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Garrett has evolved into a top-notch offensive game-planner who is finally showing a willingness to run the ball. This team has always played hard for him, but he's rallying it in extraordinary fashion this season.
Without Pro Bowl-caliber defensive linemen DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher, and with injuries/suspensions affecting key cogs like linebacker Sean Lee, cornerback Orlando Scandrick and front seven studs Rolando McClain, Bruce Carter, Justin Durant, Henry Melton and Anthony Spencer, this team has no business winning 80 percent of its games.
Right now, Garrett has to be an early front-runner for Coach of the Year.
Meanwhile, Murray has become the playmaking bell cow Dallas has been looking for ever since the end of the Emmitt Smith era.
Sunday against Houston, he became only the third back in NFL history to go over the 100-yard mark in each of the first five games of a season, and he now leads the league in rushing by 210 yards.
Only four backs in NFL history have rushed for more yards through five games, and Murray is on pace to set a new single-season record for rushing yards while tying Larry Johnson's single-season record for carries.
Without him, the 'Boys would be a lot closer to 1-4 than 4-1.
But here's where things get interesting: Neither Garrett nor Murray are signed beyond this season.
Usually, when a coach is working in a situation like that, he's considered to be a lame duck. But it doesn't feel that way with Garrett, mainly because owner Jerry Jones has always operated in unconventional fashion and seems to have an inordinate amount of loyalty toward his oft-criticized head coach.
So, is a 4-1 start enough to earn Garrett a contract extension? Maybe not yet, considering that Jones was still stubborn enough to refrain from extending Garrett in the offseason despite swearing that he wasn't on the hot seat.
We're barely one-quarter of the way through the season, and Jones knows that there's plenty of time for the excrement to hit the fan.
Last time the Cowboys started 4-1, in 2008, Garrett was offensive coordinator and Tony Romo was the quarterback. That year, Dallas went 5-6 the rest of the way, blowing a playoff berth with back-to-back embarrassing home losses to close the season.
Jones probably knows that Garrett will return regardless of when he's offered an extension, so why rush?
Let's also keep in mind that the four teams the 'Boys have defeated on this current winning streak are a combined 7-12 this season.
So let's chill.
On the Murray front, there's more to consider. Is this one of those aberrational contract years? Over the Cap indicates that Dallas is slated to have the fifth-highest salary-cap number in the league next offseason, and star receiver Dez Bryant is also scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent.
This franchise just can't afford to whiff on another big-time in-house signing.
Murray will be 27 next year, which is by no means old but also isn't young in running back terms. Considering his injury history—he missed 11 games and parts of several others during the first three years of his career—and his workload thus far in his fourth year, there's a strong chance he's peaking now.
You don't give long-term deals to players on the decline.
Another option is the franchise tag, which would only be in play if the Cowboys were to sign Bryant to a fresh deal. If that were to happen, they could opt to pay Murray the average of the top five salaries at his position, which in 2014 was $9.54 million.
Considering that only eight backs signed to regular contracts currently are guaranteed more cash than that over the course of their respective deals, that's a hefty amount of money for one season.
Following a 1,287-yard, 12-touchdown season in Kansas City, 27-year-old Chiefs back Jamaal Charles signed a two-year extension this past offseason that guarantees him only $8.3 million.
Meanwhile, ESPNDallas.com's Todd Archer wonders if the Cowboys might simply be cool with parting ways with Murray after the season, regardless of how well he performs between now and then:
I don’t doubt the Dallas Cowboys want to keep DeMarco Murray. He is an important piece to their present and can be a key piece to their future. The Cowboys have had talks with Murray’s agent about an extension, but nothing is imminent. ... I wonder if the Cowboys believe Joseph Randle can do a lot of what Murray is doing. I’m not saying Randle would have five straight 100-yard games and lead the NFL in rushing, but I’m wondering if the Cowboys believe Randle could be a 1,200-yard back in this system and with this line.
As Archer notes, running backs just aren't as valuable as they used to be. In fact, the stock price on backs has probably never been lower. How else do you explain Charles' contract, or a 27-year-old Knowshon Moreno getting a paltry one-year, $3 million deal from Miami after a 1,000-yard season in Denver?
Garrett and Murray deserve the lion's share of the credit for the Cowboys' surprisingly strong start, but they know from their time in Dallas that it's how you finish that matters.
The emotional response to such a strong start leads you to believe that those two are owed something right now, but this is a business, and Jones knows there's little reason to throw cash at Garrett or Murray at this relatively early stage in their respective contract years.
Unless otherwise noted, contract information courtesy of Spotrac.
Brad Gagnon has covered the NFC East for Bleacher Report since 2012.
Follow @Brad_Gagnon
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