What they're saying about Jason Garrett: Is it time for Cowboys to move on?

Cotton

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Here's what SportsDay's experts and the national media have to say about Garrett.

SportsDay's Tim Cowlishaw: "Do I need to tell Jerry that all he's really saying there is that he has too often settled for mediocrity at the important coaching positions, a fundamental reason it's now 22 years and counting without an NFC Championship Game appearance for his once-storied franchise?"

"Garrett isn't a bad person and he isn't an awful coach, but that's a pretty low bar for keeping someone around. There is nothing special on his résumé after 11 seasons as either the coordinator or head coach, mostly the latter. He has now coached four elimination games on either the final or next to last game of the season (2011, 2012, 2013, 2017) and lost all of them."

"In fact, if the Cowboys lose to Philadelphia, this will be Garrett's fourth 8-8 team in seven seasons. That is spectacularly average."

Special contributor Matt Mosley: "I think the contract certainly makes Jerry less inclined to make a change. But he really wouldn't want to do it anyway...unless he had a great name in mind as a replacement. I'm not sure who that would be right now. Gruden's not going to work for him. Harbaugh's not going to do that. Those aren't the type of coaches Jerry wants to work with, even if he admires them. They'd want too much authority and face time. I do think Garrett would be able to get a head-coaching job pretty quickly, so that would mitigate a lot of what Jerry owes him."

SportsDay's David Moore: "None of this should come as a surprise. A pattern has emerged during Jason Garrett's tenure as head coach. What took place this season, while frustrating to those who expected this young team to build on last year's success, was true to form."

"Before the Cowboys broke through and began to win Super Bowls under Tom Landry, they were known as "Next Year's Champions.''"

"In recent years under Garrett, this team has become "Every Other Year's Divisional Round Loser.''"


More from David Moore: "The thing about Jason is ... to me it's not so much that he takes the safe route, but because of his preparation and his personality and his insistence on a cool, analytical look and relying on what he does leading into a game he allows that to completely squash his feel or instinct once he's in a game."

"So I don't know if it's not whether he trusts his instincts or feel during a game or if it's so buried beneath the preparation that he won't allow it to come out, but I think he consistently responds well after the fact when he should in games. I think that's probably his greatest weakness as a coach."

Now if the coordinator's coming in and lobbying to make a change, I think he gives a lot of weight to that because he does let the coordinator call the plays. Now look, they collaborate on that and the overall scheme going in, but whether or not you make a change at quarterback it's going to be on the head coach.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones: "I know a lot about our coaching staff. I certainly know a lot about Jason Garrett. Because of that, I can very quickly and candidly say his job is not an issue here at all."

...

"We did some really good things in the first half this year in many areas. You've got to understand that when you make a change, you got to look up and see where else you go."


SportsDay special contributor Rick Gosselin: "I think they would do some staff staff pruning before they got to the head coach. I was surprised after the 2015 season when they cratered that they didn't make any assistant coaching changes. If something happens this year, I think Garrett safer. They'll say he's one year removed from coach of the year, some coach of the year acclaim. I think if this team craters, if this team doesn't make the playoffs, even with the issues I think they'd have to make some staff changes. But I think Garrett would be safe heading into 2018."

ESPN's Chris Mortenson: "After the [Chargers] game we heard Jerry Jones say he spoke to the team after the game and gave them a very optimistic pep talk, so to speak. And that's Jerry Jones, [a] glass-half-full type of guy. But behind the scenes I do sense a level of accountability for Jason Garrett, the head coach, and the offensive coordinator Scott Linehan that Jerry Jones is going to expect more from them down the stretch.

"He sees what Mike Zimmer, his old defensive coordinator, is doing in Minnesota with adversity losing people. And across the league [with] Philadelphia losing Jason Peters, their left tackle. So I think Jerry Jones wants to see more out of his coaching staff, especially on the offensive side of the ball."

NFL.com's Ian Rapoport: "Owner Jerry Jones has been outspoken in his support of Jason Garrett and his coaching staff. However, inside the locker room it's a little bit of a different story. I'm told there is growing frustration from the Cowboys players about their coaching staff. And it really stems from two things.

"One: Just the lack of adjustments that has gone on over the last couple weeks. The Chaz Green disaster at tackle Tyron Smith was out was just one example.

"... Another one is just how simple they are. I had one person tell me that Philip Rivers out on the field on Thursday night was actually calling out the Cowboys' blitzes before they happened on the field. Not a good sign for the Cowboys."
 

