As JJ said yesterday, had JG been fired, it would have taken him a minute and a half to find a new job. Let's look at JG in an historical perspective. He was young (45) when he took the team over. He has a decent sample size of games coached to assess his career to date, so how does his winning percentage stack up with some of the greats of the game? It is worth noting that, aside from Belichick, no other coach had a HOF QB that was willing to leave over $100m on the table to help their team win.
Jason Garrett's win percentage is .566. That puts him either statistically tied (within 3%) or better than the following list of coaches:
Bill Parcells (HOF)
Chuck Knoll (HOF)
Dan Quinn
Marv Levy (HOF)
Mike Ditka (HOF)
Ron Rivera
Jimmy Johnson
Mike Shanahan
He's within striking distance of (all less than .600)
Pete Carrol
John Harbaugh
Mike Zimmer
Mike Holmgren
Hank Stram
Don Coryell
The point is that fans tend to look at the latest 'boy wonder' or some other nonsense and they think that:
1. These guys grown on trees
2. That these new coaches that have been successful in the short term will also be successful in the long term. That's FAR from a guarantee.
As an example, Cowboy fans LOVED Jimmy Johnson after he started winning, but there was some serious hate flowing through the Cowboys fan universe after his first two seasons. He had an amazing run with Dallas, then shuffles off to Miami and manages just one 10 win season in four years. He had 11 win and 13 win seasons and a Super Bowl in his first four years with Dallas and arguably started with a lesser team before the talent flowed in like a water fall. Much of that great talent was a product not necessarily of luck, but of being at the right place at the right time (move a draft pick one position and the results might have been radically different, or don't take a chance on a troubled player like Haley and we might have won no SBs during his tenure).
The point is this: Jason Garrett is not an elite coach yet, but he IS a damn good coach. You're free to think he isn't, but you'd be wrong.
The over/under for Dallas this year was 8 games. It will be 8 or 9 next year with the schedule we play. The NFL has structured their league for parity, so if a coach can dodge losing seasons in our current era, he's done a good job.
Pete Carroll had 2 winning seasons during his first 6 years.
Belichick was an awful coach before he got Brady.
Chuck Knoll (HOF) had ONE 10 win season in his last 12 seasons.
In the 3 comparable years during his coaching career (2016-18 for Garrett), Bill Cowher went 7-9, 6-10, 9-7 and only had one 12 win season before that. JG has had 2 seasons with more wins.
You'd be wise to thank the coaching gods that JG is our coach. I look forward to many wininng seasons with him at the helm.
