jday
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...and the Age and Youth Disposition.
Disclaimer: I'm bored. So for the "TL/DR crowd," stop now. For those of you who are equally bored, enjoy!
Real quick defintion of Juxtaposition: the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effects. Example: Cops and Robbers / God and Satan
Wade: Great defensive coordinator / horrible Head Coach. Wade Phillips knows football and he knows defense. The trouble Wade experienced here in Dallas is he did not have a strong enough personality to weather both Jerry and the Media. Wade, I believe, probably knew that this team was on the decline, but he was too much of a "yes man" / "puppet" to keep Jerry from being Jerry. I suspect, because of that, he lost the respect of his players.
Garrett: Decent offensive coordinator / could be a good to great Head Coach. The problem Garrett has is experience. He has never been a Head Coach of anything and if we are all being honest that is something he should have done in the college ranks before ever being handed a job in the NFL. That fact aside, he does have a strong enough personality to weather Jerry and the media, which is, in my mind, a huge plus. Furthermore, I believe based on the moves made in his tenure, he knows how to build a great team and despite Jerry's horrible tendencies, this team has slowly been rebuilt.
Age: This is to describe the veterans. With age, comes experience. But on the other hand, age has it's limitations, as well: more susceptible to injury and losing ones physcial prowess (especially over the course of an NFL season) are the obvious issues veterans in today's NFL experience. The not-so-obvious, is that these same players often have a tendency to rest on their laurels and take on an entitled attitude and therefore don't work hard like they use to...they take their position on the roster for granted.
Youth: This describes players that are rookies or are still on their first contract in the NFL. With youth, comes inexperience. However, they also have a tendency to be in the best physical shape of their lives and are less susceptible to injury than veterans. Despite their physical shape, they can be a step or two behind veterans, because their reaction time is not quite the same.
That's in general, of course. There are players that defy the norm in both regards. Jerry Rice is a great example of a veteran who continued to work regardless of his accomplishments and enjoyed a long career in the NFL because of it. Lawrence Taylor, Derrick Thomas, and Ray Lewis are just a few examples of players who set the NFL on fire from the moment they stepped on an NFL field. There are plenty more examples, of course - even a few Cowboys - but this is beside the point.
The team's that Garrett has experienced versus what Wade had in 2009 are completely different. To understand one only need look at Wade's record in 2009 versus what he began with in 2010 - 11 and 5 versus 1 and 7. Granted, some of that was a whole lot of quit on the players side, but the other side of that argument is that this team got old, especially in the areas where it counts the most - on both sides of the line.
Since Garrett took over, the Cowboys have worked to correct their age deficiency while contending with a horrible cap situation. So they got younger, but with youth, comes certain aforementioned drawbacks. The contrast that we have seen with the youth and veterans with the Cowboys has been disasterous - the age can't stay healthy and/or loses steam as the season progresses and the youth struggles to react quick enough to the various situations that are thrown at them.
Now some of you may interpret this as another defend Garrett thread...and to a lesser extent it is. But the overall point is to explain why no two teams are alike and why the notorious "3 year rule" is not always realistic. If Garrett had inherited Parcells team and the Cowboys were continously 8 and 8 or worse, then I agree absolutely that Garrett should have been fired. But the window for championship caliber success closed quickly on the team that Wade inherited and unfortunately rather than letting go of aging vets to start developing new talent Jerry stubbornly handed out stupid 3rd contracts to alot of players whose best years were behind them - paying them for what they had done and not what they were going to do.
Many of you will refuse to see the truth of the above, arguing that at some point Garrett made the claim that he would fix this team in 3 years. But the truth is, you won't find that quote because he never made that claim...nor did Jerry, despite his tendency to put his foot in his mouth. Garrett has constantly preached "process." And it is a process...a very delicate process to try and bring in talent without breaking the bank when there are 31 teams the majority of which had better cap situations that can afford to offer more during Free Agency the last few years.
