Today is Sunday and the Cowboys are playing, so people naturally are wondering what the future holds for Jason Garrett. Such is life for the head coach of Dallas' NFL team.
The 53-year-old coach likely would have been discussed no matter what in Week 12, when his team was scheduled to play at New England as a 4 1/2-point road underdog in front of a national TV audience. Yet NFL Media fueled the Garrett job security fire Sunday morning with a report that connected the 10th-year Cowboys coach to the division-rival Giants.
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"The Giants have emerged as a real and legitimate potential landing spot for Garrett," Ian Rapoport reported. "First of all, it is his preferred destination if he can't stick with the Cowboys.
"And second, back in 2014 the Giants were trying to decide should they fire Tom Coughlin, my understanding is they would have fired Coughlin if they could get Jason Garrett. Instead he signed an extension."
The report obviously operates under the presumption that the Giants, limping through a 2-8 season, will also fire coach Pat Shurmur at season's end.
From @NFLGameDay: Could the #Giants be a landing spot for #Cowboys coach Jason Garrett if Dallas moves on from him? A look at one situation to keep watching... 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/GVdqWXmewd
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 24, 2019
This NFL Media report is the latest in a strong flow of implications that Jerry Jones will give into pressure to fire Garrett despite the Cowboys owner/general manager's continued verbal support of his coach. That support is warranted, considering Dallas entered Sunday with a 6-4 record, best in the NFC East.
But Jones' actions — reportedly not yet considering a contract extension for Garrett as the coach works through the final year of his deal — speak louder than his words of commitment. At this point, despite Garrett's 83-63 record in his 10 seasons as Dallas' coach, nobody would be surprised if Jones made a change.
The other side of this report, however, would be a surprise. Why would the Giants, already armed with an underachieving, offensive-minded head coach trying to build a contender around quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley, be interested in a coach whose offenses in Dallas have been nothing if not inconsistent?
This isn't to say New York shouldn't at least consider Garrett, should it move on from Shurmur and Dallas also make a move. He's a fine coach.
But "fine" hasn't been good enough for the Cowboys. The pool of potential Giants coaching candidates, many of whom aren't retreads from division rivals, likely would present at least one better option.