One of the biggest misconceptions about the Dallas Cowboys under Jerry Jones is that the head coach has no power, when in fact he wields considerable strength until that fateful moment he does not.
That is the moment when Coach Switzer-Gailey-Campo-Parcells-Phillips-Garrett all realize that in order to be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys requires them to accept multiple occasions when they have no choice but to yield to the grand master.
To be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is glamorous, but the interview process is the same as any other: You lie to get the job, and they lie to you about the job.
Three games remain in a season that is perfectly 2020, and Mike McCarthy is fast approaching that meeting when Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Jones will let his coach know who ultimately runs the Dallas Cowboys.
It’s OK, Mike. Happens to the best of 'em.
No one could love Jason Garrett more than Jerry Jones, and Jerry made Jason dump his own brother as an assistant coach.
In January of 2013, after a second straight 8-8 season, Garrett dumped his brother, Judd, as his tight ends coach. A few days before that, Garrett hired Monte Kiffin as his defensive coordinator after Rob Ryan was canned.
Those moves didn’t just “happen.”
It’s a detail about this job that has irritated previous coaches; that they cannot set their coaching staff to their own preferences.
You make that trade when you become the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
McCarthy was allowed to hire the staff he wanted, and now changes are a comin’ — even the ones he may not want, or think are good ideas.
Jerry and Mike could justify abstaining from making sweeping changes in light of an offseason that was unlike any other in the history of the league. Retaining everyone for another go would be fair.
Fair is a fantasy, and Jerry sits still as well as a toddler on Santa’s lap.
When your defense is the worst in the NFL, and allows a league-worst 30.8 points per game, someone needs to clean out a desk.
Defensive coordinator Mike Nolan’s head will be offered up as the significant change, even if this disaster is not his fault, or if his head coach is willing to argue on his behalf.
When Nolan was the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in 2005, he made McCarthy his offensive coordinator. The next season, McCarthy was hired to be the head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
McCarthy and Nolan are tight, and both of these guys get it.
Nolan has been around the NFL since before he was born. His father, Dick, was a long time NFL coach who once worked for Tom Landry.
Nolan knows he’s going to be fired, and it will have no impact on his friendship with McCarthy because it won’t be McCarthy making the decision.
The question is whether replacing Nolan will do anything, or if this is merely a change for the sake of change.
Nolan can’t do anything about a secondary that is barely adequate, or defensive tackles who are backups disguised as starters.
The additions of free-agent veterans Gerald McCoy and Dontari Poe were supposed to solve the problems in the middle of the line. You saw how that worked out. McCoy was lost for the year before the season started, and Poe was so bad he was released on Oct. 28.
The talent on the Cowboys defense is as slim as the team’s chance of reaching the NFC title game, and that is not on Nolan.
What is on Nolan is that his defense is terrible, and the Cowboys are bad. McCarthy may want to keep Nolan, and likely does, but this is not his call.
He’s the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, but he’s about to find out who’s really in charge.
It’s OK, Mike. Happens to the best of ‘em.
