As far as public perception, Jerry is screwed. He's an idiot if he makes bad decisions, and if he makes good decisions he's still an idiot because he listened to good advice. Who thinks Thompson and Newsome make all the moves they do without input from anybody? It's true that Jerry hasn't always listened, though, for way too long, and I think it's a good thing that he's finally recognized that what he's been doing hasn't been working. He's made a change. That's what good administrators do, right?
The double standard really does get ridiculous, though. It's a comment on Jerry when he fails without Jimmy, but when Jimmy fails without Jerry it's a lame argument to make. We bash Jerry for wanting Manziel in the draft but listening to scouts, coaches, Stephen, whomever, and taking Martin instead. But we seem to forget Jerry's insistence on Ware at #11 in 2005, despite Bill Parcells' love of Marcus Spears. Jerry hired Jason Garrett and Will McClay who had the vision and helped engineer the construction of the best OL in football. He hired Bill Callahan (and Frank Pollack) to coach them up. He hired Scott Linehan and promoted Rod Marinelli while the media and other "experts" (including some here) laughed. He held onto a great coach, Matt Eberfluss, when Rob Ryan left.. Who here thought much of anything at all when Jerry brought in Derek Dooley? And bunches of people howled when Jerry gave Orlando Scandrick a "big" contract. Remember that?
We can guess all we want, but not a one of us knows for sure who has made which decisions at Valley Ranch over the years. Some of them have been really bad. Quincey Carter, Joey Galloway and Roy Williams come to mind. But then there's guys like Deion Sanders, Dez Bryant, Travis Frederick, Demarcus Ware, Larry Allen, Zack Martin, Demarco Murray and the drafting of Jay Ratliff, and when it comes right down to it, like every other GM in the league, good or bad, Jerry is ultimately responsible for it all. He's taken a lot of heat for a long time, and rightly so, but now deserves the credit.
Do I think Jerry is the best GM in football? That's probably a stretch. But as the the legendary Bill Parcells says, you are what your record says you are. Jerry's team has more Super Bowl Rings and more playoff appearances than all but a handful of NFL GMs can brag about. He's also hired a few duds, overseen a lot of underachieving teams and put together his share of average squads. Lately, though, it looks like to me that Jerry is listening more to the football people around him and taking that advice to heart--stuff that the best head guys in football do all the time. And I think Garry Huckaby is right: Jerry is one of them.
