Jason Garrett has been the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys since 2010, the seventh-longest tenured coach in the NFL. During that time, he’s done a lot of motivating and working through adversity. He’s also done a lot of talking and clapping. There are many differing perceptions of Garrett, but never any hard evidence other than stats and transactional decisions by which to quantify (or qualify) them. Thanks to the third season of Amazon’s “All or Nothing” series, that’s now changed.

Jason Garrett is exactly who we thought he was

The reactions to “All or Nothing” regarding the public’s perception of Garrett have been all over the map, with the primary answers being either “Garrett is a way better coach than I thought and I respect him now” or “I now see that Garrett is the worst coach in history.” Those polarizing revelations only make it clear everyone has their differing opinion on what an NFL coach (or any coach) should look like.

Garrett is clearly a one-sided coach in many regards. He connects with his players, but not nearly all of them. He has a game plan, but it’s written in stone. He tells his coaches he loves them, but he doesn’t listen to them and treats them like children in crunch time.

There are some players who have obvious connections with Garrett, presumably the “Garrett guys” Dez Bryant mentioned after his release. Dak Prescott has a bond with his coach with whom he plays a friendly game designed to continuously improve accuracy after every practice. There are others, such as DeMarcus Lawrence, who openly questioned Garrett’s (and his staff’s) decision making on the sidelines.

Garrett preaches preparation and effort in practice the same way thousands of coaches have before him, but he admits he didn’t adjust when he should have in almost every one of his postgame speeches following a loss. The sackfest debacle against the Falcons is the best example, including his decision to keep Prescott in the game after he’d been sacked six times and the outcome had been decided. As the head coach with no play-calling duties, those are grounds for firing.

In his final coach’s meeting on New Year’s Day following the team’s last game, Garrett tells his staff he genuinely cares about all of them, but then, in the same breath, tells them that some won’t be back because they don’t buy into his message. But the truth of that matter revealed in “All or Nothing” is he didn’t buy into anything they brought to the table.

As a head coach with no play-calling duties, not catching things like Chaz Green’s historic incompetence as a left tackle against Atlanta is inexcusable. Not relying on (or allowing) a guy like Dooley to be in the game-planning room to help get Bryant going is absurd. Not overriding any of Scott Linehan’s three consecutive atrocious play calls following a first-and-goal in Ezekiel Elliott’s first game back in a do-or-die game against Seattle is enough to make folks pull out their hair.

Garrett is exactly who we thought he was: An intellectual human being with a Princeton education who simply can’t apply those Ivy League brains to pro football scheming. Add in the constant cheerleader-like chattering with rare deeper meaning, and you’ve got an unlikeable character for a television production. And an even more deplorable choice for head coach of the NFL’s most prominent franchise.

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  This is one of several focused reviews of the Amazon documentary “All or Nothing”.

  • ‘All or Nothing’ sheds light on Cowboys’ Bryant, Witten relationships
  • ‘All or Nothing’ exposes how much Tony Romo meant to Cowboys chemistry
  • Unfortunately, Cowboys’ Jason Garrett is exactly who we thought he was
  • Sean Lee’s impact on Cowboys organization is thing of legends
  • Jerry Jones’ ‘All or Nothing’ segments show a clueless, meddling owner
  • Cowboys rely on Zeke more than most realize, Gary Brown by extension

  You can follow Jeric on Twitter @JericGriffin and on Facebook @JericGriffin