Dallas Cowboys coaching change: One advantage of waiting
By Matt Aaron
Jerry Jones has said there will be no coaching changes until the season’s over, frustrating Dallas Cowboys fans. But could this be a blessing in disguise?
For the last few weeks, many Dallas Cowboys fans have been screaming for head coach Jason Garrett’s head. The fan base and many commentators have never liked Garrett because of the team’s lack of playoff victories.
The Cowboys have won two out of five playoff games under Garrett and have never gotten to the NFC title game, though he’s had ten years of chances.
This year felt like Garrett’s last stand. It’s the final year of his contract with Dallas. Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys, could have renewed him last year, but notably didn’t. He seemed, after so many years of complaints, to have finally lost patience with a coach he’s always had affection for.
The Cowboys entered the season, like so many times in the recent past, as legitimate contenders in the Super Bowl hunt. Last year, they won seven of their last eight regular-season games and beat the Seattle Seahawks in their first playoff game before getting beat by the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round.
Then, Dallas won their first three games in a row this season. Optimism seemed justified. Since then, the Cowboys have gone 3-7, with none of their wins coming against winning teams. It’s truly a pathetic record.
And yet, despite all of this, Dallas still leads the NFC East because the rest of its teams are even worse. This is the reason Jones has given for not firing Jason Garrett now.
After all, despite the wreckage of much of the season, it is theoretically still possible for the Cowboys to get to the Super Bowl and win it. Jerry Jones is probably the only one who still thinks this is possible. Understandably, many are upset Garrett still has a job.
But I’d like to shine one ray of sunshine into this otherwise bleak picture. There is one reason that Jones’s intransigence might just be a good thing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has to do with Jones’s character itself.