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Jason Garrett: the
Smartest Man in the NFL
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by Michael
Abromowitz
Senior
Writer
republished - 1/18/08
originally published - 2/1/07
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Last
year, I wrote about Jason Garrett's genius by his pathway he
has taken to becoming
an NFL
head coach. After being offered two head coaching jobs, and
turning them both down, many may believe he is not as wise as I once
thought. But, I stick behind my statement on how smart Garrett
really is. He now is the richest assistant with three million per
year, but more importantly
in the driver's seat for arguably one of the best coaching jobs in
sports. For those readers that didn't have a chance to read it,
here it is again:
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Jason
Garrett is a smart guy. I mean he graduated from Princeton, I
quantify that as smart. Yes, there may be a couple of spoiled
legacies at Princeton over the years, but for the most part you got to
be pretty darn smart, not Albert Einstein smart, more like Ken
Jennings, Jeopardy Champion smart to graduate from Princeton. But
it is not Garrett’s academics that show me his intelligence, but rather
his NFL career and pathway to the offensive coordinator of the Dallas
Cowboys.
Garrett’s ability to survive in the NFL as a backup quarterback from
1993-2004 was pure genius. Garrett knew he never had the talent
to be a fulltime starting quarterback in the league, so what did he
do? He backed up one of the best ones (Troy Aikman) on one of the
best teams in the league (Dallas Cowboys). He won two Super Bowl
rings holding the clipboard for the Cowboys: 1993 and 1995.
That is two more than the legendary Dan Marino. A Super Bowl ring
is a ring, no matter if a player starts or does not even put on a
helmet. Oh, as the backup he also got a pretty decent
salary. After Dallas, he backed up for the Giants, Dolphins, and
Tampa Bay.
Unlike many backups, Garrett never went to a destination where he had a
chance to start. Instead he went to a place where he could backup
and hold that clipboard. Instead of a backup quarterback, he was
more like a quarterback coach. For Tampa, he was a
coach/player. Listed fourth string on the depth chart, he was in
Tampa to coach and only to play in case of emergency. The same
thing could have been said for Dallas. Garrett was never there to
replace Aikman if needed (he did in 1998), he was there to help coach
him. Garrett’s father was a college coach, his two brothers are
coaches; he was meant to coach. But this is why Jason was so
smart. Instead of getting an assistant coaches’ salary he was
able to get a player’s salary. And with very little playing time,
he did not get injured, prolonging his career. Jason Garrett, a
Princeton graduate and player not gifted with that much athletic
ability lasted in the National Football League, where the league
average is 3 seasons, for 12 seasons! Amazing! In
those seasons, he threw a combined 294 passes or about 22.6 passes a
season. So the best way to not play your way out of the league
(Tim Couch and Akili Smith) is to not play at all. Note, in 1998,
Garrett did go 3-2 replacing the injured Aikman and passing 158
times. So eliminating that season, Garrett only through the ball
136 times in 11 seasons.
Ever since I watched Garrett hold that clipboard during the Cowboys’
glory years of the 90’s, I have admired him. This is a guy that
knew his strengths, his weaknesses, and what he had to do to prolong
his career. Because of him, I have referred to anyone
experiencing a similar career path as a Jason Garrett. I know, pretty
creative. A Jason Garrett is someone who will never start in this
league, accepts being a reserve, helps coach and mentor the other
players, and will take less to play for a winner. Larry Izzo, of
the New England Patriots is a player that I think is a Jason
Garrett. He has played in the league for 11 seasons. Has
won three Super Bowl rings primarily as a special teamer. He has
even been to the Pro Bowl. If Jim Sorgi stays in Indianapolis
long enough he could also be a Jason Garrett.
After his stint with Tampa, Garrett had the brains to finally take off
that uniform, but keep the clipboard. He went to Miami as the
quarterbacks coach. However, with most of his playing career as a
quarterback coach, it was not that big of a change for him. Maybe
a couple less laps around the field. Everyone knew this
quarterbacks job would be short lived. Garrett had other plans,
much bigger plans. However, if he jumped straight to being a head
coach, he risked suffering two or three bad seasons and his career
could be tarnished. Why not get “groomed” to be a head
coach? Brilliant! By having Garrett go to Dallas, where
Jerry Jones loves him like oil, he will have the opportunity to work in
a higher position, offensive coordinator, but have the understanding
that he will be the future coach of the Dallas Cowboys. If that
is not a brilliant idea, I do not now what is. My guess is that
while Garrett was at Princeton he took a Game Theory class with
Professor John Nash and learned the highest predictable path to
becoming a NFL coach. Nash and Garrett probably studied all the
different ways to becoming a head coach and this pathway was determined
to have the highest probability.
Jason Garrett is the smartest man in the NFL, point blank. I have
no hesitation in saying this. He found a way to stay in the NFL
for 12 seasons and now he is on pace to become a NFL head coach.
He is going to get it, and once he gets it, I bet with his brains he
will be there a lot longer than 12 seasons. Unless, (sorry Mr.
Nash) his “Beautiful Mind” has other
plans.
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