Does Hall of Famer Troy Aikman think it’s a make or break year for Jason Garrett?
Jason Garrett is 67-53 in seven and a half years as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
He has one playoff win in just two playoff appearances.
And he is coming off 9-7 season which went off the rails after 5-3 start because running back Ezekiel Elliott missed six games due to an NFL suspension and left tackle Tyron Smith missed the better part of four games with a back injury.
The inability to adjust in wake of Smith’s injury as well as a failure in the passing game that included a sophomore slump from quarterback Dak Prescott resulted in a host of coaching changes in the offseason.
It has raised the question of whether this is a make or break year for Garrett?
Former Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, who will call Sunday’s season opener against the Carolina Panthers as a member of the FOX broadcasting team, said people will likely expect a change to be made with Garrett if the Cowboys don’t make the playoffs.
“[Owner] Jerry [Jones] is the only one who can really say if it’s a make or break season,” Aikman said. “There are expectations...Expectations are always high when it comes to the Cowboys. They are again. And if they come up short or fail to make the playoffs I think people will be expecting there to be changes made. What those might be, what Jerry’s thoughts might be, is anybody’s guess.”
Considering the host of staff changes made after last season, the only change to be left to be made, if there is one, would be with Garrett.
Aikman said last season’s problems go beyond loss of Elliott and Smith, especially considering that Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl after losing their franchise quarterback, left tackle, best linebacker and running back.
He said it was also a failure of the coaching staff and the front office to adjust.
It was the second time in four years that the Cowboys failed to make the playoffs after a double-digit win season the year before. They went 12-4 in 2014 and then 4-12 in 2015 followed by 13-3 in 2016 and last year’s 9-7 finish.
“Last year was clearly a disappointment coming off the year they had the year before,” Aikman said. “There were other teams, Philadelphia being one of them. They lost their left tackle, they lost their multidimensional running back for the year, they lost their linebacker and then they lose their franchise quarterback and they won the Super bowl. I don’t know that it is fair to look at the Cowboys and say they were without Tyron for a period of time. They were without Ezekiel Elliott.
“People want to talk about Dak Prescott and his year. I don’t think his year was that bad. Yeah there were throws you would like to have back. I thought the staff in some ways let him down and even the front office in many ways let him down and let the team down. It was a disappointing year.”
Jones has public stated that Garrett is not on the hot seat in 2018. But he’s also said that if he says something it doesn’t make it so.
And he told USA Today in training camp that Garrett won’t always be in the family photo.
Garrett, however, says he feels no more pressure heading into 2018 than has in the past.
Asked if he felt any more pressure coming heading into 2018:
“Every day is urgent around here,” Garrett said. “That is the culture we are trying to build. I have to live that. Our coaches have to live that. We are trying to instill that in our team. Regardless of anything that has happened in the past, the past is not a focus of ours at all. It’s about this team right now and what we need to do to get ready to play Sunday.”