The Dallas Cowboys have turned their head coaching situation into a circus, more confusing than their 8-8 finish in the 2019 season.
ESPN’s Ed Werder reported that Dallas decided to move on from Jason Garrett on Thursday night, but there has still been no official word from the organization.
Yet there are multiple reports suggesting the Cowboys are already interviewing potential replacements.
Garrett is under contract until Jan. 14, which might explain why the Cowboys have not made any public announcements. The pundits on EPSN’s Sunday NFL Countdown discussed the Dallas coaching situation at great length.
“We need to talk about the elephant in the room, the Dallas Cowboys,” NFL insider Chris Mortensen said. “(Jason Garrett’s) contract is up on Jan. 14. He had meetings with Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones, the owner and vice president of the Cowboys, and then nothing, silence. Basically they can just let that expire on Jan. 14 and that’s bye-bye, Jason Garrett.”
The Cowboys have reportedly already interviewed a pair of former NFL head coaches.
“Despite the fact that Jason Garrett is still employed by the Dallas Cowboys they’ve gone ahead and begun head coaching interviews, which gives you an idea of where they’re headed with Jason Garrett,” said Adam Schefter.
“Marvin Lewis was the first to interview, starting with the Jones family on Friday night and continuing to Saturday before Mike McCarthy, the former Packers head coach, stepped in and became the second head coaching candidate interview. There are no head coaching interviews planned today for the Dallas Cowboys but this week should get busy in Dallas.”
Lewis coached the Cincinnati Bengals for 16 seasons from 2003-18 and spent last season as an assistant under Herm Edwards at Arizona State.
McCarthy was the coach of the Green Bay Packers from 2006-18, leading the team to a Super Bowl title in 2010.
Mortensen also discussed the possibility of Dallas targeting Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer, who is in the final year of his contract.
“There’s been a lot of speculation, a lot of people tying to connect the dots with Mike Zimmer, who spent 13 season with the Cowboys as an assistant or defensive coordinator, being a candidate if things go badly with the Vikings today,” Mortensen said. “The president and co-owner of the Vikings released a statement two days ago saying that they intend to extend Zimmer. Zim, I don’t think, wants to work on a lame-duck contract like Jason Garrett did in Dallas and I don’t think he necessarily wants to go back to Dallas because his owner doesn’t meet with the media every day. He likes it in Minneapolis. I would expect Zimmer to stay put unless they do not give him an extension.”
Most of the ESPN panel disagreed with Jones’ overbearing style of management, but Matt Hasselbeck said he believes Dallas is still a desirable destination for head coaches.
“You’ve heard people say that’s not a desirable job because of Jerry Jones. I don’t know that I could disagree more with that statement,” Hasslebeck said. “I feel like the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys … every coach that I know would want that job. To hear people say ‘I don’t know if it’s that desirable a job because you gotta deal with Jerry Jones and he’s kinda the GM and he does press conferences after wins and losses.’ So what? I think this is a great job, I think there will be people lining up for this job and I think it could come from college but it could very well come from the NFL as well.”
— 247 SPORTS
