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Former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett gives insight into what it’s like to work under Jerry Jones

The Cowboys parted ways with coach Mike McCarthy after a rough season. The next candidate better be ready for what it’s really like to work for Jerry Jones.

The Cowboys parted ways with coach Mike McCarthy after a rough season. The next candidate better be ready for what it's really like to work for Jerry Jones.
TOM PENNINGTONAFP

The Dallas Cowboys and head coach Mike McCarthy mutually parted ways just before McCarthy’s contract came to an end on Tuesday. The split comes after a tumultuous season that ended in a 7-10 record and a playoff absence.

As they have gone through different coaches in the last 35 years, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has developed a reputation as being a little, let’s say, stuck in his ways. It’s well known that Jones does not like to give the decision-making power over to his coaches and he is the only NFL owner who also acts as a general manager.

As the search begins, the role of Dallas Cowboys head coach won’t be for everyone. Former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett knows perhaps better than anyone what it’s like to work for Jerry Jones. Here’s what he had to say.

Jason Garrett gives insight into working for Jerry Jones

Jason Garrett was a quarterback (mainly a backup) for the Dallas Cowboys from 1993 to 1999. He later worked as an offensive coordinator for the team from 2007 to 2010. He then became the head coach for the Cowboys from 2011 to 2019, the longest-tenured head coach in the Jerry Jones era.

“It can be challenging in Dallas because of the ownership/general manager, but it can also be advantageous in Dallas because of ownership and the general manager is the same guy.”

Jason Garrett

Garrett now works as an NFL analyst for NBC Sports and on ESPN’s “This Is Football” with Kevin Clark, he gave his insider perspective into what kind of coach might find success with the organization. He said that, considering that the owner/GM is so involved in the team (as “he should be”), the next coach needs to not only be good at coaching but also at communicating and leading.

“When I say communicating and leading, it’s not only to your staff and to your team, it’s also leading upward in the organization,” said Garrett. “I think you have to have a really clear vision for what you want the team to be. ...You have to be able to clearly articulate that and get everyone on the same page. The teams that have success in the NFL are aligned. They’re aligned from ownership to general manager to head coach to coordinators to quarterback all the way down through.”

Getting “aligned” with Jones is no easy task. Jimmy Johnson, who won two Super Bowls with the Cowboys, couldn’t make it work, and neither could McCarthy. Since those Super Bowl days (1995), the Cowboys have failed to reach a Conference Championship, despite 13 playoff appearances - the longest streak in NFL history. In Garrett’s Cowboys coaching days, he took the team to three playoffs.

“Look at the obvious examples: Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore, some of the other ones. The teams that are there year after year,” Garrett said. “You’re trying to create alignment, and when you’re the head coach, you’re really in charge of that. You’re in charge of creating the vision and letting everyone know, ‘this is what we want this team to look like, and we have to be disciplined to make the decisions to make this vision come alive.’ It can be challenging in Dallas because of the ownership/general manager, but it can also be advantageous in Dallas because of ownership and the general manager is the same guy.”

“It’s incumbent upon you to do a good job communicating what the vision is and being disciplined to that. When we did that when I was the head coach there, we drafted really good players, and we had really good teams. When he deviated from that, we were less disciplined, and we weren’t quite as good. I think that’s an important thing to understand.”

Basically, the next head coach needs to humor Jerry Jones enough to convince him that some new ideas are good ones, because there is no way Jones is changing the way he runs things at this point.

“Jerry is 82 years old, and he’s done things a certain way for a long, long time,” Garrett said. “I think if you go in there as the head coach, you have to embrace what those dynamics are, and you have to learn. I learned a tremendous amount from Jerry Jones during my time there as a player, as an assistant coach and as a head coach. He’s a really, really bright guy who has a great perspective on a lot of things inside and outside of football.”

“Having a beginner’s mind as someone who wants to learn from someone like that I think is important, but then also having your own vision about how things need to be and being able to communicate that vision is critical,” Garret continued. “I don’t think you spend a lot of time trying to change Jerry Jones. I don’t think that’s going happen. I think you have to understand what his strengths are and then maybe some of the areas where you guys can work together to make the organization better than it’s been in recent years.”

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