at what is going on with the organization. For me, I’ve seen a good team be constructed whose only shortcoming in recent years has been poor play from the quarterback position. I don’t see this team lacking energy, I don’t see in-house fighting (despite what the media tries to portray), and I don’t see players throwing fits on the side line (at least, not since Dez has left).

The Cowboys have problems and it’s on Garrett and company to fix them. I’m certainly not trying to convince people that the state of the Cowboys is fine, and everyone should just like it. That’s far from it. But you really must ask yourself – is firing Garrett the best play? Will that make our players more focused? Will they fight for the star more? Will Jerry Jones trust this new coach and continue to not meddle so much?

https://www.bloggingtheboys.com/201...ation-jason-garrett-scott-linehan-jerry-jones
 

AmishCowboy

if you ain't first, you're last
Messages
5,134
Reaction score
569
Can guarantee you Jason Garrett will have a hell of a lot easier time finding a job than dak Prescott would in the nfl right now. Garrett has more trade value than Dak.

Can Garrett turn Brandon weeden or dak into a super bowl qb? No. Neither can anyone else.

Jason Garrett has his flaws. Dak has a lot more flaws
I don't think so...
 

Roadtrip635

Well-Known Member
Messages
13,940
Reaction score
26,819
I think it’s easier to replace the qb with legit talent, than it is the coaches. But hey, I don’t enjoy being 8-8 at best every year like majority of cowboy fans
That's not true. There are many franchises that have been looking for "legit" QBs for years and in some cases a decade or more. Like Parcells once said, you just can't call up 1-800-QUARTERBACK and find one.
 

acr731

Jerry learned to GM from Pee Wee Herman
Messages
8,479
Reaction score
23,489
Can guarantee you Jason Garrett will have a hell of a lot easier time finding a job than dak Prescott would in the nfl right now. Garrett has more trade value than Dak.

Can Garrett turn Brandon weeden or dak into a super bowl qb? No. Neither can anyone else.

Jason Garrett has his flaws. Dak has a lot more flaws

Of course they both have their flaws, but who would you rather keep? My vote is to keep Dak and toss Garrett into a wood chipper.
 

Bobhaze

Staff member
Messages
16,412
Reaction score
62,474
CowboysZone ULTIMATE Fan
Excellent coaching matters in every sport but if you look at NFL history, it’s hard to find a team that wins SBs with a mediocre head coach.

Jon Gruden won one with Tony Dungy’s talent as did Barry Switzer with Jimmy’s talent. But winning big with an average to below average head coach is fool’s gold.

This is what is so maddening about Jerry and Stephen’s marriage to our mediocre at best HC. If our “brain trust” honestly believes they have a great HC, everything else they believe must also be brought into question.

The question “Can Jason Garrett lead a team to a SB?” can be answered two ways-
1. No. We have 8 years of evidence that says he can’t.
2. Well...maybe...He just needs more time.

Obviously our owner believes #2.
 

Aven8

Well-Known Member
Messages
27,728
Reaction score
42,921
I'm to a point where I want to see us get blown out. That's pathetic from a Cowboys fan for life.

Enough is enough.
 

ClintDagger

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,116
Reaction score
1,632
Can guarantee you Jason Garrett will have a hell of a lot easier time finding a job than dak Prescott would in the nfl right now. Garrett has more trade value than Dak.

Can Garrett turn Brandon weeden or dak into a super bowl qb? No. Neither can anyone else.

Jason Garrett has his flaws. Dak has a lot more flaws
Totally agree. Garrett is better at his job than Dak is. Both have shown they aren’t the answer though. I think Garrett is gone and might even be a mid season casualty if things continue to worsen.
 

kskboys

Well-Known Member
Messages
44,059
Reaction score
46,962
Who then, do you see as not contributing to that...outside of an admin or coach?
GM and OC are who I see as the primary culprit. Scheme and personnel are our primary issues, IMO.
 

LetsBeReal

Well-Known Member
Messages
618
Reaction score
550
Totally agree. Garrett is better at his job than Dak is. Both have shown they aren’t the answer though. I think Garrett is gone and might even be a mid season casualty if things continue to worsen.

I’d like to see him show the balls to bench dak before he goes. Garett will win nfl games before dak does.
 

kskboys

Well-Known Member
Messages
44,059
Reaction score
46,962
Take a stance and say what in schemes and personnel are at issue...
We have a general problem w/ personnel due to a poor blueprint. S and 1 tech are glaring issues. Lack of a field stretching WR has plagued us for years. We've wasted multiple draft picks on questionable players, Esco being the most glaring example. We fill our roster w/ 3 tech types.

I'm not a huge X's and O's guy. What I've seen for a while now are WR's not getting open. Too often they show the field and the WR's are running right at DB's. Which is not the way to do things. We go empty backfield way too often in the red zone. We don't clear out holes for the RB.
 

Jake

Beyond tired of Jerry
Messages
36,067
Reaction score
84,350
BTB strike me as young fan boys, particularly after my Twitter interactions with them. I'm not the least bit impressed by their observations.
 

CCBoy

Well-Known Member
Messages
45,472
Reaction score
21,741
BTB strike me as young fan boys, particularly after my Twitter interactions with them. I'm not the least bit impressed by their observations.

The feature writers have cranked out productive daily articles from the 'star war' days on the net...until now. They are very relevant and productive of an increasing knowledge of the sport in the fan base.

Don't expect a James Bond episode in every episode in today's social setting...or even a top writer status that is now a-days found only on a pay site such as the Dallas Morning News.

They are a great stimulus for debate and discussion...that isn't age dependent, unless clichés and agendas are the motivator.
 
Top