Garrett Postmortem Thread...
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Smitty
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It takes two to argue.Schmitty===>
Shiningstar
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im okay with seeing KM under this regime, but im not opting for many years of mediocrity
p1_
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not as a coordinator they didn't.
Texas Ace
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But the only one arguing is you and the only one trying to make a counterpoint is you.
Everyone else is an agreement on the discussion at hand.
If you didn't feel the need to chime in every time someone criticizes Garrett, then there wouldn't be any "arguments".
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Smitty
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I started this off by saying I more or less agree with Sturm's critiques of Garrett and found his conclusions essentially valid, even if I don't agree on exact firing timelines, which was also supported by the proposition that Garrett did actually do things well. There is nothing unreasonable about any of that.
Except that some people who accuse me of not being able to let go, can't let go themselves.
Genghis Khan
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Genghis Khan
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Oh my fricking god.
Genghis Khan
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We like to bag on Stephen sometimes, but thank christ for that guy.
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What did we learn from the Jason Garrett era? Ultimately it’s Jerry Jones’ fault
By Bob Sturm 1h ago
3
This shall forever be known as Jason Garrett Week here in my little corner of The Athletic. I wanted to let the smoke clear and the tensions fade, and the time is right. Only two coaches in franchise history coached more than 80 regular-season games in Dallas: Tom Landry’s 418 and Jason Garrett’s 152. There have been enough books written about Landry to fill a library, so the least I can do is write a few pieces about the man who oversaw the Dallas sideline for 10 seasons. I invite you to treat these stories as a series and read each part as I close the book on a very memorable and frustrating era of Cowboys football before we cleanse our palates for the new dawn in 2020.
We began Jason Garrett Week with Part 1 Monday: The unpardonable sins of 2011-2013
Then, we offered Part 2 on Wednesday: What went wrong after Romo, 2015-2019
Today, let’s wrap it up with a summary of the era, both positive and negative, before looking ahead to how the Mike McCarthy journey could go.
Two coaches in NFL history have coached precisely 10 seasons and 152 games at their job. Two. It was the only head coaching job either would ever have.
They are tied for 58th in the rankings of most games coached in history. If you ever peruse the listings at profootballreference.com, you might not even notice how similarly the early part of their careers match up. But the further you peruse career success, looking for milestones like playoffs and titles, you can see that the similarities between the two coaches who spent 10 seasons at one gig and 152 career regular-season games stop pretty quickly. Bill Walsh and Jason Garrett were certainly both coaches. Beyond that?
Bill Walsh was singular. He won 10 playoff games in 10 years. He won three Super Bowls. And maybe just as importantly, he planted a coaching tree that bears fruit to this very day.
Jason Garrett does not appear to have a coaching tree at all, but perhaps we must wait to see what happens with Kellen Moore. He is not singular in his decade-long legacy at the helm of the franchise with the most resources. Initially, I wondered if he was singular in a very rare and dubious case of keeping a head coaching job for 10 seasons and 152 regular-season games without ever coaching in a conference championship game.
It turns out this is incorrect, however. There have been three coaches who can all say they were given 10 seasons and 152 games and never even cracked into a final four in modern NFL history. Jim Mora was given from 1986-1996 and 167 games in New Orleans before the Saints finally pulled the plug. I am reasonably sure that Marvin Lewis will never be touched: He was given 16 seasons and 256 games in Cincinnati and never won a single playoff game.
So Jerry Jones’ patience toward Jason Garrett is not singular. The Saints gave just as much to Jim Mora while the Bengals did the same for Marvin Lewis. I am assuming those franchises are not what the Cowboys want to be paired with, but the case is pretty clear.
This table above shows the eight coaches in modern NFL history who were given this many games by the league without hitting a championship game, let alone a Super Bowl. The list is broader by showing coaches with multiple gigs, but the irony is not lost on Wade Phillips that he was given a mere 56 games in Dallas before being run out of town because everyone and their brother knew that he was merely keeping the seat warm for his successor, Jason Garrett.
