“How ’bout them Cowboys!” has taken on a whole new meaning.
As most of the football world is concentrating on the lead-up to the Super Bowl, the Cowboys are shaking up their coaching staff. And because it’s Jerry Jones at the controls, it’s been far from your standard firing/hiring affair.
Follow along, if you can:
The Cowboys made two moves official on Tuesday: They hired Scott Linehan to be their passing game coordinator and to handle the play-calling. They also demoted defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and promoted Rod Marinelli to the position.
The changes made to the league’s worst defense are rather straightforward compared to the shakeup for the fifth-ranked offense.
Despite the hiring of Linehan to call plays, the Cowboys are keeping Bill Callahan as their offensive coordinator. The problem is Callahan doesn’t want to stay, according to ESPN.com. The Browns and new coach Mike Pettine were interested in talking to Callahan (the two were on Rex Ryan’s Jets staff together) about a position in Cleveland, but Dallas refused to grant permission.
Why would they do that? Last season, the Cowboys made Callahan’s play-calling go through head coach Jason Garrett before reaching quarterback Tony Romo. The hiring of Linehan would seem to be further proof they don’t trust Callahan’s grasp of the offense.
But, according to ESPN, the reason they don’t want Callahan to leave is because they see him as a potential interim head coach if they decide to fire Garrett during the season.
“You make a lot of different decisions for the team and you do it always in the best interest of the team,” Garrett said of the changes.
“You’re trying to put guys in roles where they will thrive and be best for the team and this is no different than that. Bill is a pro. Bill’s been doing this a long time. He understands transition and change and all those things. He along with the rest of the staff will embrace this and hopefully as a team we’ll be better.”
The new question in Dallas should be: How long ago does this feel?