Philadelphia Eagles: Jason Garrett for offensive coordinator?

With the dismissal of Mike Groh as their offensive coordinator, the Philadelphia Eagles no doubt have a number of replacement candidates lined up. Should Jason Garrett be one of them?

I know, I know. You’re probably laughing. But the idea of the Philadelphia Eagles hiring Jason Garrett to be their new offensive coordinator isn’t as outlandish as you might think.

Someone has to replace the newly fired Mike Groh, and Garrett actually does grade out as a worthy candidate. Receivers coach Carson Walch was canned too, of course, but we won’t even get into that except to thank him for his service and for at least giving the Eagles one Carson W. who could make it through the season.

More from Philadelphia Eagles

But, back to Garrett.

While the image of Garrett clapping and flashing that weird grin as the Dallas Cowboys went down in flames is still fresh in our minds, the greater point shouldn’t be forgotten that Garrett has shown an ability to coax good production out of his offenses in the past.

As hard as it might be believe, the Cowboys led the NFL in yards per game and yards per play from scrimmage in 2019. “A lot of good that did them”, you’re saying. And you’re right. But as offensive coordinator for the Eagles (or any team), Garrett could focus his attention solely on one side of the ball rather than having to spread himself thin over the whole squad.

And while many are thinking that the Cowboys’ collapse this year finally exposed Garrett as being overmatched as head coach, he still managed to finish his time in Big D with an 85-67 record, which is a .559 winning percentage.

As a point of comparison, do you know what Dick Vermeil‘s career regular season winning percentage was? .524. Think on that while you sip your Vermeil Wine.

Yes, that’s blasphemy, and I’m not saying that Garrett was necessarily a better coach than the beloved Vermeil, but it simply illustrates the point of how hard it is to quantify “good” coaches and “bad” ones.

What I do know is that the Cowboys also placed near the top of the league in important offensive categories on several other occasions during Garrett’s tenure, a tenure that began because of his success as the team’s offensive coordinator from 2007-2009.

Garrett was an ultra-hot head coaching candidate a decade ago, and it was his decision to stay in Dallas when he could have had a job elsewhere. This is obviously a far different situation now, and teams probably won’t be beating down Garrett’s door to add him to their staff (and he certainly won’t get another head coaching gig unless and until he rehabs his image).

But for the Philadelphia Eagles, their former rival deserves a long, hard look. Mike Groh never really seemed to be a good fit for this team. Garrett comes with more of a pedigree and would almost certainly do a better job of getting production out of the offense.

The big questions are: Would Doug Pederson go along with this idea, and would Garrett really even want to take a job where he didn’t have anywhere near the authority that he did in Dallas? Who knows, maybe it would be a welcome change of pace for him to hit the reset button and start to reinvent himself. Plus, he wouldn’t have Jerry Jones to deal with while he did it, always a plus.

Signs seem to point to this being exactly the kind of job that Garrett needs if he ever hopes to ascend to head coach somewhere again.

Lastly, bringing in Garrett might yield a competitive advantage, however small, by drawing on his knowledge of the Cowboys organization to exploit them as much as possible on the field and with front office decisions. At the very least, he probably has some weird stories about ol’ Jerry.

I don’t know…maybe these are all baseless ravings. If you want to think that, go ahead. But sometimes it takes a former backup quarterback that everyone has counted out to come in and get the most out of a team.

Just ask Doug Pederson about that one.

Next. Eagles need to empower Duce Staley in 2020. dark

Jason Garrett to the Eagles? It might just be crazy enough to work. Or not.

Home/Philadelphia Eagles