Exclusive: Coach Sanjay Lal Discusses His Departure from ‘Iconic’ Cowboys
FRISCO - New Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy this week is wielding the authority many believe a head coach should always have: He's picking his own staff.
That's not really the way Jerry Jones' franchise has operated for the last quarter of a century, though; since Barry Switzer's arrival in 1994, the Jones family tends to "urge'' (to say the very least) the new coach to keep on Jones favorites.
Wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal was one of those favorites. On Wednesday here at The Star, McCarthy conducted a press conference to ring in his hiring as the ninth coach in Cowboys history. That session occurred shortly after Lal was invited to meet not with McCarthy but with Jerry about the assistant's job future.
Sources tell CowboysSI.com that Lal (who is under contract) and offensive line coach Marc Colombo (also under contract) were two of the Jones family's choices to remain in place.
But it was COO Stephen Jones (not McCarthy) who met with Colombo to break the bad news to him that his spot will likely be taken by long-time McCarthy associate Joe Philbin. And, again, it was Jerry himself who met with Lal for a lengthy goodbye visit.
"I want to thank the Cowboys organization and especially Jerry Jones for the opportunity to coach at this iconic franchise,'' Lal tells CowboysSI.com. "Jerry has been unbelievably supportive of me.''
Lal, 50, came to Dallas two seasons ago with credentials, and with more than a decade of experience as an NFL receivers coach. The numbers - big and small - speak volumes about what was accomplished here. Lal contributed to the overall success of the 2019 Cowboys passing game, which finished second in the NFL at 296.9 yards per game.
On a more behind-the-curtain note, under coach Jason Garrett, each staffer was assigned a specific game-plan-related area of study and input. Lal's area of emphasis was "Designing the Third-Down Plan.'' In that category, the Cowboys were second in the league at 47.1 percent behind only Kansas City at 47.6 percent.
Lal's name jumped into the headlines after the Week 16 loss to the Eagles when Garrett pinpointed him as the staffer who'd decided to "rotate'' star Amari Cooper out of the game on a critical down. And if pops up again when we discuss in-house conflicts, as we're told that Cooper didn't always see eye-to-eye with his supervisor.
But that's not the reason McCarthy will move on to an as-yet-unnamed replacement - just as Lal's success with Cooper and others didn't cause McCarthy to retain him. Cooper, for all his ups and downs, achieved career highs in touchdowns (eight) and receiving yards (1,189). In just his second season, Michael Gallup emerged as a potential "lead receiver'' and had 1,107 yards and six TDs. And Randall Cobb - an old Green Bay favorite of McCarthy's - resurrected his career with 828 yards and his highest average per catch of his career at 15.1 yards.
As disappointed as Lal is, he's equally proud of the success of his group.
"I'll always be appreciative of my time here working with Jerry, Jason, Stephen and Will McClay,'' Lal told CowboysSI.com. "And I am especially proud and appreciative of working with these great young men who I had the opportunity to coach.''
