Dallas Cowboys’ Sean Lee, Travis Frederick and Amari Cooper on failure, future and Jason Garrett
There had been no decision announced about the fate of Dallas Cowboys’ head coach Jason Garrett when the team cleared out its locker room early Monday afternoon.
But the tone of three veteran players evoked what everyone already seems to know: Garrett has coached his last game for the Cowboys.
“It’s tough to take. We didn’t accomplish the goals we wanted to, we didn’t to play up to the standard we wanted to,” said linebacker Sean Lee, who described what is likely to be his final team meeting Monday morning with Garrett as his coach. “Incredible, as it always is. He’s been such an inspiration as a coach. I’ve learned so much from him. How he handles every situation is unbelievable. His words are powerful. Since the day he became head coach his ability to motivate and stand tall and give us correct perspective has always been unbelievable.”
Lee, center Travis Frederick and Amari Cooper all talked with the media as teammates cleaned out their lockers.
“He was encouraging, optimistic,” Cooper said of Garrett. “He’s always an optimistic guy no matter what the circumstance is. I think he’s a good guy and he’s a great coach. His conviction and doing things the right way, constantly. He’s always preaching to be the best version of ourselves in any situation and I think that’s what he was speaking on today.”
Cooper, who is a free agent for the first time, said he’ll talk to his representatives to get a better handle on his negotiations and his future with the team. He said he wants to remain with the Cowboys.
Players need to look at themselves and ask how they could have played better, Lee said, but knowing their performance can lead to a coach being fired is part of the business they chose.
“That’s part of the business. We have to win to keep jobs as players. You work day in and day out extremely hard to keep your job,” he said. “We need to win close games, we didn’t make enough game-changing plays to win games. As players we need to look at ourselves. What can I do to make more plays, to win ball games for us?”
Lee, like so many of his teammates, feels the team has the talent to win more and have success in the playoffs. But 8-8 speaks for itself.
“We were so up and down this year and we didn’t show that [we were close],” he said. “I think we have a lot of great football players but until we get back to where we’re winning game in and game out and we’re more consistent, we can’t really talk.”
Lee said he’ll decide on his future in the NFL in a couple of months.
“I’m going to take some time, talk to the wife, talk to the family and see where I’m at physically in a month or two and make a decision then.”
Frederick thinks the different parts of the team didn’t complement the others.
“We just need to work better on being together and playing together,” he said. “There were a lot of times this year when the run game didn’t complement the passing game and the passing game didn’t complement the run game, or the offense didn’t complement the defense and the defense didn’t complement the offense. Situationally, we weren’t effective and I think that shows up in the way the games turned out. When you look at the win margin. In the games that things were working, they were really working. In the games that they weren’t, we just weren’t able to pull it out. I think we need to go back to the drawing board and we really need to reflect on what that was that caused that to happen and really attack that.”
