Dallas Cowboys’ head coach Jason Garrett kind of reminds me
a little bit of Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. Both are young first-time head
coaches who have been entrusted with championship-caliber teams while still in
their coaching infancy.
Spoelstra didn’t have all of the talent he now has at his
disposal when he first took over as coach of the Heat but he did produce two
winning seasons with what he had before LeBron James and Chris Bosh landed in
his lap. With the addition of two All-Star talents like James and Bosh,
Spoelstra has been able to lead Miami to two straight NBA Finals appearances.
While Garrett became head coach back in 2010, last season
was his first full season as head coach of the Cowboys and he didn’t do that
bad of a job. The problem is people expected him to do much better with all of
the talent there is in Dallas.
The Cowboys were only one win away from making the playoffs
last season. If not for some of Garrett’s questionable game management that
cost Dallas a couple of wins, then it could have been the Cowboys making a deep
playoff run instead of their division rivals the New York Giants.
It’s easy to second-guess what could have been in hindsight
though. Still, if there wasn’t enough pressure to win in Big D last season
expect Cowboys Stadium to become the league’s biggest pressure-cooker this year
because the Cowboys are an extremely talented team.
And the Cowboys added even more talent during the offseason.
The NFC East is probably the toughest division from top to bottom in the NFL talent-wise.
The NFC East is probably one of the toughest divisions to
coach in boasting three head coaches that have coached in a Super Bowl.
Tom Coughlin just came off of his second Super Bowl win this
past season, Washington Redskins’ head coach Mike Shanahan won two
championships as head coach of the Denver Broncos and Andy Reid was able to
lead the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl back in 2004 but lost to the New
England Patriots.
Those three guys have a wealth of coaching experience in
comparison to Garrett, whose coaching resume consists of two seasons as the
Miami Dolphins quarterback coach, four and a half seasons as the Cowboys
offensive coordinator and one and a half seasons as Dallas’s head coach.
Garrett has only been in coaching for the past eight years.
All three of the other coaches in his division have been head coaches in the
NFL over 10 years apiece and have each coached in some capacity for over 20
years.
The saving grace for Garrett is that Shanahan hasn’t been in
the division long and it shows. Garrett was able to beat Shanahan’s Redskins in
both meetings last season but that will get much harder to do as Shanahan
continues to build the Redskins to his liking.
Reid and Coughlin have both been in the division a long time
and probably know the Cowboys’ roster and capabilities better than Garrett does
having game-planned so much for them over the years. Garrett was 0-4 versus Reid
and Coughlin last year and the Cowboys lost all four games by more than 10
points.
Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones has tried to give Garrett as much
help as possible to he possibly can in the coaching department. Jones hired
defensive coordinator Rob Ryan last season to help on the defensive side of the
ball.
Ryan has been mentioned as a head-coaching candidate for
various jobs and will probably be coaching his own team soon, especially if he
can help Garrett lead the Cowboys deep into the playoffs.
Jones also added offensive line coach Bill Callahan to help
Garrett with the offense this season. Callahan has head coaching experience and
is expected to help Garrett with game-planning and some of his in-game
decision-making.
But ultimately this is Garrett’s team and he will have the
final say in any matter. He has the talent to succeed and possibly advance this
team to a Super Bowl but he will have to step up to the curve as a coach if the
Cowboys are going to reach their vast potential.
Do you have a favorite team or player you want to know more about?
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at sportmentalist@yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
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