Archer: Underwhelming hires show Cowboys right to stay with Jason Garrett

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
121,746
Underwhelming hires show Cowboys right to stay with Jason Garrett


9:34 PM ET
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer


IRVING, Texas -- At some point this week the Philadelphia Eagles are expected to name Doug Pederson as their new head coach.

Unofficially, the Tennessee Titans ended the open season on head coaching vacancies when they promoted Mike Mularkey from interim coach to the full-time gig. And how completely unspectacular is that hire after his stints with the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars?

But just to recap, here is how the coaching dominoes fell:

Miami Dolphins -- Adam Gase

Cleveland Browns -- Hue Jackson

New York Giants -- Ben McAdoo

San Francisco 49ers -- Chip Kelly

Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- Dirk Koetter

Tennessee Titans -- Mike Mularkey

Philadelphia Eagles -- Doug Pederson

For all of those who wanted the Dallas Cowboys to make a change at head coach, who would you want among that group over Jason Garrett?

Jackson would have some fans, I’m sure. Gase’s work with quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Jay Cutler, would get some votes. Is that about it.

Sure, Jerry Jones could have found other candidates to interview, but even the pool of interviewee candidates seemed light this year. Gase has been a hot candidate the last few years. Jackson was wronged after his one year with the Oakland Raiders and did some great things with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Koetter has fans in the profession, but the Buccaneers were criticized by many for moving on from Lovie Smith after two seasons and just one with Jameis Winston.

Pederson’s past connection to the Eagles made him a favorite there, but he seems to have gotten the job only because the Giants named McAdoo Tom Coughlin’s replacement.

Garrett has gone 40-40 in his five full seasons as Cowboys head coach. He lost three de facto NFC East title games in Week 17 of the 2011, ’12 and ’13 seasons. He went 12-4 in 2014 and then things fell apart in 2015 with a 4-12 record.

The good feelings generated from 2014 disappeared with what happened last season.

But among the coaches hired to fill other vacancies or interviewed for those spots, there was not a must-get.

Perhaps things will be different if the Cowboys fail in 2016 and Jones decides to make a change.

One common denominator between the 2016 hires is the offensive backgrounds. McAdoo and Koetter were the offensive coordinators on the teams that hired them. Jackson was able to show the Browns’ front office what he could do twice a year over the last two seasons. Pederson was the offensive coordinator with the Kansas City Chiefs. Gase ran the Chicago Bears offense. Mularkey has an offensive background. We know Kelly is an offensive guy.

If Jones is looking to replace Garrett a year from now, you would think he would lean offense as well, especially because of Tony Romo.

Jones once said he could find 500 coaches who could lead the Cowboys to a Super Bowl in his divorce from Jimmy Johnson. Maybe he was right back then, considering just how talented the Cowboys’ roster was in the early to mid-1990s.

Would a guy like Mike Shanahan be of interest? He was a finalist for the San Francisco spot and has long been a Romo fan. How about New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels? He should have been considered for a gig this season but wasn’t. Former Cowboys' passing game coordinator Todd Haley has directed the highly-productive Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense through injuries at a number of positions and still flourished.

The easy thing to do is call for somebody’s firing. The hard thing to do is find the right replacement at the right time.

Jones stood pat with Garrett, believing 2015 was an off year, not the start of a trend.

He will find out if he is right or wrong over the next 12 months.

And he will get a good look at the candidates he chose not to explore.

The Cowboys have seven games against Pederson (two), McAdoo (two), Jackson, Kelly and Koetter in 2016.
 

Clay_Allison

Old Bastard
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
5,488
He answers his own question several times. There are more than half a dozen clear upgrades available. I'd rather have Rat Salad running this team than Garrett any day.
 

ravidubey

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
20,162
Why would one choose Garrett over any of these others? We have very little evidence of how Garrett would do away from Jerry, but it's clear he is the very of mediocre here.
 

jsmith6919

Honored Member - RIP
Joined
Aug 26, 2013
Messages
28,407
Spags is Archer, Archer is Spags
 

dallen

Senior Tech
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
8,466
This like saying you shouldn't get a divorce because your friend got a divorce and regretted it. Meanwhile your current wife is maxing out your credit cards and threatening to murder you if you ever leave her
 

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,464
This like saying you shouldn't get a divorce because your friend got a divorce and regretted it. Meanwhile your current wife is maxing out your credit cards and threatening to murder you if you ever leave her
That's exactly right.
 

Chocolate Lab

Mere Commoner
Joined
Oct 2, 2014
Messages
19,854
This like saying you shouldn't get a divorce because your friend got a divorce and regretted it. Meanwhile your current wife is maxing out your credit cards and threatening to murder you if you ever leave her
:lol Yep.
 

