Dallas Cowboys: Can Jason Garrett take his coaching to the next level?
By Matt Aaron
Team culture: A
You’ve got to give Garrett this one. He’s very positive. He never publicly criticizes his players. He doesn’t get down when the team loses. This has never seemed to help the team that much, but it is kind of nice, I guess. It’s better than the alternative.
Player evaluation, trading, and drafting: A
It’s hard to say how much input Garrett has in the Cowboys’ player acquisition, but we know he does have some influence. For example, it’s widely known that it was Garrett who championed spending so many first-round draft picks on offensive linemen. It was Jason who pounded the table for five-time Pro Bowl offensive guard Zack Martin when Cowboys’ owner and general manager Jerry Jones wanted to draft Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, who turned into a monumental bust.
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In-game adjustments: D
This has always been the knock on Garrett and for good reason. Whatever his plan is for a game, he just never seems to deviate from it. This is often a mistake. Of course, the poster-child for Garrett’s ineptitude on in-game adjustments was the infamous “Burning of Atlanta,” as Jerry Jones dubbed the Falcons game in 2017 when Dak Prescott was sacked eight times in one game.
If you’ve blocked out this painful memory, perennial Pro Bowl left tackle Tyron Smith was injured, so reserve Chaz Green was promoted to starting left guard, and he put in perhaps one of the worst performances in the history of football. Dubbed the human turnstile, Green often allowed Falcons’ defensive end Adrian Clayborn to simply run past him, racking up an incredible six sacks in a single game.
But Garrett neither replaced Green or gave him any help until finally pulling him in the fourth quarter. Running for his life the entire game, Prescott seemed to develop a nasty case of PTSD, which took him an entire year to shake.
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. It’s pretty obvious that Garrett’s biggest liability as a coach is making in-game adjustments. It’s also true that he could stand some improvement in the strategy department, but I think this year, on offense at least, this is in the hands of Kellen Moore, for better or for worse. Whether the Moore experiment works or not, that decision has been made.