One Down, One to Go: Cowboys Fire Stewart

Well I was unexpectedly away for a week and I come back to find that the Cowboys have (unknowingly of course) heeded my advice to fire defensive coordinator Brian Stewart.  I mentioned it in passing when arguing for the dismissal of Offensive Coordinator (for now, see below) Jason Garrett.  I believe that releasing Stewart was a very good decision on the Cowboys’ behalf.  During the 2008 season, Wade Phillips had to step in and take over the defense from Stewart because he wasn’t getting the job done.  My opinion is and always has been that Stewart had to go.

Why keep a guy who can’t do his job?  This was the stated reason for firing special teams coach Bruce Read at the end of the season.  He apparently couldn’t even run his practices on his own without help from other coaches.  So because he couldn’t do his job and other coaches had to step in, he was let go.

This is the same situation that Brian Stewart was in.  Brian Stewart’s failure, however, was much more public.  Wade Phillips, without publicly condemning Stewart, did publicly announce that he was going to be “more involved with the defense.”  He later admitted that this included calling all defensive plays.  Don’t get me wrong, that’s great.  Phillips is a phenominal defensive coach.  The team’s defense improved markedly after Phillips took over.  But he has other responsibilities with the team.  He needs to be able to be able to depend on the defensive coordinator to take care of running the defense.  Brian Stewart couldn’t do that job.  My only question is this:  Why did it take so long?  Read was fired in December.  Stewart should have been gone as well.

Stewart is the “One Down” part alluded to in the title of this post, now we come to the “One to Go” part.  Jason Garrett is interviewing to become head coach of the Rams.  He is on his second interview, and rumor has it he will be offered the job.  Rumors from up on Cowboy Mountain say he gave Jerry Jones a “head coach or bust” or a “T.O. or me” ultimatum, possibly both.  If he accepts the Rams job, it will be an indication that Jones chose Wade Phillips and/or Terrell Owens.  If he doesn’t get the job, I predict he will be fired.

Again this is a smart move.  The problem wasn’t T.O or Phillips.  Garrett couldn’t make use of the significant weapons he had and he couldn’t get his offense to line up.  T.O. is a character, but lots of teams have characters.  New England gets Randy Moss to toe the line.  An effective O.C. would be able to get T.O. in line as well.  It’s easy to do, just give him the ball.  That’s all he wants, and declining or not, old or not, he can be magic when the ball is in his hands.

UPDATE:  NFL Network’s Adam Schefter is reporting that the Rams have hired the Giants’ Steve Spagnuolo instead of Garrett.

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