My guess at Cowboys management structure and decision making and how to fix the problem
Jones on top
McClay and Garrett second level
Scouts under Mcclay and coaches under Garrett
Marinelli got organizational buy-in when he made guys off the street perform ok by rotating them
Marinelli becomes DC and the designated savior
McClay was put into balance scouts and coaches for the draft a few years ago
At that point scouts had all input and coaches had no input
That is how the defensive backfield purge probably happened in such a reckless way.
Garrett and Marinelli cannot or refuses to see the real problems in the defense.
They convinced the Jones - who probably went Texas Big in implementing the new DB acquisition (and threw dirt on the players who were not resigned at the same time).
Over time, coaches got more and more input into drafting players that fit their scheme.
If the scheme was top notch, then this would have worked.
But the problem is the defensive scheme is out-of-date and gets picked apart by good QBs.
And the offensive scheme requires too much time for WRs to uncover when the running game is compromised (suspension) or by a really talented pass rush/scheme (Denver).
Thus the current coaching staff have max'ed out their potential and unable to carry the team to the next level unless the talent is overwhelming and players stay healthy.
Making things even worse is that Marinelli will not ADJUST his scheme adequately to work with existing talent or to incorporate superior players who are not as good a fit as what he wants to see.
If anything goes wrong, then things fall apart.
Garrett and coaches' inability to adapt during game is a big problem.
And the fact he is never wrong does not help and creates the blame game mentality
And the fact he is not a X and O guy means he does not have adequate input to manage the coaches that manage the scheme.
A coach that is a scheme guy in the O or the D is the obvious way to fix this.
Find a coach with a good scheme and let him fix one side of the ball.
He would be smart enough to find a DC who has a good scheme to assemble the team.
What makes Belicheat a great coach is their ability to game plan around opponent weakness and make big scheme adjustments to get an advantage.
That type of flexible thinking is not something Garrett can learn.
You either have it or you dont.
While other candidates may not be as good as Belicheat in this, Jason simply does not have it and neither does Marinelli.
It appears Jason lack the fire and passion to identify and fix problems.
One either has this fire or does not.
Corporations often go through phases of development.
The CEO that is right for one stage may be a disaster for the next stage.
Jason may have been good for the rebuilding phase.
The team has gone beyond that.
He and his coaching staff need to go for the team to get to the next stage
Otherwise we would have to tank a lot more to bring in overwhelming talent that can cover for injuries. Essentially having backups that are high-end starter-quality in multiple positions - eg. 2 more starter LBs, 1 additional star RB, 2 additional starter OL, at least 2 probowler DL and may be 3, starter level backup DBs...etc.
Garrett is used to Jimmy days thinking - you know what we are going to do, but you cannot stop us because we are so much more talented and deep than you.
That is hard to do in the salary cap days.