They filed into the room as they always do, and Jerry Jones sold as he always has.
Must be the summer, must be the Cowboys' first day at the Alamodome.
“As you guys know,” Jones said, “I'm a half-full guy, not a half-empty guy, so I look at the positives.”
Like last year. Then Jones said, beaming, “Not a whole lot of things not to like about the upcoming season.”
So Wednesday he sold the cars and trucks of his sponsor, and he sold his coach. According to Jones, a coach who has never overseen a football training camp in his life is ideal for a post-lockout scramble.
“I like the ability to cut and shoot,” Jones said of Jason Garrett, “and think on your feet.”
No one was sure what “cut and shoot” meant, but Jones might be on to something this time. After all, going by last season, Garrett didn't do as well with normalcy as he did with chaos.
Jones' half-fullness doesn't allow much room for doubt. He's always hopeful when he isn't simply rationalizing, and two years ago presented the clearest example.
“From the standpoint of getting ready to strap it on and getting ready to accomplish,” Jones said in the same Alamodome room he spoke in Wednesday, “there is nobody I want sitting by me any more than the guy sitting right next to me.”
The guy sitting next to him?
He's now an affable assistant in Houston.
But Wade Phillips wasn't the only one to blame last season when the Cowboys started 1-7. The team seemed set then, which is why Garrett shrugged last August when his offense started slowly.
So what if the Tony Romo and the Dallas first-team offense had 13 possessions in the preseason and scored only one touchdown? They were saving the full package for the opener.
Then they scored only seven points in Washington. Worse for Garrett was the infamously awful call just before halftime; the tone had been set for the Phillips crash.
The offense would eventually become respectable. Yet everything seemed to change in midseason, when Garrett took over on a Wednesday and beat the Giants on a Sunday. The Cowboys averaged more than 32 points over the next seven games after Garrett replaced Phillips.
The same assistant who had seemed to be part of the problem looked like the inverse of Phillips — a personality better as a head coach than as a coordinator. Garrett installed parameters on the fly while preaching the basics. He continued to say he wanted to stack good day upon good day and, in doing so, he stacked professionalism on top of order.
Now Garrett is rushed again. He hasn't seen his players in months, and his defensive coordinator has never seen them. Garrett's roster will be altered by cap restrictions, and new NFL guidelines will change his practice schedule.
But some of this might push him in the right direction. With limited practice schedules, for example, Garrett will be inclined to work his first-team offense in preseason games as he didn't last August.
Jones sees more, though: “It isn't like he spent 20 years doing it the same way with a lot of built-in habits and a lot of time frames. That's how he operates.”
Bill Belichick likely knows how to adjust, too. His built-in habits would also apply this summer.
Jones didn't stop there. “One of the things about being smart plus being young,” he said, “is that you roll with the flow, and you take the hand that's dealt you, and you go.”
It makes sense, and it might be real. In fact, there's only one problem with this.
Jones was selling again.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/...ett-is-worth-a-sell-1620027.php#ixzz1TP6MBEr6
Must be the summer, must be the Cowboys' first day at the Alamodome.
“As you guys know,” Jones said, “I'm a half-full guy, not a half-empty guy, so I look at the positives.”
Like last year. Then Jones said, beaming, “Not a whole lot of things not to like about the upcoming season.”
So Wednesday he sold the cars and trucks of his sponsor, and he sold his coach. According to Jones, a coach who has never overseen a football training camp in his life is ideal for a post-lockout scramble.
“I like the ability to cut and shoot,” Jones said of Jason Garrett, “and think on your feet.”
No one was sure what “cut and shoot” meant, but Jones might be on to something this time. After all, going by last season, Garrett didn't do as well with normalcy as he did with chaos.
Jones' half-fullness doesn't allow much room for doubt. He's always hopeful when he isn't simply rationalizing, and two years ago presented the clearest example.
“From the standpoint of getting ready to strap it on and getting ready to accomplish,” Jones said in the same Alamodome room he spoke in Wednesday, “there is nobody I want sitting by me any more than the guy sitting right next to me.”
The guy sitting next to him?
He's now an affable assistant in Houston.
But Wade Phillips wasn't the only one to blame last season when the Cowboys started 1-7. The team seemed set then, which is why Garrett shrugged last August when his offense started slowly.
So what if the Tony Romo and the Dallas first-team offense had 13 possessions in the preseason and scored only one touchdown? They were saving the full package for the opener.
Then they scored only seven points in Washington. Worse for Garrett was the infamously awful call just before halftime; the tone had been set for the Phillips crash.
The offense would eventually become respectable. Yet everything seemed to change in midseason, when Garrett took over on a Wednesday and beat the Giants on a Sunday. The Cowboys averaged more than 32 points over the next seven games after Garrett replaced Phillips.
The same assistant who had seemed to be part of the problem looked like the inverse of Phillips — a personality better as a head coach than as a coordinator. Garrett installed parameters on the fly while preaching the basics. He continued to say he wanted to stack good day upon good day and, in doing so, he stacked professionalism on top of order.
Now Garrett is rushed again. He hasn't seen his players in months, and his defensive coordinator has never seen them. Garrett's roster will be altered by cap restrictions, and new NFL guidelines will change his practice schedule.
But some of this might push him in the right direction. With limited practice schedules, for example, Garrett will be inclined to work his first-team offense in preseason games as he didn't last August.
Jones sees more, though: “It isn't like he spent 20 years doing it the same way with a lot of built-in habits and a lot of time frames. That's how he operates.”
Bill Belichick likely knows how to adjust, too. His built-in habits would also apply this summer.
Jones didn't stop there. “One of the things about being smart plus being young,” he said, “is that you roll with the flow, and you take the hand that's dealt you, and you go.”
It makes sense, and it might be real. In fact, there's only one problem with this.
Jones was selling again.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/...ett-is-worth-a-sell-1620027.php#ixzz1TP6MBEr6