This morning, however, I think it is best to ask a few final questions of a decade I can describe to this fanbase as nothing better than “lost.” So many great players rolled through town, and so many games were played, yet the Cowboys were never able to piece things together in a coherent enough fashion to even win a single postseason game beyond the wild-card round since 1995. That is obviously not Jason Garrett’s fault. But to think that the last 13 years – he was hired in 2007 and handed a team that was ready-made to go on a run – could include special players at nearly every spot on the field and conclude without Dallas reaching the NFL’s final four is unthinkable.
Four NFC teams have not been in the championship game since Garrett was hired in 2007. Tampa Bay, Detroit, Washington, and Dallas. These are their winning percentages:
Three franchises that cannot win 40 percent of their games and another team that is a top-10 franchise during that stretch.
If one thing has been learned during this week’s three-part study, it should be this: This is not a Jason Garrett study. This is a Jerry Jones study.
I cannot stress this enough. I have talked to several sources very close to the situation about this effort this week, and all roads lead to the same place.
“What was Jerry thinking allowing this to go on for so long?”
“Did you know that Jerry was still not sold on firing him until he met Mike McCarthy?”
“Did you know Jerry wanted to extend him before 2019 until Stephen talked him out of it?”
I am reminded of a documentary I watched recently about Bill Russell and how he was being courted by Abe Saperstein to join the Harlem Globetrotters back in the 1950s. The story was that Saperstein did not offer the $50,000 that the papers thought, but rather $17,000 and the promise of female companionship on a regular basis for Russell when he would be on the road.
Russell was pretty insulted by this proposal. He responded that “I would not be interested in having any woman with me who would be willing to offer herself in that sort of way.”
This is sort of how I see this relationship between Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett over the years. In both cases, they seemed to value something more than winning, and it ultimately cost anyone who loves this franchise a lot of years and the key part of many careers that cannot come back.
With Jones, he clearly valued having a coach who could live with the terms he requires. Garrett would not bristle at his presence in meetings, his hiring of assistant coaches without consent, his opinions and strongly worded suggestions on player selection and, perhaps most difficult for many coaches to accept, his constant grandstanding in the locker room and impromptu press briefings regardless of the outcome of every game as though he were the head coach or starting QB. If Garrett had issues with any of that or the many times Jerry cut his authority down at the knees, then this wouldn’t have lasted so long.
The problem, of course, is that Jones has definitely seemed to value comfort with his coach over winning at all costs in recent years. If he were truly a great leader of the franchise, comfort would fall well down the list in the name of maximizing victories and championships for this once-proud franchise that used to deal in parades and trophies.
Garrett valued being the coach of the Dallas Cowboys and was willing to put up with almost anything to remain that way. He was willing to deal with being told the terms of remaining coach involved firing assistants, changing philosophies, accepting players he didn’t actually want on his team (on multiple occasions), being unable to discipline players he wanted to discipline (on multiple occasions) and a significant list of other complaints that he would often sit on and brood until the storm passed by. He then would accept his fate and remain the coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Many coaches would rather not coach the team if it meant prioritizing so many things that have little to do with winning. It is certainly unfair to assume that these things didn’t matter to Garrett, but many coaches have walked out the door if they felt their employer had decided they have other priorities than what is needed to overcome their enemies in the standings. Many coaches would challenge their bosses and even risk being publicly fired for their principled demands. After visiting with so many close to the situation, Garrett didn’t seem to feel quite that strongly.
Jerry valued liking his head coach. He also valued not having to wrestle constantly with the normal alpha males who run football teams from the sideline and demand authoring a single message that can be distributed in the coach’s singular voice. Jason allowed for all of that without visible complaints. Jason valued his coaching position as probably the peak of his football career and knew that either he accepts the terms of the Jones family every year – which included a salary among the highest in the profession – or he could try coaching somewhere else and hope another of the 32 franchises thought enough of him to offer another head coaching job.
Basically, to bring it back to Bill Russell, “I wouldn’t be interested in any coach who would be willing to work under these conditions.”
In the interest of fairness, Jason Garrett was very good at many things as the coach of the Dallas Cowboys:
But the fact that almost nobody in the history of the sport retained their position for so long with almost nothing to show for it should be questioned. And that doesn’t fall on Jason Garrett at all unless you wanted him to fire himself.
