Jason Garrett may be one positive Joe Judge COVID-19 test away from taking over as interim Giants head coach on some day this fall, but Garrett doesn’t want to be asked about how he came to this position after 10 full seasons running the division rival Dallas Cowboys.
Good luck with that.
Garrett, 54, the Giants’ new offensive coordinator, emerged from nearly seven months in media hibernation on Tuesday for his first Zoom call with the New York press.
“This is the first time I’ve really officially spoken to the media since coming to the Giants from the Cowboys,” Garrett acknowledged right off the bat.
But then Garrett proceeded, after thanking “everyone in the Cowboys organization,” to request that he’d “love to have the questions that we talk about today be focused on what’s happening here with the Giants rather than in Dallas.”
Maybe Garrett doesn’t understand how this works, but his story is too important in the annals of the Cowboys and Giants franchises, the NFC East’s balance, and the NFL’s timeline to forever dodge an explanation of his Dallas end and this new beginning.
Particularly given the assumption that he intends to be a head coach again; the knowledge that the Giants almost interviewed him for their head position in January; and the reality that Garrett could end up having to play that role at some point this season if necessary.
“We started talking back in the spring in terms of if any one coach, myself included, couldn’t come to work that day for any period of time, how would we address meetings, practice on the field, the game. We have to make sure we have a plan,” Judge said on July 31.
Garrett has not yet addressed January’s dragged-out departure from Dallas, when Jerry Jones kept him under contract for 10 days after letting Garrett go.
He has not addressed how the Giants requested permission from the Cowboys to interview him for their head coaching position in that interim, but during that time hired Judge, 38, before ever interviewing Garrett for that top position.
He has not addressed how last November, NFL Network reported that if the Giants fired Pat Shurmur at the end of the season, the Giants could be “a real and legitimate potential landing spot for Garrett,” calling the Giants Garrett’s “preferred destination if he can’t stick with the Cowboys” — and how Shurmur did get fired and Garrett did join the Giants less than two months later, one chair away from the top job.
Garrett’s main job, obviously, is to invigorate the Giants’ offense this fall, his first season calling plays since 2012 for Jerry Jones.
His story is taking a fascinating turn after posting an 85-67 record (.559 win %) in Dallas, though, as Garrett returns to work for the organization where his father once coached and Jason once played.
Garrett’s late father, Jim, worked on Alex Webster’s Giants staff from 1970-73, including the final two seasons as defensive coordinator. And Garrett, after seven years as a backup Cowboys QB, backed up the Giants’ Kerry Collins from 2000-03.
He was certainly gracious on Tuesday in thanking the Cowboys organization for his time there, though he didn’t mention Jones.
“I just want to acknowledge my time in Dallas and how grateful I am for that whole experience and (to) everyone in the Cowboy organization for the opportunity and for the support and for the lifelong friendships that I’ve made,” he said. “For the players and coaches and staff members who were with me and made my life way better, I am eternally grateful to them and really appreciative of having them in my life and for that experience. Awfully proud of the program we built and the teams we had. We had a lot of great days there.”
Garrett also said the right things when it comes to working for the much younger and less experienced Judge after so many years as the man at The Star.
“I have my notebook open every day and I’m taking notes in all of those staff meetings and continuing to learn from Joe on a daily basis,” Garrett said. “I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to work for him.”
Garrett is too large a figure in the NFL, though, to become just another under-the-radar assistant on Judge’s staff — no matter how much he tries.
The story of how he exited the Cowboys, why he accepted a demotion with the Giants — and how soon he plans to be a head coach again — are relevant to the composition of this staff, the evolution of this division, and the future of this franchise.
Sooner rather than later, that story deserves to be told.
