Fire Jason Garrett? Then You Would Have Fired Tom Landry

[jwitten82]

If you include Jason Garrett's term as interum Head Coach then he has eight seasons under his belt.

Garrett's playoff record is 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

Let's take a look at Tom Landry's first eight seasons....

Landry's playoff record was 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

If you believe that Jason Garrett should be fired then it would be hypocritical to insist you would have not felt the same about Tom Landry after his first eight seasons.

Tom Landry took the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl in his tenth season as their Head Coach. Over the next ten seasons they went to 4 more Super Bowls and 7 conference championships.

This current team is built. They will see vast improvement in the secondary, they have their pass rushers. They will get a full season from Elliott, Prescott can forget his sophomore season, the offensive line remains elite.

If you remain committed to the firing of Garrett, prepare to accept the consequences of your opinion.

The Cowboys will go the Super Bowl next season and it will become a habit.

Teams dont have 10 years build, you do know free agency exists right? I guess Marvin Lewis is the next Tom Landry too lmao.

 

[KJJ]

You gotta be kidding me

He’s not kidding which is one of the reasons this board is so entertaining. Some of the most ridiculous threads and comments are from fans being serious.

 

[ghst187]

I would have fired Tom Landry in 1986..actually after the 20-0 lose to the rams in the playoffs

Quite ironically, Jerry is hesitant to fire JG who has clearly underachieved and has no titles or even a NFC championship appearance to his resume but ditched one of the most iconic, winningiest, multiple championship coaches. Oh the irony!

 

[Stash]

If you include Jason Garrett's term as interum Head Coach then he has eight seasons under his belt.

Garrett's playoff record is 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

Let's take a look at Tom Landry's first eight seasons....

Landry's playoff record was 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

If you believe that Jason Garrett should be fired then it would be hypocritical to insist you would have not felt the same about Tom Landry after his first eight seasons.

Tom Landry took the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl in his tenth season as their Head Coach. Over the next ten seasons they went to 4 more Super Bowls and 7 conference championships.

This current team is built. They will see vast improvement in the secondary, they have their pass rushers. They will get a full season from Elliott, Prescott can forget his sophomore season, the offensive line remains elite.

If you remain committed to the firing of Garrett, prepare to accept the consequences of your opinion.

The Cowboys will go the Super Bowl next season and it will become a habit.

 

[Diehardblues]

If you include Jason Garrett's term as interum Head Coach then he has eight seasons under his belt.

Garrett's playoff record is 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

Let's take a look at Tom Landry's first eight seasons....

Landry's playoff record was 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

If you believe that Jason Garrett should be fired then it would be hypocritical to insist you would have not felt the same about Tom Landry after his first eight seasons.

Tom Landry took the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl in his tenth season as their Head Coach. Over the next ten seasons they went to 4 more Super Bowls and 7 conference championships.

This current team is built. They will see vast improvement in the secondary, they have their pass rushers. They will get a full season from Elliott, Prescott can forget his sophomore season, the offensive line remains elite.

If you remain committed to the firing of Garrett, prepare to accept the consequences of your opinion.

The Cowboys will go the Super Bowl next season and it will become a habit.

I don’t believe Garrett should be fired and one of his biggest supporters but I’d ask you how will your thoughts change if we don’t go to the Super Bowl ?

I’m not one who’d say we’ll never go with Garrett but to say we will also sets you up for ridicule.

Also, for the record Landry took Cowboys to NFL Title game in his 7th season. And again in 8th season.

 

[KJJ]

Comparing Garrett with Landry is about as ridiculous as it gets. It’s laughable! Landry started off with an expansion team that didn't even have a draft pick their first year. Back in the 60s expansion teams started at rock bottom. The Cowboys had a midget for a QB and some of the worst players in the league. Even Landry talked about how bad the players were and couldn’t help but chuckle as he reflected back. The 1960 Cowboys were ranked as one of the worst teams ever.

