You’re really setting yourself up for disappointment, if you think anything less than going to the NFC championship will get Garrett fired. You’re probably right in that *should* be the threshold, but it’s not. In a season where we cut our leading WR (and did not replace him until week 6 or so with Cooper), Witten retired (did not replace at all) and got 0 games from Travis Fredrick, the bar just wont be that high.
While I think the offense was woefully under productive prior to getting Cooper, I don’t think anything better than 8-8 or 9-7 was realistic. And we were likely going to fall short of that, but now because of Cooper, we’ll likely exceed that mark. But going to New Orleans or Los Angeles and expecting an upset, won’t decide Garrett’s fate.
The glass half full answer to most here, is we’d likely have to at least win in the first round AND be competitive in round 2 for Garrett to be safe. And that likely sets up 2019 to be his final season. Which depending on what coaches are available for us, I may be fine with. Ideally I would like Josh McDaniels, but after the Colts thing, I really don’t know about him. I wouldn’t mind Kris Richard to be honest, and Matt LeFleur as the o coordinator, but he’s already in that post in Tennessee. Not sure who the next great offensive mind is, but if we can identify that guy, I would prefer them over the status quo