Begrudgingly, the Dallas Cowboys began their offseason on Monday. And within 48 hours, reports indicate they've already accomplished two of the three most important goals the team should have set when its 2014 campaign came to an end.
According to various reports, including those from ESPNDallas.com's Todd Archer and NFL.com's Adam Caplan, the Cowboys have re-signed coaches Jason Garrett and Rod Marinelli to long-term contracts, though the deals are not yet official:For a team that has overachieved despite salary-cap constraints, a disproportionate amount of injuries, lost stars and front office dysfunction for the entirety of Garrett's tenure as head coach and Marinelli's shorter run as defensive coordinator, developments like these can nearly win an offseason.
It was probably a foregone conclusion that Garrett would return, but the fact that the Cowboys signed him to a new deal without any hesitation is important. The 48-year-old didn't even have a chance to entertain any outside offers, which will hopefully encourage his key offensive assistants, passing game coordinator Scott Linehan and offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Bill Callahan, to stick around. Had there been any drag here, those guys might have been more prone to consider opportunities outside of Dallas. Nobody wants to risk turning something down if there's a chance they'll lose their current job when a new boss is hired.
In four seasons since becoming the permanent head coach, Garrett has never finished below .500. He had an injury-ravaged squad in playoff contention until the final week of the 2012 regular season and somehow did the same thing with a team that featured the third-worst defense in NFL history (yardage-wise) in 2013.
He then took a squad that appeared to be worse on paper in 2014 and won 12 games, falling just short of an NFC Championship Game appearance after outplaying the Green Bay Packers on the road in the divisional playoffs.
It helped that in his first year as defensive coordinator, Marinelli continually performed magic tricks with a talent-deprived unit, inexplicably boosting its rankings across the board despite big offseason losses. How did he do it? The man coaches up defensive players like almost nobody this league has ever seen.
With DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher gone and Sean Lee on injured reserve, Marinelli's defense had zero Pro Bowlers. Almost every starting position was "by committee," with 21 different players earning at least 100 snaps.
And yet they somehow recorded an NFC-high 31 regular-season takeaways while ranking above the league average with 22.0 points per game allowed.For proof, look no further than the second spot on the running back depth chart, which featured Joseph Randle and his out-of-this-world 6.7 yards-per-attempt average.
The point being, as good as Murray was and as surprisingly strong as McClain, Carter and Free sometimes were, and as valuable as Linehan was as a play-caller, no impending free agent except maybe Bryant matters close to as much to this team as Garrett and Marinelli do.
And since there's no such thing as a franchise tag to keep coaches around, these reported contracts are potential lifesavers for a squad that now has a real chance to become significantly stronger in 2015.
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2328932-cowboys-check-off-top-offseason-priorities-with-garrett-and-marinelli-extensions
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