JJT: Philadelphia's Success Puts Spotlight on Jason Garrett

[MarkP88]

Right?

You have to feel bad for the poor guy. A genius being held hostage. Powerless to affect the fate of the team he's supposedly the head coach for.

For the better part of a decade. Talk about a jail sentence.

 

[Stash]

Which brings me to this. How much power does Jason Garrett have? I want to know this question. I want to know what Jerry is doing, what decisions he's made over the past 23 years. Can there be a "tell all" book that someone can write, I'd buy that in a heart beat.

Good luck!

It's completely nebulous. If you're a Garrett defender? He pounded the table and demanded that the offensive line be fixed. That huge investments be made to bring it back to the "Great Wall of Dallas" days. (Even though it didn't take them a bunch of 1st rounders to build it back then).

Despite the fact that offense was his half of the team for years prior, when, apparently, all of those "old guys" were quite good enough.

And now, poor Garrett has no say whatsoever. Just stuck here, held hostage by the Joneses. Powerless to fix anything, despite his genius. After all, how can any head coach be held accountable for a disappointing defense? Everyone knows Garrett is an offensive genius, that's his side of the ball. How can you blame him for anything that happens on defense?

 

[SportsGuru80]

JJT is a respected Cowboys beat writer, not sure why people hate on him. Anyways he's dead on with this article.

 

[aria]

Strange that many supporters of JG have said he helped shape the roster and that the “process” was getting rid of people and bringing in his own. Now it’s not?

I’ve already addressed this exact topic in this very thread. Go back and read it.

 

[Sydla]

I’ve already addressed this exact topic in this very thread. Go back and read it.

He's not wrong.

There have been JG supporters who have absolutely tried to give him credit for roster building, etc. ldgit, for example, has, in the past, listed his work on the overall roster as a reason why he's a quality coach.

 

[aria]

He's not wrong.

There have been JG supporters who have absolutely tried to give him credit for roster building, etc. ldgit, for example, has, in the past, listed his work on the overall roster as a reason why he's a quality coach.

That’s fine but when someone quotes me and then says something like that they are automatically assuming and/or lumping me into that group. Go qoute a JG supporter who actually said that, I didn’t and I even specifically told you I didn’t in this very thread.

 

[cowboy_ron]

Well, Jerry stated yesterday I believe, that Garrett will not be going on his "hot seat" even next year, so it sounds like Jerry's boy toy will be here until he passes...........this should cheer everybody up.

 

[Miller]

That’s fine but when someone quotes me and then says something like that they are automatically assuming and/or lumping me into that group. Go qoute a JG supporter who actually said that, I didn’t and I even specifically told you I didn’t in this very thread.

Never lumped you in that group. I just stated it because your post spoke of Jerry being the issue. The problem I have in general with JG is he does nothing of real value. Allegedly, by some on here (it’s happened for years and I wish there was a good search function) he was given the reins to weed out bad seeds and bring in his guys. Many have attributed better drafts to he and Stephen. Many say he needed a “process” to build a system where we consistently won like the Steelers and Pats. Well Jerry called him a coach in training and stripped his OC duties where he could just work on game management...which he fails at. So basically 7-8 years in we have a guy who a) doesn’t build the roster b) can’t run his own offense c) failed in his process as we are one of the least consistent teams year to year..unless you count mediocre and d) is bad at adjustments and managing teams. Heck we still have bad seeds. So whether you think he builds the roster or not my point is he has many fans that attribute many things to him yet none have worked out for playoff and total team success. So what is he good for? I’m not being snarky either. What really is he good for except Jerry controls him. And BTW, Jerry is horrible too so you are right there. I’m up in arms about all of it!

 

[aria]

Never lumped you in that group. I just stated it because your post spoke of Jerry being the issue. The problem I have in general with JG is he does nothing of real value. Allegedly, by some on here (it’s happened for years and I wish there was a good search function) he was given the reins to weed out bad seeds and bring in his guys. Many have attributed better drafts to he and Stephen. Many say he needed a “process” to build a system where we consistently won like the Steelers and Pats. Well Jerry called him a coach in training and stripped his OC duties where he could just work on game management...which he fails at. So basically 7-8 years in we have a guy who a) doesn’t build the roster b) can’t run his own offense c) failed in his process as we are one of the least consistent teams year to year..unless you count mediocre and d) is bad at adjustments and managing teams. Heck we still have bad seeds. So whether you think he builds the roster or not my point is he has many fans that attribute many things to him yet none have worked out for playoff and total team success. So what is he good for? I’m not being snarky either. What really is he good for except Jerry controls him. And BTW, Jerry is horrible too so you are right there. I’m up in arms about all of it!

Apologies if I came across rude but I’ve been accused and/or associated with a lot of things I’ve never said or even implied. Since you were the second person in two days to qoute me and follow the qoute with a statement about JG that I’ve never even come close to hinting at I became a little defensive.

Nice post! I’ll try to reply in a little while.

 

[Idgit]

Tell me what you think his coaching strengths are. That is, things he’s above average in or some that he’s average in. If he’s above average in any category, in your opinion, please share.

I don’t want to hate him. I really don’t. I’ve always given him credit for guiding us through a rebuild without being terrible. I’m not sure that wasn’t just one of the most underrated qb’s of all time that was responsible for that.

