Admitting I was wrong is never difficult. It has been a very trying learning process having Garrett as an OC and a head coach. And when the owner says the same thing, there is no arguing that. Would you like me to pull up the article quoting Jerry two years back about Garrett? Jerry admitted that Garrett has screwed up and that the team has suffered through his growing pains. So if you cant see that, or admit that, then the one in denial is you.
Now if you are going to tell me that one 12-4 season is all of a sudden going to erase all of that, then Im just going to tell you that my opinion completely disagrees with you. So when it comes to Garrett, I have been right on the money. He had no business being hired originally, and there were many other candidates more qualified that should have gotten the job. Now if your going to give anyone 10 years or 15 years to learn no matter what, then there is no question that a good year is going to come up at some point.
Now many of you Garrett apologists have used last year to somehow try and act like its all Garrett and he has finally come of age. Now if Garrett was still running the offense, calling the plays, and doing the game plans, then maybe we could sit here and say that wow, he finally understands how to coach and got over the hump of the running game jitters. But unfortunately for you guys, the ONE great season and the miraculous one year turn around from no running game to dominant run game came the VERY first year Garrett no longer was in control of the offense. And that only underlines my point, and the point of many others that Garrett simply didnt know what he was doing or was in over his head. It definitely in NO WAY underlines anything about Garrett coming of age.
So I have taken the time to lay out my opinion with some facts to back it up. Now if you have nothing to come back with, then by all means, just blow it off by telling me I was wrong again. Give it a shot. Refute my points. If you can.
The question is about Garrett as the Head Coach, not as the OC. I've always said that he was the right HC, but should delegate the OC job.
The part of the HC's job that relates to building the right team mentality takes time. In my estimation the rule of thumb would be about a 2 to 3 year delay to see results in this area. Garrett had to inherit a locker room that was a complete disaster. Remember when Parcells told the players not to "eat the cheese" in regards to not getting an inflated ego? Wade basically had semi-trucks of cheese force fed to the players when he was the HC. That team ended up with leaders like Jay Ratliff. They were a bunch of entitled underachievers. The only guys that didn't fall into that were Romo and Witten who were tight with Garrett. Even as OC Garrett stood up to TO when Wade wouldn't or couldn't.
Wade inherited the opposite from Parcells. That team was well disciplined and went 13-3 in his first season but steadily declined as the lack of discipline caused the players to develop an overwhelming sense of entitlement and eventually they just quit on Wade.
Garrett took over for Wade at mid-season and managed to get a 1-7 team to go 5-3 in the 2nd half of that season. After that the team mentality had to be purged and that is a slower process when a bunch of players have contracts that prevent them from being cut immediately.
It might have been 3 straight seasons of 8-8, but there was progress in 2013 despite the record. They had 3 losses by only 1 point that season, another loss by 2 points and another loss by 3 points.
It's fairly obvious that the current locker room mentality is what you want and Garrett has done an excellent job of building up that winning type mentality. The only player that might have any of that Jay Ratliff type of over-entitlement would be Rolando McClain and he is basically a loner on the team, not a leader like Ratliff or TO. McClain only got a veteran's minimum deal plus incentives which also limits his impact on the team.
The front office might have under-cut Garrett a little this season. Garrett really wanted to keep Murray but the FO didn't. Garrett valued his leadership and no nonsense approach to the game. Keeping the right locker room mentality is a high priority for Garrett but the FO saw the probability of decline as high for Murray based on the history of RBs at that age and when coming off seasons with super high numbers of carries. Hopefully, the FO made the right decision.
Building the character of the team is by far the number one job of the Head Coach. Many coaches can do the X and O stuff. Since off-loading the OC duties, Garrett has not had any in-game issues which people criticized him for in his early years as HC. Jimmy Johnson said from the beginning that he thought Garrett would become a very good HC, but as a young coach that he should not be both the OC and HC.
