Sorry this is very long.
Note: It will give me great satisfaction if trolls fail to read this post. It will prove my point that they are not literate enough to do it. They'll claim it's not worth their time but we'll all know the truth.
For non-trolls that really don't have time to read everything, skip to the last section "Summary of Conspiracy Theory" but please come back and review the reasons for my theory.
Urban Meyer stepped down as Head Coach at Ohio State after the 2018 college season.
After the 2018 NFL season the Cowboys did NOT renew Garrett's contract which had 1 season remaining.
Stephen Jones in that time frame (early 2019) made extensive comments on the radio about Garrett. S.Jones said that Garrett had failed up to this point. S.Jones strongly implied that Garrett had been given an all-or-nothing type of mandate for 2019 (The comments are pubic record but I don't have a recording of them).
Meyer might not have been ready to take another job in 2019.
He probably didn't want to be seen as running from the ordeal that had resulted in him getting suspended for the first 3 games of the 2018 season (His special teams coach was fired for spousal abuse and Meyer was considered to have known about it for some period of time before the coach was fired).
The press conference to open training camp was very odd with regards to Garrett. Jerry basic said "no comment" although Jerry's version of no comment was to pretend he didn't hear the questions.
Just my opinion:
Garrett looked uncomfortable at that press conference and has looked uncomfortable this season in both press conferences and on the sidelines.
Going for it on 4th down from the Cowboys own 20 yard line early in a game when they had the lead was signs of a Head Coach responding to pressure. It did work and modern "analytics" do indicate teams should go for it on 4th down more often;
however, analytics do
NOT point to an increased chance of winning by going for it in that situation, especially considering that Garrett does not strictly follow the analytics approach to 4th downs.
Trivia that might be related:
- In Feb of 2018, Stephen Jones "took Linehan's side" over Garrett with regards to running the offense.
- Stephen Jones basically gave Linehan "full control" over the offense. He said on the radio that it was "not fair" to not give the O-Coordinator full control. He even referenced when they made Bill Callahan the OC but gave him no control over which players were on the field and those types of issues. He said in retrospect that they should have given Callahan "full control".
- Linehan & Garrett were at odds much like Garrett and Bill Callahan were at odds which caused Callahan to depart as the OL coach despite Jerry attempting to get him to stay.
- The point being that Linehan "had the ear" of Stephen Jones at that time.
- There is a link between Scott Linehan and Urban Meyer:
- When Meyer got his first head coaching position at Bowling Green, he took trips to visit John L. Smith and Scott Linehan at Louisville, Randy Walker and Kevin Wilson at Northwestern, Bill Snyder at Kansas State, Joe Tiller and Jim Chaney at Purdue, and Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, all of whom ran some version of the spread offense.
Background Stephen Jones as Acting GM:
Stephen Jones has taken control of all other football operations (other than the Head Coach issue) by knowing how to work around Jerry which often means making Jerry feel like things are his decision and by continuing to push the concept to the media that Jerry is still the "GM".
Obviously, the acting GM would be the person to negotiate mega-contracts and Jerry was NOT involved in the DLaw negotiations and has not been involved in the Dak & Cooper negotiations.
Stephen Jones does all of the contract negotiations now.
The Cowboys approach to the draft and free agency has followed the blueprint that Stephen Jones has often outlined in radio interviews for the past several years. It appears that the last time Jerry over-ruled Stephen was when they signed Dez to the big contract. Stephen resisted doing that and wanted to keep Dez on the Franchise Tag.
Everything since the Dez contract has followed the Stephen Jones approach. That includes cutting Dez, not drafting Paxton Lynch, not spending big in free agency.
In other words they moved away from the Wildcat Oil Well Drilling approach to a more managed approach.
Summary of Conspiracy Theory:
Stephen Jones has planned to hire Urban Meyer to replace Garrett since before the 2019 season started.
Stephen Jones knew that Jerry would be resistant to just firing Garrett after the 2018 season and even in 2019 if they made the playoffs.
I am NOT saying that Stephen Jones did anything to intentionally sabotage the 2019 season; although, keeping the kicker does make me wonder about that...(actually I think they're just enamored with the kicker's long field goals AND his low salary).
It does bring up a great question:
"If you were Stephen Jones, would you sabotage the season if that was required to keep Jerry from forcing you to give Garrett a new contract?"
