In the aftermath of another 8-8 season that featured a historically bad defense, some thought heads would roll at Valley Ranch. Instead, owner/G.M. Jerry Jones has opted to keep the heads in place of his head coach and his key coordinators.
In the end, Jones decided that coach Jason Garrett, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, and offensive coordinator Bill Callahan will all return.
Via Carlos Mendez of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jones discussed the lack of changes from the Senior Bowl on Monday.
“Do you discuss and get input about a lot of things?” Jones said. “Absolutely. But what we did not do is have a big debate or a big management session regarding Monte Kiffin. We didn’t do that. That decision was made last year.”
Jones made key decisions in 2013 to switch abruptly from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 under Kiffin, and to shift the play-calling duties to Callahan. Which made Jones less inclined to make changes in 2014.
“It’s just the fact that you made a lot last year probably minimizes the need to make them this year,” Jones said.
Then there’s the chance that change for the sake of change will do more harm than good.
“We all know the adage of the gold miner who walked away and the other one who took one more swing with the pick and found the gold streak, and so you don’t want to quit,” Jones said, which tends to cut against the notion of firing Rob Ryan after the 2012 season and scrapping the 3-4. “So it’s easier said than done to let your mistakes go short and your good decisions long. You go then further to fundamentals, and you look at the fundamentals of a Monte Kiffin and you look at the fundamentals of his work and what he is and you look at the fact that you’ve decided scheme-wise that you liked that in competing in the NFL today. Then that weighs you from cutting that short, and so the answer is, I didn’t want to cut it short over on defense, and some of the same principles are true with cutting it short on Jason.
“I’ve talked about that. I want to be here for the payday, and this is payday time with Jason.”
Which of course raises once again the constant question for the Cowboys. If the payday doesn’t come in 2014, will Jason Garrett be back in 2015?