Dallas Cowboys: Can Jason Garrett take his coaching to the next level?

How can Jason Garrett, head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, improve? Perhaps making this change is the key to getting America’s Team to the Super Bowl.

Columns abound concerning players getting to the next level. How many times have we seen headlines like: How player X can break through? Can so-and-so player get to the Pro Bowl this year? Players on the rise … etc. It goes on and on.

Articles like this are a staple during the offseason. But you never see columns of this sort about coaches. It’s as if coaches can’t improve. As if they’re either good or bad and that’s it. But aren’t coaches just like anybody else? Anybody can get better at their job. Can’t they?

There are many complaints about Jason Garrett: The head coach of the Dallas Cowboys can’t win the big game. He’s a mindless clapper. He can’t win in the playoffs. He can’t get the Cowboys to the Super Bowl. He’s not good at making in-game adjustments.

Let’s see if we can figure out what, if anything, Garrett could get better at. First of all, beyond wins and losses, let’s catalog the main components of an NFL head coach’s job:

– Choosing and hiring assistant coaches
– Overall strategy for both offense and defense
– Team culture
– Player evaluation, trading, and drafting (Sometimes. Depends on the team.)
– In-game adjustments
– Public relations

To really see where Garrett can improve, I’m going to give him a grade for each of these jobs. (Some of you might see where this is going already. Shhh … don’t tell your neighbors!) Also, we’re going to skip public relations because let’s face it. PR has nothing to do with winning.