To the millions of loyal Dallas Cowboys fans searching for good news, follow the Detroit Lions.
Maybe the Washington Wizards.
Being a Cowboys fan should require a warning from the surgeon general, no different than a pack of cigarettes. At least with cigarettes you know a painful death is coming, whereas consuming the Cowboys offers no such comfort.
The NFL’s divisional round is this weekend, and yet a team no where near it generates as much interest as the Bills, Chiefs and those still playing.
A coaching search should inspire some level of not just interest but hope to a fan base, especially for one that is accustomed to paying a pricey bill for a bad meal. Instead, what Pro Football of Famer Jerry Jones is doing now with his purchased occupation is conducting a head coaching search that is starting to feel like something that ends in tears.
Unless Jerry goes rogue and lures Deion Sanders to leave the University of Colorado to become the head coach of the Cowboys, what we are about to witness in 2025 will look a lot like what we saw in 2007, when Uncle Wade Phillips put his boots down in Valley Ranch.
The reality of being the Cowboys head coach
Shortly after Bill Parcells retired as the head coach of the Cowboys in Jan. of 2007, former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman told a small number of reporters, “It’s a challenge. It’s going to be a hard job for whoever gets it.”
On Jan. 13, 2025, Aikman said on ESPN, “As far as a ‘coveted job,’ I don’t know that that’s accurate. … Most football people who take over as a head coach want to do it on their terms. And that’s hard to do (with the Cowboys).”
This week, former Cowboys quarterback, offensive coordinator and head coach Jason Garrett spoke to Kevin Clark on the This Is Football podcast.
“There is no doubt that ownership is involved. Jerry Jones is the general manager of the team,” Garrett told Clark. “The owner/general manager is involved and he should be. That’s how the organization is set up. (The head coach) has to be an excellent communicator, and an excellent leader. It’s not only communicating and leading to your staff and team, it’s also leading upward in the organization.
“It can be challenging in Dallas because of the ownership/general manager. It can also be advantageous in Dallas because of the ownership/general manager is the same guy. It’s incumbent on you to do a great job communicating what the vision is, 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 we deviated from that, were less disciplined, we weren’t quite as good.”
Who else would be undisciplined in this process?
The current state of the Cowboys coaching search
Unlike the Cowboys coaching changes in 2010 and in 2020, which were quick and painless, this one will be more exhaustive.
In 2010, Jerry fired Uncle Wade after the team dropped to 1-7. Garrett was named the interim head coach, and was given the full-time role shortly after the season ended.
After the 2019 season, Garrett’s contract ended and the Cowboys moved fast to hire McCarthy. The only other interview of note during that process in 2020 was to former Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, which satisfied the NFL’s “Rooney Rule.”
The current role call of candidates include:
* Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. He played for the Cowboys, and coached here as an assistant under Garrett and McCarthy. Moore has never been a head coach, but he is highly regarded by the team.
* Seahawks assistant Leslie Frazier. He’s 65, and was the full time head coach of the Vikings from 2011 to 2013. An interview with Frazier meets the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” which states that teams must interview a minority candidate for the job.
* Former Jets head coach Robert Saleh. He was the head coach of the Jets from 2021 until this year when he was fired mid season. The Jets were 20-36 in his tenure with no postseason appearances, or a winning record.
It’s hard to see the Cowboys hiring Saleh or Frazier. It’s not so hard to see them hiring either as assistants, most likely as a defensive coordinator.
The two others of note, who are not scheduled to interview yet, but chatter about the following looks like a swirling funnel cloud on the plains.
* Deion Sanders. No name would be bigger, and a Jerry/Deion post game would be chaotic clown show that would have no comp’ in sports.
* Jason Witten. He is currently a head coach of a small private school in Argyle. That is his coaching experience. He built a Hall of Fame career in his long tenure with the Cowboys, and Jerry openly professes his admiration for the man.
Hiring Witten to be the head coach now would be a surprise. Hiring Witten to be an assistant coach now would not.
The echoes of the 2007 Cowboys coaching search
Parcells retired from the Cowboys on Jan. 22, 2007. After that, Jerry conducted a coaching search that felt like Noah’s journey, without the rain.
Jerry interviewed the following candidates:
Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera; Indianapolis Colts assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell; Dolphins quarterbacks coach Jason Garrett; San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Norv Turner; former 49ers head coach Mike Singletary; Chargers defensive coordinator Wade Phillips; New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs; as well as members of Parcells’ staff that included receivers coach Todd Haley, offensive line coach Tony Sparano, secondary coach Todd Bowles.
(Eight of those men would he an NFL head coach either again, or for the first time. Bowles is currently the head coach in Tampa.)
Garrett was named the team’s offensive coordinator before Jerry settled on Wade, who was hired on Feb. 8 of that year. That process took 17 days, and ended after the Super Bowl.
When Jerry introduced Wade, Jerry fought back tears as he said, “I wanted to get this one right.”
Whomever Jerry introduces next, we may be the ones crying.
Mac Engel is an award-winning columnist who has covered sports since the dawn of man; Cowboys, TCU, Stars, Rangers, Mavericks, etc. Olympics. Movies. Concerts. Books. He combines dry wit with 1st-person reporting to complement an annoying personality. Support my work with a digital subscription