Garrett was handed a team that won a playoff game the previous year. He was handed a team that had a franchise QB, a future Hall of Fame TE, one of the most talented young WRs in the game and the top pass rusher in the league. Some of the most ridiculous threads are started during the offseason.

 

[Cattle_Rancher]

Year just started and I think we have a winner for worst post of the year. Someone going to have to work awful hard to pry that award away.

Landry started with an expansion team and no free agency. JG started with a PB QB, a HOF TE and a HOF pass rusher. You give Landry JGs players probably going to the SB. Only thing they have in common is they were the Cowboys HC.

 

[ghst187]

Landry also was the first to employ a coach for quality control. Ermal Allen would analyze game films and chart the tendencies of the opposition for the Cowboys in the 1970s. That gave Landry an edge in preparation, because he knew what to expect from his opponent based on down and distance.

Watching film is something this current staff has clearly never done.

Innovating, scheming, plotting tendencies, playing to player strengths, coaching trees, ....all things we will never see with the current staff.
Oh wait JG innovated clapping for disastrous and bonehead plays.

 

[Tangle_Foot]

I don't believe Jason Garrett could have taken over the 1960 expansion Cowboys and turned them into one of the most dominant teams in the NFL. There would be no iconic silhouette of Jason Garrett or statue commemorating his achievements. We would not be known as America's Team whether you think the moniker is warranted or not. About the only good thing you could say is that Jerry would have hired Landry instead of firing him, and Landry would be going head-to-head with Belichick for NFL Supremacy.

 

[Bobhaze]

Comparing a HOF coach who literally built an NFL powerhouse from a no talent expansion team to Jason Garrett is completely ludicrous.

It’s apples and oranges. Period.

As a fan who saw the entire Landry era, in so many ways, there is no comparison. Starting with original Cowboys owner Clint Murchison, who provided appropriate leadership as an NFL owner by hiring two HOF people to run his new NFL franchise and supported them from the right distance. Not hiring himself as GM then micro-managing every move while hiring weak HCs.

Sorry. No dice.

I want to see Jason Garrett succeed because I love the Cowboy. But please....no comparisons to the first 6 years of the Landry era.

 

[Diehardblues]

There’s really no comparisons to be made.

While Landry’s 10 year expanded contract before having a winning season was highly criticized at the time it was a different time and ownership which was basically a silent partner.

Tex Schramm as our Pres and GM practically served as our owner as well in a league capacity. It was his decision to hire Tom and encouraged the extended contract.

Landry was widely criticized even during his heyday for his conservative play calling and control of players like over Roger for example.

We didn’t have social media of course, so much of it was only presented in the press and papers. But just because we were winning and having more success didn’t mean we were always happy campers with Tom.

 

[Super_Kazuya]

It is hard to compare the NFL of 60 years ago to the NFL today. Landry would have never lived to see his historic run from 1966 to 1985 if he turned in those first 6 years today. The truth is, nobody cared who the coach of the Cowboys was in 1960. People were not checking for the NFL like that. The team was allowed to keep Landry because despite the poor record, they were able to see he was a brilliant football mind. There was no 24/7 media cycle constantly crying about the win probability of every single 4th down decision he made. There were teams who were just as bad as the Cowboys then and they all had tenured coaches as well. It was just different.

 

[Blackthorn]

If you include Jason Garrett's term as interum Head Coach then he has eight seasons under his belt.

Garrett's playoff record is 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

Let's take a look at Tom Landry's first eight seasons....

Landry's playoff record was 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

If you believe that Jason Garrett should be fired then it would be hypocritical to insist you would have not felt the same about Tom Landry after his first eight seasons.

Tom Landry took the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl in his tenth season as their Head Coach. Over the next ten seasons they went to 4 more Super Bowls and 7 conference championships.

This current team is built. They will see vast improvement in the secondary, they have their pass rushers. They will get a full season from Elliott, Prescott can forget his sophomore season, the offensive line remains elite.

If you remain committed to the firing of Garrett, prepare to accept the consequences of your opinion.

The Cowboys will go the Super Bowl next season and it will become a habit.

