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According to various reports, including those stemming from sources of ESPN.com's Todd Archer, the Cowboys have signed free-agent coaches Jason Garrett and Rod Marinelli to long-term contracts:
For a team that has overachieved despite salary-cap constraints, a disproportionate amount of injuries, lost stars and front-office dysfunction for the entirety of Garrett's tenure as head coach and Marinelli's shorter run as defensive coordinator, developments like these can nearly win an offseason.
It was probably a foregone conclusion that Garrett would return, but the fact that the Cowboys signed him to a new deal without any hesitation is important. The 48-year-old didn't even have a chance to entertain any outside offers, which will hopefully encourage his key offensive assistants, passing game coordinator Scott Linehan and offensive line coach Bill Callahan, to stick around.
Had there been any drag here, those guys might have been more prone to consider opportunities outside of Dallas. Nobody wants to risk turning something down if there's a chance they'll lose their current job when a new boss is hired.
In four seasons since becoming the permanent head coach, Garrett has never finished below .500. He had an injury-ravaged squad in playoff contention until the final week of the 2012 regular season and somehow did the same thing with a team that featured the third-worst defense in NFL history (yardage-wise) in 2013.
He then took a team that appeared to be worse on paper in 2014 and won 12 games, falling just short of an NFC Championship Game appearance after outplaying the Green Bay Packers on the road in the divisional playoffs.
It helped that in his first year as defensive coordinator, Marinelli continually performed magic tricks with a talent-deprived unit, inexplicably boosting their rankings across the board despite big offseason losses. How did he do it? The man coaches up defensive players like almost nobody this league has ever seen.
With DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher gone and Sean Lee on injured reserve, Marinelli's defense had zero Pro Bowlers. Almost every starting position was "by committee," with 21 different players earning at least 100 snaps.
And yet they somehow recorded an NFC-high 31 regular-season takeaways while ranking above the league average with 22.0 points per game allowed.
He got breakout seasons out of defensive linemen Tyrone Crawford and Jeremy Mincey, linebackers Bruce Carter and Rolando McClain and defensive backs Orlando Scandrick and Sterling Moore. Rookie front-seven cogs Anthony Hitchens and DeMarcus Lawrence also exceeded expectations late.
So you can see why the Cowboys went out of their way to keep him around, presumably at a high cost. Considering how young most of those guys are, a sudden change could have really hurt. But now, this greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts defense has a chance to keep building with its leader in place.
Don't underestimate the value of continuity.
“Tell him he better stay here, man,” Mincey told Archer earlier this week, when Marinelli's future appeared to be up in the air. “I got so much respect for Coach Rod, man. If he did leave, I would still be happy for him, but we definitely want him here. We got a lot of love and respect for him. He coaches the game the right way and he’s one of the greatest to do it.”
“We have a special thing brewing with all our pieces that are in this building right now for a defense,” cornerback Brandon Carr added, per Archer. “It takes some time for the chemistry to come around and the guys to get and for the expectations to be recognized on both ends with coaches and players. This is the second year of the defense. Marinelli was here last year and you can say we stayed within the framework of our defense, but we have something special brewing.”
Of course, you don't fully win an offseason simply by keeping your coaching staff intact (and it's no guarantee that will even happen, with Linehan and Callahan still unsigned). The Cowboys still have to ensure that All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant doesn't get away as an unrestricted free agent, and starters McClain, Bruce Carter, Doug Free and DeMarco Murray are also slated to hit free agency.
With apologies to Murray, who led the league in rushing by a 484-yard margin, aging backs are nearly worthless in this league, especially ones coming off of 400-plus-touch seasons. Mary-Kate Olsen could have rushed for 1,000 behind that jacked-up offensive line, one that featured three 24-year-old Pro Bowlers, and with that type of support from Bryant and the league's highest-rated passer, Tony Romo.
For proof, look no further than the second spot on the running back depth chart, which featured Joseph Randle and his out-of-this-world 6.7 yards-per-attempt average.
The point being, as good as Murray was and as surprisingly strong as McClain, Carter and Free sometimes were, and as valuable as Linehan was as a play-caller, no impending free agent except maybe Bryant matters close to as much to this team as Garrett and Marinelli do.
And since there's no such thing as a franchise tag to keep coaches around, these reported contracts are potential lifesavers for a team that now has a real chance to become significantly stronger in 2015.
Brad Gagnon has covered the NFC East for Bleacher Report since 2012.
Follow @Brad_Gagnon
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