As Cowboys coach Jason Garrett embarks on what could be the final six games of his tenure in Texas, someone connected to Garrett is offering a not-so-subtle warning to Jones & Son, LLC: If you don’t keep Garrett, he may end up coaching one of your biggest rivals.
Ian Rapoport of the NFL has floated the idea of Garrett landing with the Giants, if the Cowboys opt not to give him a new contract and if the Giants tear up the remaining years on Pat Shurmur’s deal.
The biggest kernel of news is that the Giants would be Garrett’s top choice if the Cowboys don’t keep him. And that may indeed be true. But the fact that it’s coming out now is hardly a coincidence. It’s a be-careful-what-you-wish-for jab at Jerry Jones, reminding him that, if he doesn’t want Garrett, someone else may.
Jones has said the same thing, repeatedly, in defending Garrett. But when Garrett became a free agent in Jaunary 2015, no one else even tried to hire him.
That’s where Rapoport’s story gets a little wobbly. He claims that the Giants would have fired Tom Coughlin after the 2014 season, if they could have gotten Garrett. Apart from the nonchalant recitation of what would be an obvious violation of the spirit of the Rooney Rule, the reality is that the Giants could have fired Coughlin and could have waited for Garrett, because Garrett was about to become a free agent.
Again, this feels more like an effort to scare the Cowboys than an effort to find a landing spot for Garrett. When questions were swirling a year ago regarding John Harbaugh’s future in Baltimore, multiple teams were indeed ready to pounce. This year, with Garrett potentially only five calendar weeks from leaving the Cowboys, the strongest statement that can be made is that his first choice for 2020 would be the Giants.