The NFL coaching carousel is in motion and it might not be a surprise to see a former Dallas Cowboys head coach beginning to make the rounds in the interview process. But what is a surprise that the coach in question is not veteran Super Bowl champ Mike McCarthy–it’s Jason Garrett.
Of course, McCarthy is expected to draw interest from multiple teams, most notably the Giants, though it is Garrett who has gotten the first request for an interview. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Garrett will speak with the Titans about their open job this week. Tennessee has No. 1 pick quarterback Cam Ward on board, but fired coach Brain Callahan six weeks into the season, and replaced him with interim Mike McCoy.
The Titans were 3-14 this season.
Wrote Schefter on Twitter/X: “Sources: Former Cowboys HC and NBC analyst Jason Garrett is interviewing Friday for the Titans head coaching job.”
Jason Garrett Coached Cowboys for 10 Years
Garrett certainly has lengthy experience in the NFL, and a good reputation as an offensive coach. He was the Cowboys’ backup quarterback from 1993-99, going 6-3 in the only nine starts he made in that span, and serving as Troy Aikman’s backup on three Super Bowl-winning teams. Garrett played with the Giants in 2000, and bounced around the fringe of NFL rosters until he eventually retired and become a quarterbacks coach for the Dolphins.
Garrett returned to Dallas as the offensive coordinator in 2007, and was bumped to head coach after Wade Phillips was fired seven weeks into the 2010 season. Garrett wound up holding onto the job for 10 years, going 85-67 and making three playoff appearances, going 2-3 in total.
But Garrett last was a head coach in 2019, and Cowboys fans will remember him as a good offensive mind who struggled to coach defense. (Sound familiar?) The problem with that, and what makes his interview with the Titans a surprise is that Garrett was an OC again for two years in New York in 2020 and 2021, and his teams finished 31st in yards and points in both years.
Dallas on the Hunt for Defensive Coordinator
Good luck to the Titans, then, with that. But for the Cowboys, there will be some hiring to do, too, as the team officially announced the firing of Matt Eberflus on Tuesday morning. No telling yet what kind of defensive coordinator will be drawn to a job that has seen the last two to fill the role fired after one season, but VP Stephen Jones said the Cowboys hope to find someone who matches head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s energy.
“Bottom line, we need an identity on the defensive side of the ball,” Stephen Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas last week. “I don’t think we established that this year. Whether it’s coach Eberflus or whoever it is, we have to create an identity.
“I think everybody would say that coach Schottenheimer has a ton of energy, he’s very authentic and has an identity. We’ve got to play to that in all three phases. I think we did in one phase this year. I don’t know that we established that in the other two phases.”
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