Dallas officially unloads Garrett ...

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Riverumbbq

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After a strange week, Jason Garrett finally informed he will not return as Cowboys coach
Frank Schwab
Frank Schwab

Yahoo SportsJanuary 5, 2020, 3:11 PM PST


NFL Network's Judy Battista details head coach Jason Garrett's 'strange' split from Dallas Cowboys

Finally, we can add the Dallas Cowboys to the list of teams looking for a new head coach.
It’s not much of a surprise that head coach Jason Garrett won’t be back. He was in the final year of his contract, and he oversaw one of the most disappointing Dallas seasons in recent memory. It was a surprise that it took a full week for the Cowboys to make it official.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones finally fired Garrett after years of patience and one more odd week thrown on at the end. Fox’s Jay Glazer reported and ESPN’s Adam Schefter confirmed that Garrett was finally told by the Cowboys on Sunday evening he would not be returning as the team’s head coach, after a weird week of speculation. Garrett, the former Cowboys quarterback who was the team’s coach since the 2010 season, won only two playoff games and never made the NFC championship game.
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The team officially announced it on Sunday night.

Jones always thinks big, and Garrett couldn’t get the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl. He had plenty of chances.
The Dallas Cowboys officially split from head coach Jason Garrett on Monday. (Andrew Dieb/Icon Sportswire)

The Dallas Cowboys officially split from head coach Jason Garrett on Monday. (Andrew Dieb/Icon Sportswire)Jason Garrett let go due to disappointing season
Garrett’s job security has been a constant topic of conversation in Dallas, but Jones kept bringing Garrett back. Even after the season, when everyone assumed Garrett would be fired, there was no word from the Cowboys that he would not be the team’s coach anymore. The team reportedly interviewed Mike McCarthy and Marvin Lewis for the job, and Garrett still hadn’t been let go.
That was odd because by Thanksgiving it seemed clear Garrett was done as Cowboys coach.
On Thanksgiving, the Cowboys were flat and sloppy in a one-sided 26-15 loss to the Buffalo Bills. As the Cowboys were hopelessly behind on a huge stage, about to drop to 6-6, that’s the point everyone knew Garrett’s time was up. Then the Cowboys followed that up with another flop on national TV, a terrible loss to the Chicago Bears. The final straw came in Week 16, when the Cowboys had a chance to salvage an NFC East title and lost 17-9 to the Philadelphia Eagles. Sunday’s win over Washington wasn’t going to change much, especially when the Eagles beat the Giants to clinch the NFC East.
The Cowboys came into this season with high hopes and looked good early in the season, but the season faded fast. Dallas started 3-0, then lost three in a row and were 6-7 after that bad Bears loss. A win over the Rams in Week 15 gave some false hope. The Eagles loss was a trip back to reality.
The first clear sign that Jones had run out of patience came after a 13-9 loss to the New England Patriots in Week 12. Special-teams miscues plagued the Cowboys and Garrett’s decision to kick a short field goal on fourth down late in the fourth quarter instead of going for a touchdown was second-guessed.
"With the makeup of this team, I shouldn't be this frustrated," Jones said after that loss to the Patriots.
Four days later, the Cowboys were smashed at home by the Bills with a huge Thanksgiving audience watching. Jones said Garrett would keep his job for the rest of the season, but everyone figured that barring a miracle Super Bowl run, there would be someone new in 2020. It just took a few days into 2020 to get to that place.
Next Cowboys coach will feel pressure too
Garrett wasn’t bad in the regular season. In 2010, he went 5-3 after taking over in midseason for fired Wade Phillips, who had started the year 1-7. He had only one losing season in his nine full seasons as Cowboys coach. Even with how bad 2019 was for the Cowboys, they finished it 8-8. But he made the playoffs only three times and never made a deep run.
The Cowboys had a stacked roster with plenty of stars. Jones paid big money to keep defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, then paid more to have running back Ezekiel Elliott end his holdout. Clearly Dallas was loading up for a big season. When that didn’t happen, Garrett couldn’t survive it.
The roster and Jones’ desire to spend money is why the job will be attractive. Assuming the Cowboys figure out a way to bring back quarterback Dak Prescott, there are a lot of key pieces always in place, and a new coach will know that Jones will always be aggressive in fielding the best roster possible. It’s also a good bet that Jones could at least make runs at some of the biggest names possible, like former Ohio State and Florida coach Urban Meyer and Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley.
Cowboys head coach is one of the highest profile jobs in sports. The bar is high for the job because Jones doesn’t do anything halfway. Whoever gets the job next will be under pressure immediately. As Garrett can attest, that’s always part of the Cowboys job.

