Dallas Cowboys: Front office keeps making the same mistakes with coaching staff

At the end of the 2013 season, the Washington team fired head coach Mike Shanahan after posting a 24-40 record in four years. No one could have predicted at the time that Shanahan's list of assistants in Washington would resemble an NFL coaching roster a decade later.

That leaves five current head coaches and one more head coach in waiting in Bobby Slowik. Pretty impressive, right?

“Hold on to the beer,” said the avid Beaver Cowboys fan, and began naming the seven future NFL head coaches that would emerge during Bill Parcells' tenure in Dallas.

This will allow Cowboys fans to brag about another event that happened more than 20 years ago.

But since then, the list of future head coaches from the Cowboys' coaching staff has been surprisingly short.

• Matt Eberflus (DAL 2011-17) is currently the head coach in Chicago, but he first had to prove himself for three years in Indianapolis before becoming head coach.
• Jason Garrett (2005-2010) was the head coach in Dallas for nine years, leveraging his close friendship with the Jones family.
• Joe DeCamillis (DAL 2009-11) served as interim coach for one game with Denver in 2016, and Bill Callahan (DAL 2012-14) served as interim coach for 11 games with Washington in 2016.

Three consecutive head coaches (Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy) over 17 seasons have essentially failed to advance their most important lieutenant in the NFL.

But it's not just the lack of a future head coach among the assistant coaching staff that should set off all sorts of alarm bells. The fate of the former Cowboys' offensive and defensive coordinators since 2010 (despite Dan Quinn's possible move to the HC job) is an unmitigated disaster and a damning indictment of the Cowboys' front office.

Let's take a look at the defensive coordinators the Cowboys paraded in Dallas – with special emphasis on what happened to them rear Their tenure in Dallas is over.

Wade Phillips (2007-2010).In other words @dailygooneraf, Phillips was probably the last Cowboys DC to finish 60 minutes and play in 16 games (2009). After being fired as head coach during the 2010 season, Phillips was signed as Houston's DC (2011-2013) but left the position permanently. out of the NFL He stayed for one year, followed by DC stints with the Broncos (2015-16) and Rams (2017-19).

Paul Pasqualoni (2010). After Phillips was fired, Pasqualoni temporarily took over as DC. out of the NFL Right after that. He served as a college head coach for three years before re-emerging in the NFL as a DL coach for various teams, including a brief return to D.C. with the Lions (2018-19).

Rob Ryan (2011-2012). He followed his two years in Dallas with three years in New Orleans (2013-2015) and another year in Buffalo (2016). I've left it there for 3 years before his next NFL job.

Monte Kiffin (2013-2014). After just one year, Kiffin was demoted from DC to replace Rod Marinelli, but stayed on for another year as “assistant head coach of defense.”he was there out of the NFL before signing with Jacksonville in 2016.

Rod Marinelli (2013-2019). Marinelli took over as DC in 2014 and stayed there until 2019, when he moved to the Raiders and retired as DL coach.

Mike Nolan (2020). McCarthy's handpicked DC had the worst defensive performance in team history.he was there out of the NFL He then returned to the UFL as head coach last year.

Dan Quinn (2021-) He may be the one to break this trend. If he gets a head coaching job somewhere, he would be the first player since 2007 to not receive a demotion in Dallas and not leave the NFL immediately after his stay in Dallas.

When the Cowboys first hired all of these coordinators, they thought they would hire experienced veterans with organizational knowledge and demonstrated success in the past. Almost all of them have experience as former head coaches.

What they got instead was a retread far past his prime, just a step or two away from the end of his NFL career.

Recent reports suggest the Cowboys could be interested in Ron Rivera as defensive coordinator if Dan Quinn leaves. That would likely mean hiring another former head coach who is a decade past his prime. So this pattern seems to repeat itself with defensive coordinators, and when you ask Stephen Jones or Mike McCarthy what they think needs to change to win in the playoffs next season, they confidently put themselves forward. He would get on board and answer with a straight face. not at all. ”

It's so sad that we keep falling into the same predictable trap in DC, but that pattern repeats itself with offensive coordinators as well. Sure, there were two internally promoted players who seemed to break the mold (at least from an age standpoint) in Jason Garrett and Kellen Moore, but was that really the case?

Jason Garrett (2007-2019). We tend to forget that Garrett was a hot commodity as his young OC at the time. After the 2007 season, he was offered head coaching jobs in Baltimore and Atlanta, but remained in Dallas. Detroit, Denver, and the St. Louis Rams approached Garrett for next season, but he preferred to stay in Dallas again and became head coach in 2011. After his tenure in Dallas, Garrett had lost all of his luster and they signed Garrett. He was the Giants' OC for two years. out of the NFL Since then.

