Jason Garrett…Cowboys head coach in 2009.

On the Set of the game show, Jeopardy…

Jason Garrett: I’ll take coaches with little-to-no job security in the 2008 regular season, for $400, Alex.

Alex Trebeck: This first year Dallas Cowboys coach took the team to a NFC best 13-3 record  in 2007 before being defeated by the inconsistent? streaky? good? Giants in the NFC divisional playoff round. He is slated to make about $3.25 million next season, while his new “head” assistant coach will make around $3.00 million based on his new contract extension.

Jason Garrett: Who is Wade Phillips?

Alex Trebeck: That is correct.

That’s right, in a move that some call “genius” and some say defies all conventional logic, the Cowboys promoted Garrett to assistant head coach (he was the offensive coordinator last year) and gave him a contract extension which will pay him around $3 million per year. Sorry Dom Capers, your hold on the highest paid assistant lasted only a few days. Garrett decided to stick with the Cowboys after head coaching job offers from the Baltimore Ravens and the Atlanta Falcons.

Alright, lets just take a step back and look at the signs here. While I obviously don’t fault Garrett for turning down the Falcons job (Mike Vick disaster area, just ask Bobby Petrino) and the Ravens (aging defense, average receivers, no QB), this Cowboys deal looks like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is just grooming Garrett for the head coaching job.

Firstly, the fact that a head coach and assistant coach are only separated by $250,000 in salary seems more than a little strange. Think about it…are you and your boss separated by $5,000 in salary? If so, I want your job.

Secondly, Jerry Jones isn’t stupid. He knows that Garrett is an extremely hot commodity right now. In Garrett’s first year as an offensive coordinator, the Cowboys ranked in the top 5 in points, total yards, and passing yards (their rushing totals will probably increase next year as well, if they ever decide to make Marion Barber the starting RB). So why wouldn’t you do all you could to protect your commodity now, since the head coaching offers were weak, to ensure that when the head coaching market was strong, you’d already have your commodity tied up for an extended time period?

Thirdly…Come on! It’s Wade Phillips! I’ll arguably agree that Wade Phillips is decent in the regular season (although I don’t think the Cowboys record changes a whole lot if he’s not there this year), but how many playoff wins does he have? ZERO. Everybody knows that Jerry Jones is all about winning…and Wade and the ‘Boys early exit in the playoffs this year could have already sealed his fate.

But what am I saying? Everybody knows that under NFL rules Jerry Jones isn’t allowed to already name Garrett as Phillips’ successor while Phillips still has the job, so lets just pretend like we never had this conversation…until next year.

ESPN: Cowboys make Garrett highest paid assistant in NFL

Category: Football