In the last couple of years, we’ve grown accustomed to hearing roars from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones about closing windows and rising levels of frustration with the team’s performance.
Those roars are almost always followed by Jones saying that coach Jason Garrett, quarterback Tony Romo or anyone else in the crosshairs isn’t in any imminent danger of losing their job. Jones did it again last week when he said that Garrett isn’t coaching for his job after a pair of seasons that saw the Cowboys lose Week 17 games that would have sent them to the playoffs if they won.
Garrett doesn’t see things quite the same way. Jones’ votes of confidence in Garrett haven’t left the coach feeling any more secure and he says none of the players on the team should feel any differently.
“Ever since I have been in this league as a player, as a coach, I think everybody, each and every day, is playing and coaching for their jobs,” Garrett said, via Rainer Sabin of the Dallas Morning News. “That’s the nature of this thing and that’s what makes the NFL great. You come here to work every day. And we use the word urgency a lot … And every day is important, as a coach, as a player we are trying to get ourselves better each and every day to become the team we want to be.”
Whether or not Garrett’s job is actually on the line, it’s hard to argue with that approach to the coming season for any NFL coach or player. It’s especially true for the Cowboys, who need to break out of the mediocre rut they’ve fallen into over the last two years. Urgency alone won’t do that, but it is certainly part of any prescription for a return to the playoffs.