Everyone on the outside expected Jason Garrett to be gone by now.
Heck, the Cowboys organization has more leaks than a dude in a fishnet stocking mask live-streaming himself robbing a swiss-cheese bakery… almost everyone inside the organization expected Garrett to be gone by now, too. One local TV anchor went so far as to tweet the entire staff was fired on Monday, but here the Dallas Cowboys are on Thursday afternoon and not a single move has been announced.
Owner Jerry Jones, 77, and his son Stephen cancelled their Tuesday afternoon radio spots on New Year’s Eve. No move was made on New Year’s Day and now Day 2 of the 2020 calendar and there’s been less movement than my Golden-Globe-worthy tree stump performance in the third-grade play. I was rivetingly grounded, but this is ridiculous, right?
Just one coaching staff member, who like Garrett and at least 15 others in the Cowboys employ have expiring/expired contracts, has been identified as interviewing elsewhere. That would be passing game coordinator and defensive play caller Kris Richard who is being screened by the New York Giants as this is being typed. Other than that, though, there’s a bunch of limbo and countless articles and social media discussions being had.
Everyone has a theory, and though I purposely avoided the topic for so long, something has to be written. I have no concrete evidence about what is transpiring, but neither do a lot of the insiders who have now written seven or eight articles by now, but I do want to gather my thoughts, just for posterity. Here are two thoughts I have about why Garrett is still employed. They are intertwined, but focus on two separate incidents that lead me to one quicksand-based stance.
The Tony Romo Factor
Remember back in 2016, when Tony Romo broke his back for the 17th time (exaggeration) and Dak Prescott took over as the No. 1 QB? That was the summertime, and through the amazing start Prescott had, week after week Cowboys Nation was ready, willing and anticipating the return of Romo.
Even Jones himself spoke glowingly about Romo returning to lead the playoff run almost up until the exact moment Romo took to the podium and relinquished his claim to the throne so Prescott could reign unimpeded.
Why bring this all up?
The following offseason, a still-under-contract Romo was the talk of the football universe as free agency approached. Were the Cowboys going to hold him to his contract and absorb the huge cap hit for a backup? Could they afford to? Which team was he going to be traded to? There were rumors everywhere as people tried to find the right fit. Finally, after 27 days of free agency, Romo retired on April 4 once he secured a gig as the next broadcast analyst superstar for CBS.
Almost a month went by, with Jerry Jones and the organization allowing themselves to be chastised by their fans, national media and any and everybody with a pulse about how they were doing Romo wrong by not trading or releasing him.
In reality, the Joneses were providing Romo cover; paying homage to someone who literally traded his future quality of life in the joint effort to win a Super Bowl. Romo was allowed to sift through employment choices, see what kind of interest there was for him in several different fields, while the Cowboys organization took shots to the chin as their loyalty and compassion was spoken of as incompetency.
Sound familiar?
My working theory, which I have no idea whether or not it’s wholly or partially true, is that the Cowboys are giving Garrett a chance to find out whether or not he is desired by one of the three other NFL clubs who currently have a head coach opening.
The Joneses are perfectly fine with being painted as incompetent here to allow Garrett a few days to test the waters and see what there is of interest on the coaching circuit.
And if he doesn’t find any of the current openings interested in him?
Well, he’s able to return to the organization in some capacity.
The Draft Commandment Invoked Early
Remember a few weeks ago, Jerry Jones went on the radio and talked about how difficult it would be for him to hire a collegiate coach. The reason why? Because the college coaches were busy on Sundays when the NFL was having their games. College coaches were reviewing their team’s Saturday game film and Jones thought it was going to take a long learning curve for them to acclimate themselves with the personnel at the professional level.
Earlier in the decade, I began chronicling a tell-tale accurate accounting of things relative to identifying the Cowboys’ plans during draft season. Often imitated, and sometimes outright plagiarized by some of the same folks milking the Garrett decision for every click possible, here was the 2019 version. The key commandment being invoked here? Listen to Jerry’s words, because he normally is telling the truth about his intentions.
We know of course that Jones’ only success as an NFL owner/GM has been with inexperienced former college head coaches. Both Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer were hired directly out of college jobs and they are the only hires who have brought Jones championships.
So what if Jones is hedging his bets?
What if Jones has a college head coach in mind, whether it be Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley, Baylor’s Matt Rhule, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh or (gasp) Alabama’s Nick Saban, and if Garrett doesn’t have a head coaching gig lined up, Jones wants him to serve as a senior advisor?
Not a GM, the Cowboys’ owner sees himself as the GM, the team has been steadily handing over more of these responsibilities to Stephen over the years and Will McClay is likely untouchable as the director of player personnel with a stellar track record since taking that role over in 2014. But as a senior advisor? The guy there to be a guiding hand to a college head coach and a new staff?
Jones is crazy enough to think such a hierarchy will succeed.
Jones would have the best of both worlds in that scenario. Garrett would be able to dish out all the dirt his brilliant and well-prepared (though slow to adjust in-game) Princeton mind on the Cowboys’ opponents. The owner would be able to keep Garrett employed in some fashion if the rest of the NFL world wasn’t interested in hiring him for 2020, and also allow Jones to dip into the pool of collegiate coaching talent.
Is this what’s happening?
Maybe.
Probably not.
But if you’ve been spending the last four days waiting on the shoe to drop, this might be the most entertaining theory you come across while we all wait on things to play out.
At least I did that for you, friends.
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