If Jerry Jones insists on being called the general manager despite doing almost none of the duties that general managers do, then this must go completely on him for choosing comfort over winning (again). This is consistent with much of his last few decades and is verified by his reluctance to ever actually fire Garrett but rather stall so that the coach’s contract just expired and the owner never actually had to cut him loose. People can say all they want that he would do anything for another Super Bowl, but what have we seen that actually verifies that?
The slate is fresh as Mike McCarthy takes over. The Jones family perhaps has found the gospel again and will now promise themselves that they are all-in to rise to the top of the NFL and that they hired the coach to do it. They will receive another honeymoon, and the torches will be lowered from the angered townspeople for a period of time.
Will they think twice before chopping down the new coach’s authority? Will the tradition of the NFL’s only owner press availability outside the locker room every Sunday end? Will the Cowboys allow McCarthy the courtesy of shaping his team’s narrative to the public? Will they allow their coach truly to be the final word on matters he deems important and vital?
We don’t know how Jason Garrett’s run would have been different if he were afforded all of those concessions. But we do know that he wasn’t the right guy for the job because he didn’t demand those concessions. Maybe he would have been fired for standing up for what a coach needs and what is right. And maybe then his appeal would be much greater because he had to have things his way.
Instead, he was willing to do things Jerry’s way to hold the prestigious position he always wanted. And that is how his legacy will always be remembered.
By Bob Sturm 1h ago
This shall forever be known as Jason Garrett Week here in my little corner of The Athletic. I wanted to let the smoke clear and the tensions fade, and the time is right. Only two coaches in franchise history coached more than 80 regular-season games in Dallas: Tom Landry’s 418 and Jason Garrett’s 152. There have been enough books written about Landry to fill a library, so the least I can do is write a few pieces about the man who oversaw the Dallas sideline for 10 seasons. I invite you to treat these stories as a series and read each part as I close the book on a very memorable and frustrating era of Cowboys football before we cleanse our palates for the new dawn in 2020.
We began Jason Garrett Week with Part 1 Monday: The unpardonable sins of 2011-2013
Then, we offered Part 2 on Wednesday: What went wrong after Romo, 2015-2019
Today, let’s wrap it up with a summary of the era, both positive and negative, before looking ahead to how the Mike McCarthy journey could go.
Two coaches in NFL history have coached precisely 10 seasons and 152 games at their job. Two. It was the only head coaching job either would ever have.
They are tied for 58th in the rankings of most games coached in history. If you ever peruse the listings at profootballreference.com, you might not even notice how similarly the early part of their careers match up. But the further you peruse career success, looking for milestones like playoffs and titles, you can see that the similarities between the two coaches who spent 10 seasons at one gig and 152 career regular-season games stop pretty quickly. Bill Walsh and Jason Garrett were certainly both coaches. Beyond that?
Bill Walsh was singular. He won 10 playoff games in 10 years. He won three Super Bowls. And maybe just as importantly, he planted a coaching tree that bears fruit to this very day.
Jason Garrett does not appear to have a coaching tree at all, but perhaps we must wait to see what happens with Kellen Moore. He is not singular in his decade-long legacy at the helm of the franchise with the most resources. Initially, I wondered if he was singular in a very rare and dubious case of keeping a head coaching job for 10 seasons and 152 regular-season games without ever coaching in a conference championship game.
It turns out this is incorrect, however. There have been three coaches who can all say they were given 10 seasons and 152 games and never even cracked into a final four in modern NFL history. Jim Mora was given from 1986-1996 and 167 games in New Orleans before the Saints finally pulled the plug. I am reasonably sure that Marvin Lewis will never be touched: He was given 16 seasons and 256 games in Cincinnati and never won a single playoff game.
