Post by prossman on Dec 30, 2008 12:33:41 GMT -7
SAEN Harvey: Garrett's next step: From a pit to Lions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buck Harvey -
Jason Garrett has it better than most. A $3 million salary isn't bad pay for an offensive coordinator/scapegoat.
But Garrett likely understands what he has done to himself. A year ago, he turned down two NFL head-coaching jobs, and now the only team that has asked permission to talk to him is the perfectly awful Detroit Lions.
Still, rebuilding from 0-16 isn't as depressing as being stuck between a hapless head coach and a rabble of players looking for someone to blame. That's why Garrett shouldn't wait for the job that is supposed to be his eventually, and why he should do what he should have done a year ago.
He should leave.
Garrett always seemed too smart to get into this mess, given his Princeton education. Even when he was Troy Aikman's backup, Garrett stood as an equal. Aikman played the game as Garrett couldn't, but Garrett knew it as Aikman never would.
Aikman saw the same, and two years ago, Aikman used the pedestal of national television to predict Garrett would be an NFL head coach someday. Jerry Jones, influenced by anything Aikman says, reacted accordingly. Jones signed Garrett, when he wasn't sure for what job, before he hired Wade Phillips.
Garrett lived up to everything last season. He oversaw the league's second-highest scoring offense, and few noticed the warning sign. The Cowboys averaged only 12.3 points in their last four games.
Details didn't matter. Garrett had the look and the background, and now he had the credentials. As a Dallas-Fort Worth writer put it then, Garrett had become “the ‘it' guy.”
The Falcons and Ravens certainly believed in “it.” They offered him their head-coaching jobs, and those teams were considered to be much better than the Lions are now.
What followed restated the nature of the NFL, where today's 4-12 disaster is tomorrow's 12-4 surprise. Both the Falcons and Ravens made the playoffs with rookie quarterbacks.
Garrett chose not to gamble, however, probably because he thought he had a sure thing. Jones gave him a huge salary bump and an unofficial promise. Garrett would become the heir.
The arrangement looked like win-win for everyone. But history suggests these things don't work out if the team doesn't win-win. Mike Zimmer, the former Dallas defensive coordinator, is a cautionary tale.
Jones gave him a raise, too, when Zimmer had options. But when Zimmer couldn't make his defense mesh with Bill Parcells' ideas, Zimmer lost his luster.
A year ago, no one had such fears. Garrett would get Tony Romo for a second season, and the offense would get only better.
“That was huge,” Jason Witten said when he heard Garrett was staying. “Jason is a very talented coach, and his upside is tremendous. Keeping him allows us to move forward. We didn't want to do another system and learn different things.”
It might have been the same system, but defenses changed. Romo's comments Sunday were likely true. The Eagles “exposed” Garrett's schemes.
That wouldn't be a first for Philadelphia's respected defensive coordinator, Jim Johnson. But in this locker room, where Phillips says too little and the players say too much, the blame fell on Garrett.
Terrell Owens did this earlier in the season, and Sunday he felt comfortable advocating a switch to the West Coast offense. How many times did Michael Irvin tell Jimmy Johnson what offense to run? This is the insanity Jones has created.
Roy Williams joined the pile-on, when his stats were as quiet as he should be now. And then there was Romo, as tired of the Eagles' pass rush as he was of the blame. “Scheme is a major, major part of it,” Romo said.
Garrett could ask Romo exactly what the scheme had to do with that miserable throw to Williams at the end of the first half. But that's just it. Garrett can say a lot of things, but is this crowd willing to listen?
They see Garrett as powerless, without credibility, and that won't change if Jones replaces Phillips with Garrett. In this Jerry-dominated world, Garrett won't be anything but a smarter, thinner Wade.
Maybe Garrett is nothing more than that. Or maybe Garrett is the inverse of Phillips, with the kind of personality made to be a head coach, not a coordinator.
But here's what Garrett should understand by now.
He will have to go somewhere else to prove that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buck Harvey -
Jason Garrett has it better than most. A $3 million salary isn't bad pay for an offensive coordinator/scapegoat.
But Garrett likely understands what he has done to himself. A year ago, he turned down two NFL head-coaching jobs, and now the only team that has asked permission to talk to him is the perfectly awful Detroit Lions.
Still, rebuilding from 0-16 isn't as depressing as being stuck between a hapless head coach and a rabble of players looking for someone to blame. That's why Garrett shouldn't wait for the job that is supposed to be his eventually, and why he should do what he should have done a year ago.
He should leave.
Garrett always seemed too smart to get into this mess, given his Princeton education. Even when he was Troy Aikman's backup, Garrett stood as an equal. Aikman played the game as Garrett couldn't, but Garrett knew it as Aikman never would.
Aikman saw the same, and two years ago, Aikman used the pedestal of national television to predict Garrett would be an NFL head coach someday. Jerry Jones, influenced by anything Aikman says, reacted accordingly. Jones signed Garrett, when he wasn't sure for what job, before he hired Wade Phillips.
Garrett lived up to everything last season. He oversaw the league's second-highest scoring offense, and few noticed the warning sign. The Cowboys averaged only 12.3 points in their last four games.
Details didn't matter. Garrett had the look and the background, and now he had the credentials. As a Dallas-Fort Worth writer put it then, Garrett had become “the ‘it' guy.”
The Falcons and Ravens certainly believed in “it.” They offered him their head-coaching jobs, and those teams were considered to be much better than the Lions are now.
What followed restated the nature of the NFL, where today's 4-12 disaster is tomorrow's 12-4 surprise. Both the Falcons and Ravens made the playoffs with rookie quarterbacks.
Garrett chose not to gamble, however, probably because he thought he had a sure thing. Jones gave him a huge salary bump and an unofficial promise. Garrett would become the heir.
The arrangement looked like win-win for everyone. But history suggests these things don't work out if the team doesn't win-win. Mike Zimmer, the former Dallas defensive coordinator, is a cautionary tale.
Jones gave him a raise, too, when Zimmer had options. But when Zimmer couldn't make his defense mesh with Bill Parcells' ideas, Zimmer lost his luster.
A year ago, no one had such fears. Garrett would get Tony Romo for a second season, and the offense would get only better.
“That was huge,” Jason Witten said when he heard Garrett was staying. “Jason is a very talented coach, and his upside is tremendous. Keeping him allows us to move forward. We didn't want to do another system and learn different things.”
It might have been the same system, but defenses changed. Romo's comments Sunday were likely true. The Eagles “exposed” Garrett's schemes.
That wouldn't be a first for Philadelphia's respected defensive coordinator, Jim Johnson. But in this locker room, where Phillips says too little and the players say too much, the blame fell on Garrett.
Terrell Owens did this earlier in the season, and Sunday he felt comfortable advocating a switch to the West Coast offense. How many times did Michael Irvin tell Jimmy Johnson what offense to run? This is the insanity Jones has created.
Roy Williams joined the pile-on, when his stats were as quiet as he should be now. And then there was Romo, as tired of the Eagles' pass rush as he was of the blame. “Scheme is a major, major part of it,” Romo said.
Garrett could ask Romo exactly what the scheme had to do with that miserable throw to Williams at the end of the first half. But that's just it. Garrett can say a lot of things, but is this crowd willing to listen?
They see Garrett as powerless, without credibility, and that won't change if Jones replaces Phillips with Garrett. In this Jerry-dominated world, Garrett won't be anything but a smarter, thinner Wade.
Maybe Garrett is nothing more than that. Or maybe Garrett is the inverse of Phillips, with the kind of personality made to be a head coach, not a coordinator.
But here's what Garrett should understand by now.
He will have to go somewhere else to prove that.