Garrett has struggled to rebuild this team, but the front office won't admit it has been a "rebuild" because it's hard to sell tickets with that word. But, make no mistake, that's what the last three years have been. And it has taken longer to do because the Cowboys couldn't cut alot of their veterans due to cap limitations. So they have had to allow many players to play out the majority of their contract until it was somewhat cap-safe to let them go. The Cowboys cap is still an issue with many players they have let go that they are still paying for.
Many will point to new coaches taking over teams experiencing immediate success. Two factors have to be considered with those situstions: 1. Did said coach have some head coach experience in college or elsewhere? 2. How many top 10 picks were sitting on those teams prior to his arrival? 3. Was said coach asked to handle double-duty running one side of the ball, while being the Head Coach?
What many fans have trouble understanding is that teams that rank at the bottom of the league one year can leap to the top the next year because many times they are missing 1 secret ingredient. Sometimes that's a good Head Coach. Other times, and we see this alot, they are missing the right QB. Either way, neither has been the Cowboy's issue. They have the QB in Romo and they have a promising Head Coach in Garrett. The issue has been the fact that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, admittedly including mistakes by both Romo and Garrett that you wouldn't and shouln't expect from your QB and HC respectively. But it is what it is. Romo as QB gives the Cowboys the best chance to win. Garrett gives Cowboys a coach who finally has Jerry making smart decisions. Lose Romo, we get to re-live the search for the next franchise QB. Lose Garrett, we get to re-live Jerry coaching the team with his hand up another puppets butt.
Another disasterous year in terms of in-game management, then maybe I can understand the "Fire Garrett" agenda. But when one stop's to consider the rebuilding process, the injuries to contend with, the double-duty HC/OC dilemna and the overall cap situation, it's really not that difficult to understand the mediocrity. If anything, one should actually be equally impressed and depressed they were able to accomplish what they did going 8 and 8 the last three seasons - impressed because many experts predicted worse the last several seasons predicting 7 and 9 or less and depressed because had they done worse, we might have had much better draft picks to work with this year and the last two.
Blast away!
Disclaimer: I'm bored. So for the "TL/DR crowd," stop now. For those of you who are equally bored, enjoy!
Real quick defintion of Juxtaposition: the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effects. Example: Cops and Robbers / God and Satan
Wade: Great defensive coordinator / horrible Head Coach. Wade Phillips knows football and he knows defense. The trouble Wade experienced here in Dallas is he did not have a strong enough personality to weather both Jerry and the Media. Wade, I believe, probably knew that this team was on the decline, but he was too much of a "yes man" / "puppet" to keep Jerry from being Jerry. I suspect, because of that, he lost the respect of his players.
Garrett: Decent offensive coordinator / could be a good to great Head Coach. The problem Garrett has is experience. He has never been a Head Coach of anything and if we are all being honest that is something he should have done in the college ranks before ever being handed a job in the NFL. That fact aside, he does have a strong enough personality to weather Jerry and the media, which is, in my mind, a huge plus. Furthermore, I believe based on the moves made in his tenure, he knows how to build a great team and despite Jerry's horrible tendencies, this team has slowly been rebuilt.
Age: This is to describe the veterans. With age, comes experience. But on the other hand, age has it's limitations, as well: more susceptible to injury and losing ones physcial prowess (especially over the course of an NFL season) are the obvious issues veterans in today's NFL experience. The not-so-obvious, is that these same players often have a tendency to rest on their laurels and take on an entitled attitude and therefore don't work hard like they use to...they take their position on the roster for granted.
Youth: This describes players that are rookies or are still on their first contract in the NFL. With youth, comes inexperience. However, they also have a tendency to be in the best physical shape of their lives and are less susceptible to injury than veterans. Despite their physical shape, they can be a step or two behind veterans, because their reaction time is not quite the same.
That's in general, of course. There are players that defy the norm in both regards. Jerry Rice is a great example of a veteran who continued to work regardless of his accomplishments and enjoyed a long career in the NFL because of it. Lawrence Taylor, Derrick Thomas, and Ray Lewis are just a few examples of players who set the NFL on fire from the moment they stepped on an NFL field. There are plenty more examples, of course - even a few Cowboys - but this is beside the point.