Carp

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
15,127
Just looking at these hires, nothing really exciting. The Kelly hire might give the Niners fan base might be excited just because he is a brand name. Other than that it is boring. It does seem like NYG, Tenn, and TB made hires that allowed continuity with their QBs.
 

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,464
Just looking at these hires, nothing really exciting. The Kelly hire might give the Niners fan base might be excited just because he is a brand name. Other than that it is boring. It does seem like NYG, Tenn, and TB made hires that allowed continuity with their QBs.
Kelly with the 49ers should be very interesting. They actually seem to have some pieces on offense that will fit perfectly with his system. Hopefully Chip has the common sense to actually keep those players around instead of acting like he can just plug anyone into his system and make it work.
 

Clay_Allison

Old Bastard
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
5,488
If Gase gets Tannehill playing at a Pro Bowl Alternate level, that could be the biggest win of any of these hires.
 

Genghis Khan

The worst version of myself
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
37,486
There are guys out there. I like Gase and Jackson. McDermott didn't get hired but could turn out pretty good. Same with Horton. Same with Patricia and Guenther and maybe some other assistants also. Koetter has some buzz too. Then there are guys like Gruden, Shanahan, Holmgren, Cowher who might come back for the right situation. And there's college too, like Brian Kelly or even Shaw.

It's retarded to say there's no good candidates just because a few teams made bad hires.
 

Genghis Khan

The worst version of myself
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
37,486
Kelly with the 49ers should be very interesting. They actually seem to have some pieces on offense that will fit perfectly with his system. Hopefully Chip has the common sense to actually keep those players around instead of acting like he can just plug anyone into his system and make it work.
I think Kelly is a gimmick coach with horrible social skills who doesn't know how to relate to players and runs a college offense. And I don't think he understands basic football (or at least basic PRO football) like time of possession and why it matters.

I think he will be a punch line in 5 or 10 years much like spurrier.

That said, if he is ever to succeed in the pros I think he needs a dynamic QB with a dangerous ability to run - like Kaepernick - despite the fact that he constantly claims he doesn't need it. Without that dynamic, his offense is way too simple.

And in spite of myself (since I think the guy is a major arrogant douche), I'm probably going to root for him to succeed in SF because it'll bug the piss out of eagles fans. Particularly since they easily could have acquired Kaepernick and finally gotten Kelly's offense in full force had they kept Kelly.
 

BipolarFuk

Demoted
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
11,464
Kelly with the 49ers should be very interesting. They actually seem to have some pieces on offense that will fit perfectly with his system. Hopefully Chip has the common sense to actually keep those players around instead of acting like he can just plug anyone into his system and make it work.
So you are rooting for the 49ers?
 

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,464
That said, if he is ever to succeed in the pros I think he needs a dynamic QB with a dangerous ability to run - like Kaepernick - despite the fact that he constantly claims he doesn't need it. Without that dynamic, his offense is way too simple.
Not only does he need a dynamic QB like that but I also think he needs that dynamic QB to be big enough to take the punishment of running the ball. Kaep has the size to take the pounding and the speed and athletic ability to make it work.
 

Genghis Khan

The worst version of myself
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
37,486
Not only does he need a dynamic QB like that but I also think he needs that dynamic QB to be big enough to take the punishment of running the ball. Kaep has the size to take the pounding and the speed and athletic ability to make it work.
Yep, true.
 

DLK150

DCC 4Life
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
8,789
The Kelly hiring could pan out if he learned from his mistakes, the rest are yet to be determined. Does that mean we were better off keeping Garrett? Meh. There are so few elite head coaches that you're basically reduced to pinning your hopes on a coordinator with "potential" or an "elite" college coach and we all know by now that either is a crap shoot.
 

townsend

Banned
Joined
Apr 11, 2013
Messages
5,377
The Kelly hiring could pan out if he learned from his mistakes, the rest are yet to be determined. Does that mean we were better off keeping Garrett? Meh. There are so few elite head coaches that you're basically reduced to pinning your hopes on a coordinator with "potential" or an "elite" college coach and we all know by now that either is a crap shoot.
every great coach ever has fallen into one of those categories at one point. Landry was coordinator with potential Jimmy was an elite college coach.

The bigger problem is a good coach has to be someone that makes Jerry comfortable. I think it's either Payton or bust for us. I don't know if there are any other promising coaches that Jerry would be willing to give control to.
 

Carp

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
15,127
every great coach ever has fallen into one of those categories at one point. Landry was coordinator with potential Jimmy was an elite college coach.

The bigger problem is a good coach has to be someone that makes Jerry comfortable. I think it's either Payton or bust for us. I don't know if there are any other promising coaches that Jerry would be willing to give control to.
What Jerry is or is not comfortable with matters very little. I just don't think he holds the same power as he did in previous years.
 
Top Bottom