I think team fire coaches to quick in the NFL. I have often said that Tom Landry would have been fired in today's NFL of "win now." Landry was a great coach and took time for him to be a success. He built a model that could win long term. I am not a person that wants Garrett fired every year. I like seeing him as a head coach and I love his positive approach and demeanor.

I also want Dallas to win the Superbowl. I believe that this is his year and Garrett will prove the naysayers wrong. Go Dallas!!! The team is loaded with talent and will win at least 10 games this season on their march to the Superbowl.

 

[cern]

I've read this same exact thread for 23 years in a row now. Yep I was reading this before Gore invented the internet.

Cern created the internet. And I don't mean me. The institute.

 

[Clove]

Garrett probably wouldn't qualify to be Landry's water boy. Landry was one of the most innovative coaches in NFL history and many of the innovations that he came up with are still being used by teams today. There is a reason he is in the Hall of Fame and Garrett will probably end up finishing his career as QB coach at Podunk High School.

The Great Innovator[edit]
Landry invented the now-popular "4-3 defense", while serving as Giants defensive coordinator.[7] It was called "4-3" because it featured four down lineman (two ends and two defensive tackles on either side of the offensive center) and three linebackers — middle, left, and right. The innovation was the middle linebacker. Previously, a lineman was placed over the center. But Landry had this person stand up and move back two yards. The Giants' middle linebacker was the legendary Sam Huff.

“ Landry built the 4-3 defense around me. It revolutionized defense and opened the door for all the variations of zones and man-to-man coverage, which are used in conjunction with it today. —Sam Huff[8] ”
Landry also invented and popularized the use of keys (analyzing offensive tendencies) to determine what the offense might do.

When Landry was hired by the Dallas Cowboys, he became concerned with then Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi's "Run to Daylight" idea, in which the running back went to an open space, rather than a specifically assigned hole. Landry reasoned that the best counter was a defense that flowed to daylight and blotted it out.

To do this, he refined the 4-3 defense by moving two of the four linemen off the line of scrimmage one yard and varied which linemen did this based on where the Cowboys thought the offense might run. This change was called the "Flex Defense", because it altered its alignment to counter what the offense might do. Thus, three such Flex Defenses were developed — strong, weak, and "tackle" — where both defensive tackles were off the line of scrimmage. The idea with the flexed linemen was to improve pursuit angles to stop the Green Bay Sweep — a popular play of the 1960s. The Flex Defense was also innovative in that it was a kind of zone defense against the run. Each defender was responsible for a given gap area, and was told to stay in that area before he knew where the play was going.

It has been said, after inventing the Flex Defense, he then invented an offense to score on it, reviving the man-in-motion and starting in the mid-1970s, the shotgun formation. But Landry's biggest contribution in this area was the use of "preshifting" where the offense would shift from one formation to the other before the snap of the ball. This tactic was not new. It was developed by Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg around the turn of the 20th century; Landry was the first coach to use the approach on a regular basis. The idea was to break the keys within the defense used to determine what the offense might do. An unusual feature of this offense was Landry having his offensive linemen get in their squatted prestance, stand up while the running backs shifted, and then go back down into their complete "hand down" stance. The purpose of the "up and down" (Landry Shift) movement was to make it more difficult for the defense to see where the backs were shifting (over the tall offensive linemen), thus to cut down on recognition time. While other NFL teams later employed shifting, few employed this "up and down" technique as much as Landry.

Landry also was ahead of his time in his philosophy of building a team. When the Packers were a dynasty in the 1960s with 245 lb (111 kg) guards and 250 lb (110 kg) tackles, he was busy stockpiling size for the next generation of linemen. Tackles Rayfield Wright stood 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) and Ralph Neely weighed 265 lb (120 kg). Center Dave Mandersweighed 250 lb (110 kg). All went on to block in Pro Bowls and Super Bowls in the 1970s.

The same with defense: The better linemen of the 1960s were the shorter, stockier, leverage players like Willie Davis, Alex Karras and Andy Robustelli. But Landry drafted the taller, leaner linemen like 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) George Andrie and 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) Jethro Pugh in the 1960s and later 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) Ed Jones in the 1970s. Long arms allow for increased leverage in the pass rush.

