News: JJT: Jason Garrett no puppet for Cowboys

[AsthmaField]

This is exactly what I've been saying (along with a lot of other posters here too)...

_____________________________________________________
IRVING, Texas -- Whether you like the job Jason Garrett has done or not, no one who really studies the Dallas Cowboys would ever call him a puppet.

There have been times during his four-plus seasons as coach that he has had more authority than others, but he never has been a guy so happy to be the Cowboys' coach that he just let owner/general manager Jerry Jones run amok.

That has not been the case with each of the seven coaches Jerry has hired since he bought the team in 1989.

The easiest way to determine whether the coach is a puppet is to take an informal survey among players. If they believe the coach is the person in charge of their playing time and future on the roster, then he's not a puppet.

If the players believe the GM, or in the Cowboys' case, the owner, ultimately decides their fate on the team then you have a puppet.

Garrett has the Cowboys poised to end their dreadful four-year playoff drought precisely because he's not a puppet.

"Jason is easy to work with, but he's very demanding of his staff, the players and us," vice president Stephen Jones said. "He challenges me and I know he's challenged Jerry a few times.
_______________________________________________________
A puppet wouldn't have persuaded Jerry to draft an offensive lineman in the first round in three of the past four seasons, considering the owner had never used a first-round pick on an offensive lineman.

A puppet wouldn't have persuaded Jerry to let DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher leave for free agency after last season. How many times have we seen Jerry give an aging veteran one last long-term deal as a thank-you for past performances?

And if Garrett were a puppet, we all know Dez Bryant and DeMarco Murray would already have long-term deals, but Garrett has persuaded Jerry to take a different view on the way the Cowboys do business.

Garrett's greatest contribution to the Cowboys is that he has given the franchise direction. When he took over, it had none.
_______________________________________________________

Read the full article: http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story...t-dallas-cowboys-regime?ex_cid=espnapi_public

 

[Tabascocat]

 

[cowboys1981]

That was a good read. I hope he's extended soon. This team is only going to get better despite what some want to believe.

 

[AsthmaField]

This part says it very well:

____________________________________
"Teams have an arc in personnel. We got to a point with a lot of the guys who played on that [2010] team that we had to kind of slowly move on from them," Garrett said. "We had to get younger, and that's a very conscious decision we made, and we had to make some hard decisions right at the outset on players that had been good players for us.

"That was the right thing to do, and you have to bring in good guys to replace them and that has been a process for us. That's what we had to do at the time and we lived through that and we've done some good things to get this team to this point."

A puppet couldn't have done that.
___________________________________

It's why I have said on here for a while now that Garrett has done a complete rebuild and had the Cowboys on the verge of the playoffs each year. Even while he was learning-on-the-job to be a head coach and making his game day mistakes, he still had the team competing for the post season. That says an awful lot IMO, about how the team plays for him and responds to him. Like JJT says, the team completely quit on Phillips and that was the last time anyone in Dallas quit on anything.

What is best about Garrett though is the direction and plan he has in personnel. The drafts are night and day since he took over and he has quickly filled the team back up with talented, hard working football players.

 

[nalam]

Reach playoffs and make some noise, he will be extended

 

[Doomsday101]

good luck changing the minds of Garrett critics. lol

 

[AsthmaField]

Reach playoffs and make some noise, he will be extended

Yeah, I'm really pulling for him. He does so much that is good for the franchise, including Jerry listening to how Garrett wants to run the team/draft/personnel acquisition.

Like I said in another thread, Jerry is still the primary decision maker... it is just that Garrett has him convinced that Jason has the best plan for the team and that running things his way is the way to win. Starting with getting rid of the old, over-priced, under-performing players. Letting guys like Ware and Hatcher walk, and getting tough, physical players.

When an entire franchise... including the players are just repeating what the head coach says over and over, you can bet that head coach is in charge and setting the tone for the franchise. It happens anywhere there is a good coach with a good program in place. Belichick, Saban, Jimmy Johnson, Sean Payton, etc. Their players always puppet what the coach is preaching, and it is finally happening again in Dallas.

 

[DenCWBY]

This is exactly what I've been saying...

_____________________________________________________
IRVING, Texas -- Whether you like the job Jason Garrett has done or not, no one who really studies the Dallas Cowboys would ever call him a puppet.

There have been times during his four-plus seasons as coach that he has had more authority than others, but he never has been a guy so happy to be the Cowboys' coach that he just let owner/general manager Jerry Jones run amok.

That has not been the case with each of the seven coaches Jerry has hired since he bought the team in 1989.

The easiest way to determine whether the coach is a puppet is to take an informal survey among players. If they believe the coach is the person in charge of their playing time and future on the roster, then he's not a puppet.

If the players believe the GM, or in the Cowboys' case, the owner, ultimately decides their fate on the team then you have a puppet.

