Cowboys Corner

Cowboys keeping Jimmy Robinson in organization because of influence he had on Dez Bryant

Jimmy Robinson has been replaced as the Cowboys’ receivers coach, but he is staying on in the organization because he can continue to have an influence on Dez Bryant.

“Jimmy had a really positive impact on Dez,” Garrett said Wednesday at Valley Ranch. “It was a breakout year for Dez. He caught 92 balls for 1,300-plus yards and really played very, very good football. I think he matured a ton, and there’s no question the environment he was in certainly helped him, and Jimmy was a big part of that.”

Robinson spent two years as the receivers coach after joining the Cowboys from Green Bay. He is remaining as a senior coaching consultant.

Derek Dooley was named the new receivers coach last week.

-- Carlos Mendez

Twitter @calexmendez

Garrett says Claiborne, Carr may benefit from keeping eyes on football more in Tampa 2

The Cowboys are switching defenses, and coach Jason Garrett said cornerbacks Morris Claiborne and Brandon Carr could benefit with a chance to keep their eye on the ball more.

“They both have great ball skills, so the opportunity to play a little more zone, with their eyes to the football a little bit more, hopefully they can make more plays,” Garrett said at his Wednesday press conference at Valley Ranch..

Claiborne and Carr have reputations for being good man-to-man defenders, but they don’t have the prototypical size of run-stopping corners that is ideal in the Cowboys’ new Tampa 2 defense. Still, Garrett said they’re a good fit.

“Takeaways make a huge difference. They make a huge difference on our team and all around the league as far as scoring points and winning ballgames,” Garrett said. “We think that’s a huge part of this decision to change our defensive philosophy. We think those guys fit in real well.”

-- Carlos Mendez

Twitter @calexmendez

Jason Garrett: Best way for John Garrett to grow was to leave Cowboys

Jason Garrett is excited about his staff, including the three new offensive assistants. But the changes meant saying good-bye to his brother.

John Garrett joined Jason in Dallas in 2007 and had the title of passing game coordinator added to his duties in 2011. John Garrett left last month to become the Buccaneers receivers coach.

Jason Garrett said that was the best move for his brother.

“Johnny had some opportunities to leave here in the last couple of years, and we kept him here,” Jason Garrett said. “We made it worth his while to stay here. And as we’ve restructured this thing, I would never put him in a situation where he would call plays on our staff. He and I had that discussion; we had that discussion in our organization. We felt like the best way for him to grow was not to be here. He’s got a great situation down in Tampa with guys that he knows and respects and he’ll do a great job for them.”

Wes Phillips, who has been on the staff for six years, was promoted from assistant offensive line coach to tight ends coach to replace John Garrett.

-- Charean Williams

Garrett "very disappointed" in Jay Ratliff's arrest last month for DWI

Jason Garrett said he has talked to defensive tackle Jay Ratliff since Ratliff was arrested Jan. 22 on a driving while intoxicated charge after hitting an 18-wheeler and a highway median with his car. His arrest came 44 days after Ratliff’s backup, Josh Brent, was arrested for intoxicated manslaughter as the driver in a single-car wreck that killed his passenger, practice squad linebacker Jerry Brown.

Ratliff’s blood-alcohol content was twice the legal limit.

“Very disappointed, and obviously having one situation like that is one too many,” Garrett said. “We’re trying to do …everything we can to help our players make the right decisions, and we’ll continue to do that going forward.”

Garrett said the legal process will have to “play out” before a decision is made on Ratliff’s future. Ratliff faces possible discipline from the league.

Ratliff, who played in only six games, with no sacks, has five years left on his contract. He is scheduled to make $5 million and count $7 million against the cap.

The Cowboys met with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, whose national office is in Las Colinas, after the Super Bowl. MADD chief executive officer Debbie Weir has met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at least twice since Brown's death, and she attended Goodell's state of the NFL address at the Super Bowl when he was asked about Ratliff and what more the league can do to curtail drinking and driving by its players.

-- Charean Williams

Garrett says he has delegated some coordinator duties since becoming head coach

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has rarely wavered on the idea of giving up play-calling, but he acknowledged Wednesday that head coach and play-caller are full-time responsibilities and that he has given up some duties.

"Ultimately you’re the head coach of the football team, so you want to make sure you give the offense, defense and kicking game equal amount of time, equal amount of attention to address those things," he said at a press conference at Valley Ranch. "And there are a ton of personnel issues that come up and a lot of other issues that you have. And there are only 24 hours in day. You want to make sure you’re doing justice to everything as you go forward. I’ve tried to delegate a lot of the different coordinator responsibilities over the last couple of years just to alleviate that, so I can pay more attention to the head coaching responsibilities that I do have.”

Garrett said he and the staff and owner Jerry Jones have talked for 2 1/2 years, since Garrett became the interim head coach in 2010 following the firing of Wade Phillips, about how to handle play-calling. Garrett was the play-caller as offensive coordinator under Phillips.

“This has been an evolution. We’re trying to balance these two things,” Garrett said, meaning keeping the effectiveness of the offense while also bringing in new ideas. “We have to play good offensive football, and we want to stay on that path. We have to get better. We have to run the football better. We have to do things better in terms of taking care of the football. We have to score more points. All those things – we don’t want to be seventh in scoring; we want to be first in scoring. We don’t want to be fourth in offense; we want to be first. All of those things. We are very aware of those things. We’ve got to get better, and we’ve got to get better in a lot of different areas.

