Jason Garrett was officially introduced at Cowboys Stadium today as the Dallas Cowboys head coach. He received a four year deal. There wasn't really much of a surprise that he had the interim tag removed from his title. Garrett had done fairly well in his eight game audition. The Cowboys went 5 - 3 under his stewardship and clearly had more life and energy as a team than they did at end of Wade Phillips' tenure.
It will be interesting to see how things with the Cowboys unfold in 2011. The team clearly underperformed (and they lost probably their most important player, quarterback Tony Romo, for most of the season to a shoulder injury) in 2010 . How many personnel changes will be made? What will they do with their #9 first round draft pick? Will they go after a big name defensive coordinator? A lot of questions posed today at the press conference announcing the official Garrett hire seemed to be around exactly how much decision making power will Garrett actually have. Let's face it folks, Jerry Jones is not only the Cowboys' owner, he is the team's GM. The primary job of a head coach is to coach and direct the personnel (players and coaches) that has been assembled for him by the GM (and player personnel execs). So this situation will be no different. Garrett has not been given GM duties. No one should be shocked that Jones will be making personnel decisions. Garrett should be concentrating on coaching the X's & O's and the temperament of his team. Oddly enough, at the press conference, when a reporter asked Garrett about how much influence he will have on decisions, Jones jumped right up to the podium and interrupted. He tried his best to assure everyone that Garrett will not have a player or a coach he does not want. But Jones' jump to the podium still metaphorically showed who is in control of decisions no matter what was actually being said. Again, that is Jones' function and I do believe him when he says that Garrett will have (some) input.
I had a lot of issues with Garrett's play calling when he was just the offensive coordinator, though I think it got better when he became the interim coach. There have been a lot of speculation around that, some folks actually believing he sabotaged Phillips by not making the right play calls for the offense. Specifically, it was obvious that the Cowboys needed to run the ball more under Phillips (and Garrett was in charge of the offense). Garrett didn't call more run plays until Phillips was fired and he was running the show. Though I find those actions inexplicable, I don't think Garrett deliberately neglected to run the ball to take Phillips out.
I wish Garrettt the best as he becomes the 8th head coach in Cowboys' history. Next season (barring issues with the new CBA) Garrett will have a fresh start, a healthy Romo, and a whole off-season to place his stamp firmly on this team. The Cowboys have a lot of bad memories to erase from this season. While they had hoped to win three playoff games at home to become the only team to play and win the Super Bowl in their own stadium, they wound up winning only 2 regular season games at Cowboys Stadium. Jones has placed his hopes on Garrett to give he and his fans a little amnesia for the 2011 season. But he does hope that the team repeats one thing from this season: a trip to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis which resulted in a win. Lucas Oil Stadium is the site of next season's Super Bowl.
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