Garrett has the Cowboys poised to end their dreadful four-year playoff drought precisely because he's not a puppet.

"Jason is easy to work with, but he's very demanding of his staff, the players and us," vice president Stephen Jones said. "He challenges me and I know he's challenged Jerry a few times.
_______________________________________________________
A puppet wouldn't have persuaded Jerry to draft an offensive lineman in the first round in three of the past four seasons, considering the owner had never used a first-round pick on an offensive lineman.

A puppet wouldn't have persuaded Jerry to let DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher leave for free agency after last season. How many times have we seen Jerry give an aging veteran one last long-term deal as a thank-you for past performances?

And if Garrett were a puppet, we all know Dez Bryant and DeMarco Murray would already have long-term deals, but Garrett has persuaded Jerry to take a different view on the way the Cowboys do business.

Garrett's greatest contribution to the Cowboys is that he has given the franchise direction. When he took over, it had none.
_______________________________________________________

Read the full article: http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story...t-dallas-cowboys-regime?ex_cid=espnapi_public

So tired of this argument because it's not an absolute. It's all relative to your meaning of the word "puppet" and "puppeteer"
All I know is that JG will be judged on W/L record and playoff opportunities. More this year than the others with all the time he's had. He's shown some smarts this year however these next 2 games will tell us if JG is ready to coach it (this team)to the next level. If he plans to keep it (strategy) status quo. ie run stretch play 1st down, empty backfield spread 2nd down, fade pass in the red zone. Eventually good Defensive coordinators will eat him up (see Commander game). I'm hoping to see some enginuity in the offense offsetting our usual plays under usual circumstances. No razzle dazzle but just few wrinkles from the ordinary to keep opposition guessing.
I'm in his corner right now but that can change if this team looks lost as they have before at this stretch of the season.

 

[AsthmaField]

So tired of this argument because it's not an absolute. It's all relative to your meaning of the word "puppet" and "puppeteer"
All I know is that JG will be judged on W/L record and playoff opportunities. More this year than the others with all the time he's had. He's shown some smarts this year however these next 2 games will tell us if JG is ready to coach it (this team)to the next level. If he plans to keep it (strategy) status quo. ie run stretch play 1st down, empty backfield spread 2nd down, fade pass in the red zone. Eventually good Defensive coordinators will eat him up (see Commander game). I'm hoping to see some enginuity in the offense offsetting our usual plays under usual circumstances. No razzle dazzle but just few wrinkles from the ordinary to keep opposition guessing.
I'm in his corner right now but that can change if this team looks lost as they have before at this stretch of the season.

You're correct that it depends on the definition of "puppet". However there is an excepted, general idea of what a puppet is. Heck, you could call any coach a puppet if your definition of the term was skewed enough.

I would think that by just about anyone's definition, Garrett wouldn't be considered a puppet. You'd have to think it meant something pretty far from the norm to think Garrett was, IMO.

By the way, I agree that he needs to keep it up in these last 6 games.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

I don't care one way or the other. If they keep building a winner, Mrs. Jones could pull Mrs Garretts strings and I'd be happy.
Not to mention compared to the the time jerry has owned the team he's ben relatively quiet this season. That alone makes me happy.

 

[Direwolf63]

"And if Garrett were a puppet, we all know Dez Bryant and DeMarco Murray would already have long-term deals, but Garrett has persuaded Jerry to take a different view on the way the Cowboys do business."

This part surprised me. So it's Garrett that's delaying the Bryant and Murray extensions? Do we know this for a fact?

 

[morasp]

Hopefully it will translate to some post season success.

 

[Gaede]

I don't understand why its been a 4 + year process, when other coaches have achieved much more with less time.

I'm still skeptical.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

"And if Garrett were a puppet, we all know Dez Bryant and DeMarco Murray would already have long-term deals, but Garrett has persuaded Jerry to take a different view on the way the Cowboys do business."

This part surprised me. So it's Garrett that's delaying the Bryant and Murray extensions? Do we know this for a fact?[/quote]

I doubt it. I'm sure no coach other than Gruden would say this to any one but their front office. Not the players or the press.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I don't understand why its been a 4 + year process, when other coaches have achieved much more with less time.

I'm still skeptical.

I suspect Jerry is very hesitant to hand the keys over to Jason. It's taken a while but we're getting there. It's also easy to see how much better we are when healthy. Those last couple of years aged all of us. At least we only had to suffer 8-8 seasons and not any more of those 5-11 headaches.

 

[Tabascocat]

My stance hasn't changed.......

Make the playoffs = extension
Collapse and miss out again = fired and time for a whole new regime

 

[AsthmaField]

I don't understand why its been a 4 + year process, when other coaches have achieved much more with less time.

I'm still skeptical.

Garrett basically started from scratch. He had players that were on the downside of their careers and were grossly overpaid. He had a salary cap situation that was flat-out screwed when he took over.