In the days before strength and speed programs, Landry brought in Alvin Roy and Boots Garland in the early 1970s to help make the Cowboys stronger and faster. Roy was a weightlifter and Garland a college track coach. Now, every NFL team has specialty coaches.

Landry also was one of the first NFL coaches to search outside the traditional college football pipeline for talent. For example, he recruited several soccer players from Latin America, such as Efren Herrera and Rafael Septién, to compete for the job of placekicker for the Cowboys. Landry looked to the world of track and field for speedy skill-position players. For example, Bob Hayes, once considered the fastest man in the world, was drafted by and played wide receiver for the Cowboys under Landry.[9]

Landry also was the first to employ a coach for quality control. Ermal Allen would analyze game films and chart the tendencies of the opposition for the Cowboys in the 1970s. That gave Landry an edge in preparation, because he knew what to expect from his opponent based on down and distance. Now, every NFL team has a quality control coach, and most have two.[citation needed]

Landry produced a very large coaching tree. In 1986, five NFL head coaches were former Landry assistants: Mike Ditka, Dan Reeves, John Mackovic, Gene Stallings, and Raymond Berry.

You officially owned the thread starter.

 

[Diehardblues]

In the end Landry was fired. I’m trying to think of other Legends who were fired? They’re usually allowed to leave on their own accord.

Would Landry have been fired if he hadnt 3 straight losing seasons ? How would Jerry have handled that ?

Or would Bum had been looking for an owner to fire Tom if we were still winning? Remember Bum wanted to fire Landry Legend but didn’t have the balls to buck Tex.

 

[Clove]

I think team fire coaches to quick in the NFL. I have often said that Tom Landry would have been fired in today's NFL of "win now." Landry was a great coach and took time for him to be a success. He built a model that could win long term. I am not a person that wants Garrett fired every year. I like seeing him as a head coach and I love his positive approach and demeanor.

I also want Dallas to win the Superbowl. I believe that this is his year and Garrett will prove the naysayers wrong. Go Dallas!!! The team is loaded with talent and will win at least 10 games this season on their march to the Superbowl.

If Tom Laundry were given the team Garrett was given, Tom would have 2 Super Bowl appearances by now and probably 1 victory. You can't discount a brilliant mind, no matter what era.

 

[Captain43Crash]

If you include Jason Garrett's term as interum Head Coach then he has eight seasons under his belt.

Garrett's playoff record is 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

Let's take a look at Tom Landry's first eight seasons....

Landry's playoff record was 1-2. Both losses came in the final minute against Green Bay.

If you believe that Jason Garrett should be fired then it would be hypocritical to insist you would have not felt the same about Tom Landry after his first eight seasons.

Tom Landry took the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl in his tenth season as their Head Coach. Over the next ten seasons they went to 4 more Super Bowls and 7 conference championships.

This current team is built. They will see vast improvement in the secondary, they have their pass rushers. They will get a full season from Elliott, Prescott can forget his sophomore season, the offensive line remains elite.

If you remain committed to the firing of Garrett, prepare to accept the consequences of your opinion.

The Cowboys will go the Super Bowl next season and it will become a habit.

I really truly wish you were correct. Like you, I want us to become the 70’s Cowboys. Winning 2 Superbowls, and contending every year for the next 20 years. We win the next Super Bowl, and WE are the most successful organization in the Super Bowl era. BUT, I am sad to say, very sad to say, we have the Red Clapper as our coach, we are extremely unlikely to win back to back playoff games, let alone the Super Bowl with Garrett. Also, Landry’s team’s lost to the 60’s Packers, the team of the decade, under Vince Lombardi in two classic games. Garrett’s teams lost those GB playoff games in large part due to him, especially the 2016 game.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

I'm not old enough to have witnessed it and I know this is absurd.

 

[Aviano90]

I just got dumber. The desire to get others to be so accepting of consistent underachievement is amazing.