Of all the off-season moves, this should have been the simplest one . . . right?
Quell the angry townsfolk. Fire Scott Linehan.
But the Cowboys never do anything the simple and easy way, do they?
There always seem to be radio shows involved, and forensic Jones-speak to be examined. Team-issued statements always get mined for comedic value – Friday’s included.
And then comes the denouement, wherein Cowboys fans and media always seem to ask themselves, “What the heck just happened?”
The season needed a scapegoat, and Linehan with his red zone-punchless offense and pocket-passing Dak Prescott made for an easy target. The 7-1 turnaround from the 3-5 beginning to the season is not without merit, but the tribal drumbeat for Linehan’s head never quieted.
The media Friday kept focusing on Jason Garrett’s Monday radio interview and its ensuing rebuttal by the Joneses. This is what happens when the media feels it has been misled – it replays and re-scrutinizes the remarks with Jack Ruby-in-the-basement fascination.
Aha! Either Garrett lied, we all concluded, or the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys had zero input into the move.
Yet Garrett, some of us were told, fully concurred with the decision to fire the offensive coordinator. I’m not sure, therefore, that the sloppy execution of Linehan’s dismissal is anything more than the Cowboys being the Cowboys.
The team probably planned to announce this on a Friday afternoon all along, Friday historically being the day when you can slip bad news past the networks’ news wolves. Seriously, Owner Jones, you picked the Friday afternoon before the conference championship games to fire a guy that you could have fired weeks ago?
The Jones theorists, the ones who see method in Jerry’s weekly madness, were quick to connect the dots from the now-vacant OC job to the staffs of the four teams that will play Sunday. The Saints’ Dan Campbell was quickly mentioned.
More likely, Owner Jones can’t wait to get to Mobile and put a “Help Wanted” sign on the Senior Bowl. The week serves as the NFL’s virtual annual job fair.
Why, though, would Jones need time to interview people? Why wasn’t the firing and hiring announced all at once? It doesn’t make sense that Jerry and Stephen would just now be searching for Linehan’s replacement.
If so, what would be the Joneses’ pitch to a candidate? Come be our offensive coordinator and leave in next season’s staff purge?
What capable, skins-on-the-wall offensive coach would be attracted to an offer like that?
The Cowboys aren’t likely to get a credible coordinator to sign a one-year contract. So either Garrett gets a contract extension, or the new coordinator gets a multi-year deal and becomes a part of the next head coach’s staff – an inherited coach cycle that has failed for Jones in the past.
Lacking a Garrett extension, the cleanest way to handle the transition is for the Cowboys to shuffle duties in-house. Tight ends coach Doug Nussmaier could handle the coordinator title. He’s been an OC before.
But with possibly one final season to earn head coaching tenure with the Cowboys, Garrett is supposed to trust Nussmaier to call the plays?
Not if he can help it. In that scenario, Garrett is going to want to call the plays.
Let the fun begin.
The announced reason that Owner Jones found someone to take over the play calling responsibilities was to give Garrett time to grow into an NFL head coach. He’s grown – no one should argue that.
Garrett’s expertise, however, is supposed to be offense. That’s why he was thrust awkwardly onto Wade Phillips’ lap.
Let Garrett call the plays. He’s certainly heard all the criticisms and knows what needs to be fixed.
As the story goes, Garrett was ready to change coordinators before the 2018 season. But somehow, Jerry Jones decided to roll the dice with Linehan one more time and empowered him to change the offensive line coach, go with a no-Dez, we’re-fine-as-is receiving corps and make Kellen Moore the quarterbacks coach.
Linehan leaves behind a broken system. A quarterback in Prescott whose strengths aren’t being utilized. An expensive offensive line that now ranks as average – especially if Travis Frederick is unable to return. A roster that still seems a receiver and a tight end short.
Somebody with a solid resume might want the job. Never underestimate Jones’ checkbook.
But the timing and the awkwardness of the week lead me to worry that Jerry still wants to count the job candidates in line at the Senior Bowl, as if he’s hiring the Duke of Frisco, not a football coach. Earlier this week Owner Jones embarrassingly claimed aloud that if Garrett were available, he would have had “offers from five teams.”
Oh, Jerry.
This should have been simple. Instead, comedy and intrigue await.