L.T. Fan

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I think Garrett would adjust and make changes as the circumstances dictate but I’m of the opinion that he simply has a limited knowledge of the game and doesn’t know how to implement needed changes.
 

Rev

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DCC Poster Rev. "They needed to fire him years ago. Wasting years of talent since 2011."
 

Cotton

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DCC Poster Rev. "They needed to fire him years ago. Wasting years of talent since 2011."
Best take of all of them.
 

P_T

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DCC Poster Rev. "They needed to fire him years ago. Wasting years of talent since 2011."
Unfortunately, this is a moot issue and will continue to be as such until the only change that will have any chance of altering the path of this organization does occur... the owner firing and replacing the GM.
 

DLK150

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Yeah it's not Garrett's fault he's a mediocre HC, it's the owner's fault for letting him stick around. He thinks he's a "football guy" because he played fifty something years ago in college and won a title. He's still dead set on proving he was as much the reason for the 90s SB wins as Jimmy.
 

Chocolate Lab

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Yeah it's not Garrett's fault he's a mediocre HC, it's the owner's fault for letting him stick around.
With an assist to the fawning DFW media who until very recently have been like his PR team.
 

Rev

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Unfortunately, this is a moot issue and will continue to be as such until the only change that will have any chance of altering the path of this organization does occur... the owner firing and replacing the GM.
Baby steps....
 

Cowboysrock55

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Baby steps....
Yeah, I'd love for Jerry to step back and let McClay step into the full GM role but I doubt Jerry will ever take that big step backwards unless he has serious health issues. I'd settle for Jerry making some smart decisions with the coaches and to continue letting McClay and company run the drafts like we have seen in recent years. This team is pretty talented for Jerry being the GM. Now we just need the coaching shit to get fixed.
 

Chocolate Lab

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David Moore on the Ticket today was saying that Jerry will look at the Minny-Philly game and think to himself, "You know, they're not much better than us. At full strength we could beat either one of them, and one of them is going to the Superbowl."

Unfortunately he's exactly right. Jerry will think like that, as flawed as it is.

And maybe the worst part is, that's how fans will be thinking by the summer. Even Moore and one of the hosts agreed that it wasn't far off.

Very frustrating. This is why things will never change as long as we remain "relevant".
 

Cowboysrock55

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David Moore on the Ticket today was saying that Jerry will look at the Minny-Philly game and think to himself, "You know, they're not much better than us. At full strength we could beat either one of them, and one of them is going to the Superbowl."

Unfortunately he's exactly right. Jerry will think like that, as flawed as it is.

And maybe the worst part is, that's how fans will be thinking by the summer. Even Moore and one of the hosts agreed that it wasn't far off.

Very frustrating. This is why things will never change as long as we remain "relevant".
Yeah we aren't that far of in terms of talent. But their head coaches are worlds ahead of ours. Especially their offensive coaching staffs.
 

data

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Wade Phillips: Garrett sabatoged me. Now I keep setting off metal detectors. #firstringproblems
 

Genghis Khan

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David Moore on the Ticket today was saying that Jerry will look at the Minny-Philly game and think to himself, "You know, they're not much better than us. At full strength we could beat either one of them, and one of them is going to the Superbowl."

Unfortunately he's exactly right. Jerry will think like that, as flawed as it is.

And maybe the worst part is, that's how fans will be thinking by the summer. Even Moore and one of the hosts agreed that it wasn't far off.

Very frustrating. This is why things will never change as long as we remain "relevant".
He'd be right that they aren't that much better. The problem is that he doesn't realize that the difference isn't luck, or health.

It's coaching.
 

P_T

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He'd be right that they aren't that much better. The problem is that he doesn't realize that the difference isn't luck, or health.

It's coaching.
Which reiterates the crux of the underlying issue...
 

Smitty

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David Moore on the Ticket today was saying that Jerry will look at the Minny-Philly game and think to himself, "You know, they're not much better than us. At full strength we could beat either one of them, and one of them is going to the Superbowl."

Unfortunately he's exactly right. Jerry will think like that, as flawed as it is.

And maybe the worst part is, that's how fans will be thinking by the summer. Even Moore and one of the hosts agreed that it wasn't far off.

Very frustrating. This is why things will never change as long as we remain "relevant".
The frustrating part is that it's true but the changes needed to get over the hump are never made.
 
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