“Get better every day” “Learn from mistakes” “stack good days together” “be the best we can be” etc...
All his poster-board slogans aren’t “wrong”. The issue is and has always been a lack of execution and zero accountability for mistakes.
It’s mind-boggling to me that someone who graduated from Princeton, has been around the game for as long as he has, is this incompetent and this out of touch with his roster and what they need. He witnessed Jimmy’s style and how it won two SBs for crying out loud— you’d think he would have learned a thing or two from Johnson in that stretch lol...
He only knows to clap and encourage. A leader knows when to break out the lash. Garrett has never figured that out— and while his players and everyone thinks he is a nice guy— he has simply never grown as a leader to the point where he understands his responsibility as a HC: the buck stops with you. You gotta own the role and take the heat when your team is getting ripped publicly and demand excellence from everyone in the organization if you are going to collectively reach your goals.
People criticize the stubbornness and arrogance of this staff... they are right to do so. His refusal to adapt his methodology AT ALL in the face of poor results is pretty damning.
Hawk, have you ever considered the reason Garrett doesn't adapt is because he doesn't know how? He had this pedigree coming in and even Aikman predicted he'd be a HC in the NFL someday but what if he is a smart guy, just not a football smart guy?
The clue lies in the very first thing he did when he got promoted, he went for a coaches cruise with Jimmy and Troy. He knew he wasn't ready but he was in demand so he must be good at this or why would so many teams want him? ATL and BAL would have hired him and DET was interested but he screwed up and didn't show interest the first time.
The previous clue was the fact that Parcells, a pretty god judge of coaching, didn't trust him alone at that OC job so he brought in Sparano to balance it. He only calls 13 run plays in a loss to the Skins and his HC isn't aware of it until he hears that at the postgame. What kind of training has he had and has he shown the ability to learn from his mistakes?
I am not sure it's a case of Garrett not wanting to adapt but with the Joneses around to break his fall and be co-coaches with him, he hasn't failed enough to learn form his mistakes. Who has been the one responsible for training Garrett? Booger, because that's what he wants. If he succeeds, then Booger gets the credit and that seems more important than hiring the right coach.
Just think what Booger might have accomplished if his ego wasn't so tied up with the team and his need for recognition so strong. All of the coaches he's hired since Johnson, except for Parcells, were ones he could control. Instead of turning the reins over to them, he held them tight for fear they might steal his thunder.
If Booger ran this team like a GM should, he would have discovered much faster if Garrett was the right HC for the job. It's very revealing that the Dallas Cowboys must have the best of everything, facilities, stadium except for the HC and that's where it should start. If I were a GM, the very first thing I would want to be known for was being a great judge of coaching and hiring the right guy and letting him run his part of it.