The team's that Garrett has experienced versus what Wade had in 2009 are completely different. To understand one only need look at Wade's record in 2009 versus what he began with in 2010 - 11 and 5 versus 1 and 7. Granted, some of that was a whole lot of quit on the players side, but the other side of that argument is that this team got old, especially in the areas where it counts the most - on both sides of the line.
Since Garrett took over, the Cowboys have worked to correct their age deficiency while contending with a horrible cap situation. So they got younger, but with youth, comes certain aforementioned drawbacks. The contrast that we have seen with the youth and veterans with the Cowboys has been disasterous - the age can't stay healthy and/or loses steam as the season progresses and the youth struggles to react quick enough to the various situations that are thrown at them.
Now some of you may interpret this as another defend Garrett thread...and to a lesser extent it is. But the overall point is to explain why no two teams are alike and why the notorious "3 year rule" is not always realistic. If Garrett had inherited Parcells team and the Cowboys were continously 8 and 8 or worse, then I agree absolutely that Garrett should have been fired. But the window for championship caliber success closed quickly on the team that Wade inherited and unfortunately rather than letting go of aging vets to start developing new talent Jerry stubbornly handed out stupid 3rd contracts to alot of players whose best years were behind them - paying them for what they had done and not what they were going to do.
Many of you will refuse to see the truth of the above, arguing that at some point Garrett made the claim that he would fix this team in 3 years. But the truth is, you won't find that quote because he never made that claim...nor did Jerry, despite his tendency to put his foot in his mouth. Garrett has constantly preached "process." And it is a process...a very delicate process to try and bring in talent without breaking the bank when there are 31 teams the majority of which had better cap situations that can afford to offer more during Free Agency the last few years.
Garrett has struggled to rebuild this team, but the front office won't admit it has been a "rebuild" because it's hard to sell tickets with that word. But, make no mistake, that's what the last three years have been. And it has taken longer to do because the Cowboys couldn't cut alot of their veterans due to cap limitations. So they have had to allow many players to play out the majority of their contract until it was somewhat cap-safe to let them go. The Cowboys cap is still an issue with many players they have let go that they are still paying for.
Many will point to new coaches taking over teams experiencing immediate success. Two factors have to be considered with those situstions: 1. Did said coach have some head coach experience in college or elsewhere? 2. How many top 10 picks were sitting on those teams prior to his arrival? 3. Was said coach asked to handle double-duty running one side of the ball, while being the Head Coach?
What many fans have trouble understanding is that teams that rank at the bottom of the league one year can leap to the top the next year because many times they are missing 1 secret ingredient. Sometimes that's a good Head Coach. Other times, and we see this alot, they are missing the right QB. Either way, neither has been the Cowboy's issue. They have the QB in Romo and they have a promising Head Coach in Garrett. The issue has been the fact that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, admittedly including mistakes by both Romo and Garrett that you wouldn't and shouln't expect from your QB and HC respectively. But it is what it is. Romo as QB gives the Cowboys the best chance to win. Garrett gives Cowboys a coach who finally has Jerry making smart decisions. Lose Romo, we get to re-live the search for the next franchise QB. Lose Garrett, we get to re-live Jerry coaching the team with his hand up another puppets butt.
Another disasterous year in terms of in-game management, then maybe I can understand the "Fire Garrett" agenda. But when one stop's to consider the rebuilding process, the injuries to contend with, the double-duty HC/OC dilemna and the overall cap situation, it's really not that difficult to understand the mediocrity. If anything, one should actually be equally impressed and depressed they were able to accomplish what they did going 8 and 8 the last three seasons - impressed because many experts predicted worse the last several seasons predicting 7 and 9 or less and depressed because had they done worse, we might have had much better draft picks to work with this year and the last two.
Blast away!