 

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Jason Garrett firing: Top potential NFL landing spots for former Cowboys head coach

Jason Garrett is free to join another NFL team for the first time since 2007, when he joined the Dallas Cowboys as the offensive coordinator after a two-year stint as quarterbacks coach for the Miami Dolphins. From there, he'd land the interim head coaching tag after the dismissal of Wade Phillips in 2010, going on to lead a swift midseason turnaround that thrust him into the role full-time for the 2011 season and beyond.

Nearly a decade later, Garrett has amassed an impressive regular season record of 85-67 in his 9.5 seasons with the Cowboys, but only two wins in five playoff games won't cut the mustard for an organization so perennially drenched in Super Bowl expectations. An all too familiar 8-8 finish on the season has the Cowboys out of the playoffs and into the fray of finding a successor for Garrett, as he himself now wades through the waters of free agency in search for a new job.

He made it clear following the Cowboys hollow 47-16 victory over Washington Redskins that he wants to continue coaching in the NFL, and there are several teams that would be a great fit for his skill set -- as he enters 2020 as one of the more respected coaches in pro football by team executives around the league.

1. New York Giants
This one will top the list for Garrett, and there will be interest from both sides. For the Giants, it'll be about having an opportunity to land a veteran NFL head coach that also happens to be fluent in the workings of the NFC East. That includes knowing and being able to share all of the minutia regarding the Cowboys -- a team they've had difficulty beating in recent seasons. Garrett is regarded as a good talent evaluator who is no stranger to building a strong culture within the locker room, and the Giants have long lacked the latter. Other candidates will be in play here, obviously, such as Mike McCarthy, Matt Rhule (Baylor) and Josh McDaniels (Patriots), but Garrett will be a priority interview.

2. Cleveland Browns
Speaking of a needed culture change, the Browns are as thirsty for one as a man trying to cross the Sahara with a bottle full of salt water. Top players on the roster like wide receiver Jarvis Landry cites "leadership" -- or rather a lack of it -- as the key issue within the locker room, and Freddie Kitchens' inability to inject it in his first season as head coach is why it ultimately became his only season as head coach in Cleveland. Say what you will about Garrett, but he never once lost the Cowboys locker room in his tenure, not even when things were there most bleak. What the Browns need is a coach who can get 100 percent buy-in from the players, and Garrett is a shining example of at least that much. Like the others, the Browns are casting a wide net, and one that could and should involve Garrett.

3. Carolina Panthers
The firing of Ron Rivera in December set the stage for the entire NFL head coaching search this offseason, and mainly because as the most highly-sought after free agent coach -- wherever he lands will force other needy teams to move down the totem. With Rivera expected to join the Washington Redskins, it removes a Cowboys rival from the table in regards to Garrett, but the Panthers still need a guy. This coming season could be one that sees Rivera and Garrett swapping divisions, but this is another position others will be vying for as well. There's a lot of promise in Charlotte, and even if they need to figure out their quarterback position, they could do much worse than bringing in another former NFL Head Coach of the Year.

Option: Return in 2021
Few things are more taxing than being tasked with leading an NFL team, but that stress is multiplied to an unfathomable degree when that team happens to the the Cowboys. As many have discovered and will one day find out, the pressure to lead the most watched and equally most vilified sports team in the world can wear on you, to say the very least. That's if you're simply coming into the organization with obvious expectations, but Garrett has the added stressor of having been groomed since his days with the Cowboys as a backup in the early 1990s as a potential head coach in Dallas, and being unable to perennially live up to that level of investment by Jerry Jones would make anyone need a breather -- once set free.

Garrett definitely wants to coach again in the NFL, and is held in high regard by GMs around the league, but there's a chance he takes a break to much needed decompress before jumping back into the fray. There will be new vacancies that need filling in 2021, and teams will come a'calling.
 

CGI_Ram

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Garrett to the Giants makes a lot of sense.
 

TexasRam

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I love how everyone says he is highly regarded by GM's around the league.

Jerry Jones used to say that.

But after 9 years, how many GM's think Garett can get a team past the first round of the playoffs.
 

CGI_Ram

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I love how everyone says he is highly regarded by GM's around the league.

Jerry Jones used to say that.

But after 9 years, how many GM's think Garett can get a team past the first round of the playoffs.

I think you can do a lot worse than Garrett, myself.

The players love playing for him, so it would seem with the right coordinators it could work.
 

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I think you can do a lot worse than Garrett, myself.

The players love playing for him, so it would seem with the right coordinators it could work.
Maybe. He can assemble talent, just is not an ingame x and 0 guy.
I wondered if he might be a better GM then coach.
 

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I think Jeruh just filed adoption papers for him though.

Remember when he interviewed for our HC position? We turned him down for someone I shall not name. LOL
 

fearsomefour

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Jerry announces the firing during the playoff game....such a Jerry move.
Expect the next hiring to be announced during the NFC Title game or Super Bowl so Jerry can have a little Championship spotlight shine his way.