This sticks out to me as glaring evidence that Garrett is just not a very good coach with limited knowledge of the overall strategy and “adjustments” that are necessary to be an average coach: He rarely seems to be “coaching” during the game. I don’t see him meeting with any players or position groups trying to help them adjust. I never see him looking at pics or iPads and trying to figure anything out. What does he do during the game? I won’t say he cheer leads, but it’s close.

How about during the Alanta game him going over to Green and trying to help him. It’s clear he wasn’t going to adjust the gameplan to help him so he should coach him. If he had the knowledge to do that.Thats one example of many.

Also, during every payoff game or win or go home game we have started very flat. A sign of not being prepared mentally and or strategically.

His near constant clapping gets joked on a lot. Does he do that because he doesn’t know what else to do?

I’d like to understand what you see in him and I do respect your opinion.

I really need to find my answer to this question the last time I shared it so I can link to it since it comes up now and then. But, in a nutshell, I think the current staff (and I'll lump them together here) is strong at developing personnel. I think they've got a clear idea of what the team wants to be and that they communicate that to the players. I think Garrett in particular is strong at handling the chaos that comes with Jerry, because he's organized and he's systematic. I like that he eliminates the dysfunction that used to follow this team, or at least mitigates it. His teams play consistently hard, and when they get beat, it's usually by better teams. They win the games they're supposed to win. When we set out to address a personnel weakness, they generally get it done, as we've seen with the OL, the edge rushers, and now, the secondary. So I trust this group more or less to fix what I see as the overriding limitation with the current team.

But then, I don't consider recent seasons to be failures. 12-4 and 13-3 is really hard to do in this league. When you've got a team capable of performing at that level, you're pretty close. And when you're at that level and you know what's holding you back, it makes sense to me to address that as aggressively as you can and see where it gets you.

I actually agree with posters that the offensive scheme is uninspiring and that the game management that was bad is now pretty average. On gamedays, there are better staffs out there. I think some criticism is overblown. Linehan is actually a pretty good play caller, for instance. Every play caller has calls he wants back, and he's no exception, but he's definitely better at it than either Garrett or Callahan were. Our clock management has a mistakes now and then, but most teams have those exact same issues. I don't think our adjustments are as bad as people want to make them out to be. But really, it boils down to the fact that I think coaching during the week and the offseason is easily more important than coaching on gameday. Gamedays pretty much come down to prepared players making plays. Adjustments that happen happen across the entire staff.

I agree that the ATL game was bizarre. They *did* make adjustments, but they were way too slow getting Green regular help, and they were too slow to replace him when that didn't help.

I don't agree that we haven't been prepared for the playoff games, though. I can't remember the start of the 2014 game, but my recollection was that we were trading points with a good GB offense most of the day and that it was a game that was going to come down to who had the ball last. The 2016 game we came out and scored on the first possession. The second offensive drive was derailed by the weird home 'unsportsmanlike conduct' penalty on Butler that cost us almost 40 yards by Butler by erasing a ~30 yard completion. It's true we struggled to stop Rodgers' first three drives, but then adjusted (what?) and tightened the game up at the wire.

Anyway, I think it boils down to the fact that I put emphasis on things in a coach that a lot of people don't. I hate the days where the Cowboys would lurch from one direction to the next, with Jerry throwing haymakers whenever he thought there was an opportunity to throw one. I hated the way the media would look for Cowboy drama and milk it to the detriment of the team. Where media would say in press conferences --to the head coach--that they thought they could do a better job coaching the team. I really am convinced that this team, with a top-5 points/series defense would be a championship contender. We've got ~10 draft picks and a bit of cap room now to make it happen. I want to see it play out. If we can't or wont get that done, the team will stay stuck at 'pretty good,' and Garrett will be fired. That's how it's supposed to be, but I don't want it to happen until we at least try to support the QB a little better defensively.

 

[Idgit]

JJT is a respected Cowboys beat writer, not sure why people hate on him. Anyways he's dead on with this article.

I think you're not in the majority in thinking he's respected, for one.

JJT had a reputation for having sources who eventually dried up. For a long time, it was suspected that he got his 'scoops' from David Wells, and that when Wells and Bryant parted ways, the various planted stories Wells fed Taylor dried up.

For the most part, though, Taylor was just never all that good at his job. You might agree with his takes, but he traded his perspective for access and it showed. Plus his writing was just not ever very good, and he didn't know football all that well.

Personally, he's probably the writer in the Dallas area I have the least amount of professional respect for, and it's not because he's sometimes negative. There are better guys out there with much more negative slants overall.

 

[LocimusPrime]

Look, I will never defend Jason Garrett after his gutless approach to the 2016 season. He should be fired immediately.

Having said that, once again, you can never ever compare him to another coach in the league. Pederson doesn't have a lunatic owner and his chubby son running roughshod over the front office and locker room. He's not neutered.

So if Jerry wants to wonder how this happened he can start by looking at himself.

Agreed, Stephen needs to lose about 45-55 lbs

 

[LocimusPrime]

They day they drafted Bjones over LCollins revealed everything about this team and organization.

Regardless Go Cowboys