For some reason, it took Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys a really long time to fire Jason Garrett, and then an even longer time to acknowledge it. There was hardly a possibility that that team was going to go into this offseason with that man still in charge of things with the way this season went down, and his otherwise lack of success that preceded it.
Even more baffling than that possibility, however, now extinguished, is the though that it’s possible the next man to patrol the sidelines for the Cowboys is Marvin Lewis. Because now that Jones has wiped the tears away and has been able to publicly confirm the breakout, we also have to acknowledge the reality that Dallas has, in fact, already brought in and interviewed the longtime head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, before Garrett was even out the door.
Lewis served as head coach in Cincinnati for a long time, from 2003 up through the 2018 season. He just barely finished his career there with a winning record, going 131-129-3. Literally, if he lost one more game, he would have been a career .500 head coach. That includes the postseason, during which he went 0-7.
Prior to Washington announcing the hiring of Ron Rivera, the notion was floated that he could end up there. He did spend one season with the Cowboys’ divisional rivals in 2002, the year before getting the Bengals job, there serving as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.
Lewis already interviewed with the Cowboys days ago, and was in the area for a short while. Dallas is also interviewing former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy. According to reports, Jones wants to pursue somebody who already has extensive head coaching experience rather than a younger coach, like Lewis’ replacement in Cincinnati, Zac Taylor.
The Pennsylvania native is already 61 years old. If hired, he would be the sixth-oldest head coach in the NFL behind Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll, 68, Bruce Arians, 67, as well as Mike Zimmer, 63. Andy Reid and Vice Fangio are also 61, but months older.
Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting the list to be this long when I began putting this line of thought down on paper. But he would still be old, and he was already rumored to have been considering retirement a few years ago, prior to Hue Jackson leaving to take the head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns. As far as I’m concerned, this would be not just a bad, but surprising way to go.
