This past week, retired WR Terrell Owens told 105.3 The Fan that it “doesn’t make any sense for Jason Garrett to keep his job. [The Cowboys are] not really expanding or progressing even as a team under his coaching tenure there.”
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Were I given the chance to sit in a room with T.O and discuss the state of the Cowboys and was presented with this statement, I may have to ask him if he truly believes what he just said.
The answer should be no. Flatly and without argument, it should not come off as a surprise that Coach Garrett is about to lead the Dallas Cowboys in his eighth season as their head coach.
Since his inaugural year as interim head coach in 2010, the Cowboys have posted a 68-55 record under coach Garrett. This places him second all-time for winning percentage in the franchise behind only Tom Landry. Since his first season, the Cowboys have only posted one sub-.500 record, and that of course was the 2015 year in which Tony Romo went down with a broken spine in game 2 in Philadelphia (not including the 2010 year in which Wade Phillips lost the position after a 1-7 start, after which Garrett took the HC position and finished the season going 5-3).
Now I know these numbers aren’t particularly flashy, and there are some 8-8 seasons in there that we aren’t discussing, but it should go without saying that it could certainly be a whole lot worse. If Garrett’s position was ever in jeopardy, those 8-8 seasons (2011-2013) should have had his seat red hot.
However, when the Cowboys have won in recent years under Garrett, they have won big.
We have seen flashes of greatness from this organization, and not just off the back of Romo and the rosters that surrounded him. It should not go without noting that two seasons ago, this team was aiming for a spot in the NFC title game with two rookies fresh out of college leading their offense. There is something to be said about an organization that in the lapse of one full season, can lose its longtime starting QB, replace him with a rookie and return to playoff contention.
Besides discussing record and the recent past, Jerry Jones is not the kind of man to back down from his laurels. He chose Garrett to assume the head position in 2010 because he believed that he afforded the Cowboys their best chance at competing for a Super Bowl, and that did not change after three straight seasons falling to 8-8. They were certainly on to something in 2014, when Romo, Dez, and Demarco were being lauded as the new triplets, and we were all having similar feelings two years ago when Dak and Zeke stole our hearts during a 13-3 run to the postseason. In short, Jerry has stuck to his guns the way we have all come to expect him to and now, coach Garrett is leading the development of the next incarnation of the Dallas Cowboys- hopefully one that will take the next step and find stable success the way that only a few teams in the league have enjoyed in recent years.
As for Terrell Owens, I’m not going to fully write off what he said as bitterness towards the organization or Jason Garrett. There is a small amount of truth to his words regarding how much growth this organization has experienced in recent years vis-à-vis fan expectations, and it is not unfair to state that it hasn’t been enough. However, it is nearly impossible to listen to T.O speak about Garrett and this organization without remembering their checkered past. It seems to be a bit of a stretch to place that burden entirely on the shoulders of Garrett, who has time and again proven to be more than capable.
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