Bill Callahan (2012-2014)Callahan, a former head coach with the Raiders, was hired as the offensive line coach in 2012, took over play-calling duties from Garrett in 2013, and was stripped of play-calling duties himself in 2014. Callahan left to become Washington's OL coach. (2015-2019), appeared in 11 games as interim head coach before moving to Cleveland as OL coach.

Scott Linehan (2014-2018)Former Rams head coach, who took over play-calling duties from 2015 to 2018. out of the NFL Since then.

Kellen Moore (2018-2022) Despite being promoted to OC after Linehan left and “shining on the scoreboard” in Dallas and earning multiple HC interviews, he would only be the Chargers' OC for one year, then return again in 2019. He was later transferred to OC. Philadelphia. At least he hasn't left the NFL yet.

What we're seeing here is a consistent modus operandi by the Cowboys' front office that favors former head coaches and big-name veteran coaches, with the possible exception of Garrett and Moore. For the Cowboys, the name has one important advantage in office. That is, the name indicates ability by association.

“Look at us, we know football! We only hire the biggest names in the industry because we know it best. ”

Over the past decade or so, Stephen Jones has increasingly taken control of Dallas' day-to-day football operations, even though fans routinely want to crucify Jerry Jones when something goes wrong with the Cowboys. began to take control. And while Jerry, 81, holds all the fancy titles within the organization, Stephen is the man running things behind the scenes.

Stephen has been involved with the Cowboys for most of his adult life (he was 24 when his father bought them in 1989), but he inherited Jerry's tendency to take risks. isn't it. In fact, Stephen is running the Cowboys as conservatively as possible. It's evident in the way the team handles player contracts, avoids free agency like the plague, misses the game with analytics, and the way they become ultra-conservative. With their coaching employment.

The Cowboys don't like signing promising college players as one of their coordinators. That's because the risk is too high. They don't want to hire a bunch of unproven assistants with new ideas onto their staff. That's too risky. And they certainly don't want a high-powered coach to challenge the status quo in Dallas. That's too dangerous.

Or, as Brian Broaddus said the other day on 105.3 The Fan, “they don't want to change.”

They don't want Bill Belichick to come here, they don't want Jim Harbaugh to come here and say,We need to do this differently on the human resources side. I don't like this approach from a personnel standpoint. I don't like this!they don't want that.

they don't want that.the Yeah yeah For them now.microphone [McCarthy] I'm not going to stand in their way when it comes to personnel matters. Mike isn't going to interrupt them and say,Hey, we need to do something different here.” He's different! He's not going to do it any differently.

It's perfectly comfortable the way they do it. No one questions their personnel changes. They can draft, they can sign players, their own players. They don't do what the Philadelphia guy and the guys who are fighting for their jobs are doing.

That's this soccer team. They inherited it from a guy who used to do crazy things (and I was part of his crazy stuff too!). If you do anything wrong, you will be fired. But he abandoned that and that's where we are now. they don't want to change. This is because you can operate it comfortably.

So they're settling for easy choices on their coaching staff, sticking with big names with big pasts in the hopes that some of that past glory will magically spill over to them. There is.

And in a league that thrives on risk-taking and innovation, conservative coaching could get you right where the Cowboys are. It's been 28 years since the last conference championship game without even a feeble effort to try and improve on it.

Instead, let's keep McCarthy for another year. Because it's comfortable.

While the section above highlighted the plight of offensive and defensive coordinators, this issue extends to assistant coaching staff as well.

Since 2010, Matt Eberflus is the only Cowboys assistant coach to move directly from an assistant coaching position with Dallas to an OC and/or DC role with another NFL team. For other assistants, a move from Dallas would mean, at best, a lateral move, often a demotion, or even an immediate exit from the NFL.

Shanahan's 2013 team finished the season with a 3-13 record, and Parcells' 2006 team struggled with a 9-7 record, so adding a future star to your coaching staff won't win many games on its own. is not necessarily guaranteed. But being open to new ideas, promoting up-and-coming coaches, and being recognized as a place where top coaching talent can grow will encourage the league's top talent to actively become part of your team. You can enter the virtuous cycle you are looking for. .

Or they could bring in another retread player who made headlines a decade ago and watch the coaching staff's NFL career from afar.

It's up to you, Stephen Jones.

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