LISTEN: Despite Jerry's 'passive support,' It's time for Cowboys' Jason Garrett to go
FRISCO - It’s time. It’s time for Jason Garrett to go.
I like the guy. I really do. It’s hard not to like Garrett. REALLY hard not to like the guy.
But this isn’t about like or respect, both of which I have for Garrett. This is about success on the field. And while I’m not counting on Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones pulling the trigger on firing Garrett in the next few weeks (though he’s done such a thing once), I think come next season someone different will take Coach Clapper’s place on the sideline.
Garrett’s crime will be squandering Jones’ investment in building a team that can potentially win a Super Bowl.
Jerry made a subtle reference to the squander on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday morning, saying, "I have felt we have a lot invested in Jason Garrett.''
This echoed something our own Mike Fisher said while hosting on The Fan just before Jerry's appearance. Said Fish: "Jerry, has plenty of times in the second half of RedBall's 10-year tenure here, referred to the coach having 'Gotten on-the-job training on the Jones' dime.' Jerry needs this year to be the payoff on that investment.''
None this means Jerry isn't still sorta supportive of the coach. But we can characterize his Tuesday review as "passive support.''
Yes, Jerry said, "“He’s evolved into what I think is a top coach. He would be very sought after if he was on the open market.”
But he also said, "Everybody is aware that we're the last year of his agreement. But that really just means we can all sit down and take a look at things at the end of the year.''
That's fair. But it doesn't prevent Cowboys Nation from wishing to "take a look at things'' now.
Remember in 2013 when the Cowboys mis-graded their draft board and “passed” on defensive tackle Shariff Floyd, a 3-4 nose tackle the Cowboys wouldn’t have drafted since they were moving to a 4-3 defense? That was embarrassing. The Cowboys instead traded down and selected Travis Frederick, and we all know how that turned out.
This gaffe prompted a shift in how the Cowboys approached the business of building a team, and six years later you can’t argue with the results.
Dallas has built one of the league’s best offensive lines. They’ve drafted and traded for talented skill players. They’ve assembled a defense and a coaching staff that can make you forget how bad the defense was in former quarterback Tony Romo’s latter years.
Running back Ezekiel Elliott is locked in for the long-term. So is defensive end Demarcus Lawrence and linebacker Jaylon Smith. So is the offensive line, now that La’el Collins has his money. There is cash to pay quarterback Dak Prescott (we can debate the merits of that in a later article) and wide receiver Amari Cooper. The Cowboys have expertly worked the cap and the draft to keep this core together.
That’s where the Cowboys are right now. For the most part, this is what Cowboys fans wanted, a team that has won two division titles in three years and won nine games in the non-playoff season. One that could be consistently good, if not great, season over season and one that might finally get to the Cowboys back to a Super Bowl, a place the Cowboys haven’t sniffed since the first term of the Clinton administration.
In other words, the window is open. The Cowboys have, at least from a personnel standpoint, eliminated excuses for Garrett and his staff not to succeed on the field. And when that happens all eyes fall on the head coach. That’s how it works, of course.
That’s what had to be frustrating for Cowboys fans on Sunday, as they watched the Cowboys fall to the New York Jets, a winless team with a young quarterback in Sam Darnold who did not play like a guy who just got over mono. Even with the banged-up talent — and this team is banged up — a team with playoff, if not Super Bowl aspirations, should still beat a winless team that had two offensive touchdowns in four games going into Sunday. In fact, the Jets defense had outscored its own offense through four games, three touchdowns to two.
The case for firing Garrett, right then and there, was crystal clear to some Cowboys fans on Twitter and Facebook.
Ask Garrett about it and, well, you get the typical response.
“I don’t really think about that,” Garrett said.
Sure, Jason. You just keep right on not thinking about that.
When the team fails, the coach gets the blame. Garrett gets that. Every head football coach gets that. When Washington fired Jay Gruden last week his own brother, Jon, said, “Welcome to the club.” The Bucs fired Jon Gruden eventually. Heck, the Cowboys fired Tom Landry after 29 years, and we all know who swung that axe.
When you’re coming off three straight 8-8 seasons, you can make a case to keep the head coach. But now that the Cowboys have the tools they need to reach a title? The case gets flimsier, especially when each loss feels like a rerun of the one you just watched.
The standards in Dallas are much higher than that. Garrett’s longevity and modest success means he’s the second-winningest coach in franchise history. But the coach in front of Garrett on the Cowboys’ all-time wins list, Landry, won two Super Bowls and took the Cowboys to five in one decade. Two of the coaches behind Garrett — Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer — have two rings and one ring, respectively.
When you have a team this talented, you can’t squander it. The Cowboys did that with the Romo-led Cowboys of 2007, as they were never able to follow up that incredible season with anything close to that level of success. Jones and company know what they have and they know the window for reaching a Super Bowl is short. Plus, Jones knows age is catching up with him. You know the Hall of Famer wants one more pass at hoisting a Lombardi Trophy.
The urgency is here and it’s clear.
Right now, the jury is still out. A .500 record after six games isn’t a death sentence when it comes to the postseason. Not at all. All you have to do is win your division to make the playoffs and the NFC East doesn’t look particularly daunting.
But the last three games haven’t looked good. Awful starts offensively. Gaffes on defense. Untimely penalties. A disappearance of the injection of creativity that we saw in the first few games (or was that just fool’s gold?).
And, now, this.
Players not shaking hands with Garrett as they came off the field late on Sunday? Scandalous? Well, not necessarily. Having been around pro athletes for a while now, I can tell you the things that go through their head, and the things they’re oblivious to on gameday, are crazy. I once had a college player tell me that the only way he could remember a particular defensive call was because the numbers in the play resembled his locker combination in high school. I also had a player tell me after a game that he didn’t realize his head coach had been ejected from the game in the second quarter. So if you’re looking to read tea leaves there, you might be grasping too much.
The Jones family is holding the party line during interviews. They love Garrett. They haven’t thought about firing him.
"Absolutely not,'' Stephen has said 100 times in the last 10 days.
But the best decision the Joneses made this offseason was NOT extending Garrett’s contract beyond 2019. Jones turned it into a put-up-or-shut-up season for Garrett. Jones could say to Garrett, “You have the talent, you have the changes to your staff you wanted. Now go get it done.”
Clapping won’t cut it anymore. Every coach has a shelf life. Every coach has a ceiling. Perhaps Garrett has finally reached his.
Either way, I think he’s done. And he should be. He’s had more than enough time. Cowboys fans have had more than enough patience.
And something - maybe his "passive endorsement'' of the 3-3 coach - tells me that Jones’ patience is about to run out, too.
