Philadelphia Eagles: Mike McCarthy is a bigger, badder Jason Garrett

(Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images) /
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Mike McCarthy may have championship pedigree, but he should be no more frightening to Philadelphia Eagles fans than Jason Garrett.

While the Philadelphia Eagles were busy playing a playoff game, Jerry Jones finally made a move in Dallas: Formally relieving long-time Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett of his duties.

First and foremost, can we have a moment of silence for Garrett?

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Why you ask? Easy, he was reliable – reliably mediocre.

Sure, Garrett could steal a game here and there and even string a few together to make Dallas fans think maybe, just maybe he’d figured it all out, but nope, another year would roll over, and another Lombardi Trophy would be awarded to a team that didn’t rhyme with the Pallace Chowboys.

So that’s why Dallas’ confusingly short head coaching search – exclusively focused on older NFL retreads – was so, well, confusing.

As pretty much everyone has attested during the process, Dallas desperately needed to shake things up after a decade of Garrett, and yet, for whatever reason, Urban Meyer, Lincoln Riley, and even our old Temple buddy Matt Rhule didn’t even get a call.

Instead, Jerry Jones invited Marvin Lewis in for an interview, and Mike McCarthy over for a literal sleepover before naming him the ninth head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

I’m into it.

No, not because I think it’s a particularly bad hiring – McCarthy is a good head coach and would have been fantastic with the Cleveland Browns – but because McCarthy just isn’t the right man for the job.

Why? Because Mike McCarthy is nothing but a bigger, badder Jason Garrett.

As people more tuned in to the NFL landscape than me have pointed out, McCarthy has never been all that interested, let alone effective, at running the ball. Now maybe that’s an inconsequential byproduct of having a generational talent like Aaron Rodgers as your franchise quarterback for a decade-plus, but since taking over for Mike Sherman as the Packers’ head coach in 2006, McCarthy’s rushing offense has ranked an average of 17th in the league.

But wait, it gets worse.

In 13 years as the Pack’s head coach, Green Bay only finished in the top ten in rushing once, versus six separate seasons at 20 or worse.

Now granted, that may not be a huge deal, if the team wasn’t explicitly build to run the ball and if they had a legit top-5 quarterback, but the Cowboys are kind of built to run the ball, and don’t exactly have a franchise quarterback.

See what I mean? Good coach, odd fit.

Next. Nick Foles is the perfect replacement for Josh McCown. dark

But hey, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Dallas will retain stud OC Kellen Moore, and McCarthy’s presence could whip an undisciplined team into championship form, but it’s just as likely that the Cowboys will remain aggressively the Cowboys under yet another Good Ole Boy head coach: A good but not great team who can compete for the NFC East, but will never reliably contend for a championship. It could be worse: They could have found the next Jimmy Johnson, Sean McVay, or even the next Doug Pederson – the Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach and the once and future cream of the NFC East’s coaching crop,