So Jerry Jones’ patience toward Jason Garrett is not singular. The Saints gave just as much to Jim Mora while the Bengals did the same for Marvin Lewis. I am assuming those franchises are not what the Cowboys want to be paired with, but the case is pretty clear.
| COACH | YRS | YR-YR | G | W | L | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvin Lewis | 16 | 2003-2018 | 256 | 131 | 122 | 3 |
| Jim Mora | 15 | 1986-2001 | 231 | 125 | 106 | 0 |
| Jack Del Rio | 12 | 2003-2017 | 187 | 93 | 94 | 0 |
| Dave Wannstedt | 11 | 1993-2004 | 169 | 82 | 87 | 0 |
| Jack Pardee | 11 | 1975-1994 | 164 | 87 | 77 | 0 |
| Jason Garrett | 10 | 2010-2019 | 152 | 85 | 67 | 0 |
| Wade Phillips | 12 | 1985-2013 | 146 | 82 | 64 | 0 |
| Dick Jauron | 10 | 1999-2009 | 142 | 60 | 82 | 0 |
This morning, however, I think it is best to ask a few final questions of a decade I can describe to this fanbase as nothing better than “lost.” So many great players rolled through town, and so many games were played, yet the Cowboys were never able to piece things together in a coherent enough fashion to even win a single postseason game beyond the wild-card round since 1995. That is obviously not Jason Garrett’s fault. But to think that the last 13 years – he was hired in 2007 and handed a team that was ready-made to go on a run – could include special players at nearly every spot on the field and conclude without Dallas reaching the NFL’s final four is unthinkable.
Four NFC teams have not been in the championship game since Garrett was hired in 2007. Tampa Bay, Detroit, Washington, and Dallas. These are their winning percentages:
Three franchises that cannot win 40 percent of their games and another team that is a top-10 franchise during that stretch.
If one thing has been learned during this week’s three-part study, it should be this: This is not a Jason Garrett study. This is a Jerry Jones study.
I cannot stress this enough. I have talked to several sources very close to the situation about this effort this week, and all roads lead to the same place.
“What was Jerry thinking allowing this to go on for so long?”
“Did you know that Jerry was still not sold on firing him until he met Mike McCarthy?”
“Did you know Jerry wanted to extend him before 2019 until Stephen talked him out of it?”
I am reminded of a documentary I watched recently about Bill Russell and how he was being courted by Abe Saperstein to join the Harlem Globetrotters back in the 1950s. The story was that Saperstein did not offer the $50,000 that the papers thought, but rather $17,000 and the promise of female companionship on a regular basis for Russell when he would be on the road.
Russell was pretty insulted by this proposal. He responded that “I would not be interested in having any woman with me who would be willing to offer herself in that sort of way.”
This is sort of how I see this relationship between Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett over the years. In both cases, they seemed to value something more than winning, and it ultimately cost anyone who loves this franchise a lot of years and the key part of many careers that cannot come back.
With Jones, he clearly valued having a coach who could live with the terms he requires. Garrett would not bristle at his presence in meetings, his hiring of assistant coaches without consent, his opinions and strongly worded suggestions on player selection and, perhaps most difficult for many coaches to accept, his constant grandstanding in the locker room and impromptu press briefings regardless of the outcome of every game as though he were the head coach or starting QB. If Garrett had issues with any of that or the many times Jerry cut his authority down at the knees, then this wouldn’t have lasted so long.
The problem, of course, is that Jones has definitely seemed to value comfort with his coach over winning at all costs in recent years. If he were truly a great leader of the franchise, comfort would fall well down the list in the name of maximizing victories and championships for this once-proud franchise that used to deal in parades and trophies.
Garrett valued being the coach of the Dallas Cowboys and was willing to put up with almost anything to remain that way. He was willing to deal with being told the terms of remaining coach involved firing assistants, changing philosophies, accepting players he didn’t actually want on his team (on multiple occasions), being unable to discipline players he wanted to discipline (on multiple occasions) and a significant list of other complaints that he would often sit on and brood until the storm passed by. He then would accept his fate and remain the coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Many coaches would rather not coach the team if it meant prioritizing so many things that have little to do with winning. It is certainly unfair to assume that these things didn’t matter to Garrett, but many coaches have walked out the door if they felt their employer had decided they have other priorities than what is needed to overcome their enemies in the standings. Many coaches would challenge their bosses and even risk being publicly fired for their principled demands. After visiting with so many close to the situation, Garrett didn’t seem to feel quite that strongly.