He did walk into Romo, so he had that going for him.

However, in a little over a year he basically cut the entire OL and started over. Out with Flozell Adams, Marc Colombo, Leonard Davis, Kyle Kosier, Andre Gurode, Pat McQuistan, Robert Brewster, Alex Barron, Sam Young and Montrae Holland. In with the guys we have now. It took a while. He did have Free there however.

He started over on the WR corp for the most part. In 2010 Miles Austin was on the way down and Dez was just getting here. Kevin Ogletree, Patrick Crayton, Jesse Holly, Sam Hurd, Roy Williams, Manuel Johnson, and Titus Ryan were the other guys. All except Dez were, frankly, not worth a plug-nickle. He needed everyone except Dez to go.

At TE he did inherit Jason Witten but we all know he couldn't get rid of Marcellus Bennett fast enough. He was the embodiment of all that Garrett thought was wrong with the Cowboys personnel decisions.

At RB he had Felix Jones, Marion Barber, and Tashard Choice. Not exactly a who's who of RB's. MB3 was last good in 2007 and Choice and Jones never were. That was a scratch for Garrett.

On Defense he did have Ware and Spencer at LB but Spencer got hurt and Ware was getting old. The other LB's on that team were Keith Brooking, Victor Butler, Bradie James, Curtis Johnson, Sean Lee, Steve Octavien, Brandon Williams, and Jason Williams. Lee would be a keeper but Bradie was on his way out and Brooking was 100 years old.

Hatcher hadn't ever been good and Ratliff was a headcase on the DL.

In the secondary, he inherited an Terence Newman, Mike Jenkins, Orlando Scandrick, Mike Hamlin, Cletus Gordon, Brian McCann, Danny McCray, Gerald Sensabaugh, Jamar Wall, and Patrick Watkins. Newman was old and expensive... basically the poster boy for the kind of player Garrett didn't want. Jenkins was a headcase who only played when he felt like it... again the type Garrett wanted gone. Scandrick is a good player, but that was about all he really had there.

Throw in that Garrett had to learn to be a head coach on the job and it is a wonder that he had the team one game away from the playoffs each year. To not have a losing record while changing as much as he did is quite an accomplishment.

Garrett literally had to fix the draft process, the salary cap, how Dallas handled its own free agents, how it looked at other free agents, and how the team practiced. He did it all in what is his 4th season with the team as HC.

________________________________________________

Jim Harbaugh (for instance) on the other hand walked into quite a bit of talent when he started in 2011.

At QB he had Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick.

On the OL he had Alex Boone, Anthony Davis, Mike Iupati, Joe Staley and Jonathan Goodwin.

At RB he had Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter.

At WR he had Mike Crabtree, Ted Ginn, and Braylon Edwards.

At TE he had Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker.

On the DL he had Ray McDonald, Justin Smith, and Issac Sopoaga.

At LB he had Navorro Bowman, Ahmad Brooks, Patrick Willis, and Aldon Smith.

In the secondary he had Dashon Goldson, Carlos Rogers, Donte Whitner, Madeue Williams, and CJ Spillman.

His kicker was David Akers and his punter Andy Lee.

His roster was pretty much set the day he coached his first game for the niners. Not to mention that before he was there Mike Singletary had gotten a lot of the lazy guys out of there because he was being a hard nosed coach.

So, when Harbaugh started coaching the niners, they had a pretty good culture already rooted in place and the roster was already damn good from day 1. Plus, he got the right assistants from day one... something that Garrett has had to tweak the whole time.

Now that Harbaugh has been there 3 years, the talent level is slowly starting to erode and there is talk about him losing the locker room and the team just looks... worse.

Compare that to Dallas with Garrett where the talent acquisition is getting better and better each year, the players are sounding more and more like Garrett as time goes on, and the team has clearly progressed each year he has been here.

Yes he went 8-8 three years in a row, but the 2011 8-8 wasn't as good as the one in 2012... and it wasn't as good as the one in 2013. The team is getting better and better and that is all because of Garrett.

 

[jjktkk]

I suspect Jerry is very hesitant to hand the keys over to Jason. It's taken a while but we're getting there. It's also easy to see how much better we are when healthy. Those last couple of years aged all of us. At least we only had to suffer 8-8 seasons and not any more of those 5-11 headaches.

This is also part of the process imo. The process being JG's job of putting together this team, piece by piece, as well as the coaching staff, to Jerry slowly letting JG have more say in personnel matters.

 

[visionary]

So now JJT is not a know-nothing loser and knows what he is talking about?

Is he also not part of the "media" that so hate the cowboys ?

Just trying to get CZ myths straight

 

[Hostile]

I don't understand why its been a 4 + year process, when other coaches have achieved much more with less time.

I'm still skeptical.

Have they sustained it?