Jerry valued liking his head coach. He also valued not having to wrestle constantly with the normal alpha males who run football teams from the sideline and demand authoring a single message that can be distributed in the coach’s singular voice. Jason allowed for all of that without visible complaints. Jason valued his coaching position as probably the peak of his football career and knew that either he accepts the terms of the Jones family every year – which included a salary among the highest in the profession – or he could try coaching somewhere else and hope another of the 32 franchises thought enough of him to offer another head coaching job.
Basically, to bring it back to Bill Russell, “I wouldn’t be interested in any coach who would be willing to work under these conditions.”
In the interest of fairness, Jason Garrett was very good at many things as the coach of the Dallas Cowboys:
- He developed two young quarterbacks into outstanding veterans. Tony Romo and Dak Prescott both go down as successes under Jason Garrett’s watch. This alone will allow him to work in the NFL for as long as he wishes, regardless of both QBs’ meager January win totals up to this point.
- He was very good at understanding the unique politics of this organization and operating under the structure he inherited. For all of his perceived weakness at changing the model, there is much to be said about being able to adjust to your environment and keep the train on the tracks.
- He was excellent at building a culture where the locker room seemed generally united and functional.
- He was key in finding the “right kind of guy,” which was his initiative to target leaders of men, men of high character and intelligence, and men who had a great work ethic. This would be often undercut, as he was forced to take guys who subverted this entire program, but he continued down the path to the best of his ability.
- He displayed humility and didn’t allow his ego to ruin his opportunity to run one of the world’s top sports franchises for a decade.
- He won more games than every team in the NFC during the decade except the Packers, Saints and Seahawks. This counts for plenty.
- He was widely considered an above-average coach at nearly everything from Monday-Saturday. Again, you would prefer a top game-day coach, but the ability to prepare a team and go through the massive responsibilities all week at a high level is not to be ignored.
But the fact that almost nobody in the history of the sport retained their position for so long with almost nothing to show for it should be questioned. And that doesn’t fall on Jason Garrett at all unless you wanted him to fire himself.
If Jerry Jones insists on being called the general manager despite doing almost none of the duties that general managers do, then this must go completely on him for choosing comfort over winning (again). This is consistent with much of his last few decades and is verified by his reluctance to ever actually fire Garrett but rather stall so that the coach’s contract just expired and the owner never actually had to cut him loose. People can say all they want that he would do anything for another Super Bowl, but what have we seen that actually verifies that?
The slate is fresh as Mike McCarthy takes over. The Jones family perhaps has found the gospel again and will now promise themselves that they are all-in to rise to the top of the NFL and that they hired the coach to do it. They will receive another honeymoon, and the torches will be lowered from the angered townspeople for a period of time.
Will they think twice before chopping down the new coach’s authority? Will the tradition of the NFL’s only owner press availability outside the locker room every Sunday end? Will the Cowboys allow McCarthy the courtesy of shaping his team’s narrative to the public? Will they allow their coach truly to be the final word on matters he deems important and vital?
We don’t know how Jason Garrett’s run would have been different if he were afforded all of those concessions. But we do know that he wasn’t the right guy for the job because he didn’t demand those concessions. Maybe he would have been fired for standing up for what a coach needs and what is right. And maybe then his appeal would be much greater because he had to have things his way.
Instead, he was willing to do things Jerry’s way to hold the prestigious position he always wanted. And that is how his legacy will always be remembered.
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Ultimately whatever happens with the team is Jerry's fault. He is the man at the top. So when guys fail below him the blame always ultimately lands at his feet. Unfortunately Jerry can't be fired.
Stasheroo
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Fucking ridiculous, but not surprising. Disappointing would be the word that I would use. Incredibly disappointing.
I'll criticize Stephen for his handling of these player contracts, but if this is true, he gets my praise for finally being the voice of reason.
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I kind of figured this was the case. I mean, Garrett hung around for several weeks until they finally canned him.
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Yeah, just shows you that Jerry was wanting any excuse possible to keep his buddy. Which was nothing about winning and everything about a friendship. Yet your good buddy Jimmy wins a Superbowl and you have to fuck it all up in a tussle over credit. I guess he was never going to have that problem with Garrett...
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