“Scheme will help us do that. Personnel will help us do that. And we’re going to try to work through a structure where we can stay on the same path, but also benefit from the changes we’ve made on our staff.”

-- Carlos Mendez

Twitter @calexmendez

Garrett says Callahan understands 'what we've done on offense' and that they 'share values'

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said he and Bill Callahan “share values” about offense and that the veteran coach has influenced the offense since joining the organization last year.

That could mean a smooth transition to Callahan as the play-caller next season.

“Bill wouldn’t be on the staff if we didn’t have shared values,” Garrett said Wednesday in a press conference at Valley Ranch. “My respect for him as a person and a coach is off the charts. He’s an outstanding football coach. The biggest thing for me is the transitioning. He’s been with us for a year now, he understands what we’ve done on offense, he’s brought a lot of stuff to our offense and just the comfort level that he has with what we’re doing throughout our whole offense and the comfort level our players will have going forward.”

Garrett said he gave Callahan, hired a year ago as offensive line coach, a big say in how the Cowboys run the football.

“Bill was our run game coordinator last year, and that’s the one thing that I’ve been adamant about with each of the offensive line coaches that we’ve had – going back to Tony Sporano and Hudson Houck and through Bill Callahan, I mean, their influence has been strong. I want to run the football the way they want to run the football. So his influence has been strong.”

Garrett said he and Callahan are talking about the “mechanics” of a new play-calling arrangement.

“The way we have done things around here, candidly, is there’s been a primary play-caller, which has been me, but these have always been collective exercises,” Garrett said. “How you game plan, and the communication you have during the game, both in the run game and the pass game. Bill was very involved in the play-calling part with the run game this year. What we’re trying to do is work through the mechanics of that, and as we get close to playing the game, we can fill you in more specifically.”

-- Carlos Mendez

Twitter @calexmendez

Garrett kicks announcement of new playcaller down the road -- perhaps all the way to preseason opener

So when will the Cowboys announce who the new play-caller will be?

Well, it won’t be any time soon. But they won’t wait until they’re on the bus on the way to the first game, either.

So there’s a pretty big window on that decision.

“What we’re trying to do right now is, we’re going to work through the mechanics of that here through the off-season,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Wednesday at Valley Ranch. “I don’t want to definitively say that one way or the other. Again, like I said, there’s been a evolution here of me trying to delegate a lot of responsibilities I had as an offensive coordinator as I became the head coach. So we’re trying to move in that direction. Bill and I have talked about different ways that we can do it.”

The discussion is apparently going to take a while.

Garrett was asked why not announce it now, before the OTAs and/or training camp.

“That very well could happen,” he said. “Probably not here today on Feb. 13. But as we go, we will work through it. We trust the process. We are confident we will get it right.”

-- Carlos Mendez

Twitter @calexmendez

Garrett says 4-3 is easier to learn, which will help in case Cowboys have to go looking for injury help again

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said one reason for the switch to the 4-3 is that it’s easier to learn and easier to find players for in case of injuries.

“In this day and age in the NFL, with shortened offseasons, shortened training camps, injuries, all those kinds of things, it’s important to try and put offensive and defensive systems in place that allow you to deal with the schedule and absorb the injuries that very well could happen,” he said Wednesday during his press conference at Valley Ranch. “That was one of the philosophical advantages of playing this 4-3 defense. We think it can be a simpler defense for us, for guys to come in here and learn in this day and age, and also if you have the injuries to absorb, it allows you to maybe do that a little bit better.”

The Cowboys lost six starters and a backup to injury last year, and another backup-turned-starter (nose tackle Josh Brent) became unavailable after a drunken-driving charge.

Another reason was the lack of turnovers under former defensive coordinator Rob Ryan’s 3-4 defense. The Cowboys had only 16 takeaways last year and 25 the year before.

“We’ve done a lot of good things on defense here in the last six years, but the thing we’ve probably have done least well is take the football away,” Garrett said. “And takeaways and turnovers and that differential is probably the single most important statistic in football, and I think over the last six years we are 24th in taking the ball away. ... So, that’s another piece to this puzzle when you talk about the additions to our staff and how they can help our football team. Monte’s track record with his defenses is outstanding, and Rod Marinelli in Chicago – they led the league with 44 takeaways last year. Forty-four is a huge number. Just by contrast, we had 16 on our team, so that’s 28 more scoring opportunities.”

-- Carlos Mendez

Twitter @calexmendez

Garrett says his position on football team speaks for itself with the players

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said the authority of his position is self-evident with the football team.

“I think the relationship I have with the coaches and players just speaks for itself,” he said Wednesday during his press conference at Valley Ranch. “The time I spend with our guys, and how we run things, and how things are directed on a daily basis – I think they understand the
position that I’m in, and I think they have respect for that.”

Garrett was answering a question about whether it’s important for him to show that he is in charge, considering the high visibility of owner Jerry Jones.

Earlier in the press conference, Garrett said he and Jones have a strong relationship.

“One of the great things about this organization since I’ve been here is the communication between me as the head coach and the ownership and the decision-makers is really strong, and it’s always been strong,” Garrett said, asked if he had final say over the coaching staff changes. “We’ve had great back-and-forth about a lot of the decisions we’ve made.”

Garrett said the give-and-take between him and Jones was the same this year as in previous years.

“We’ve made a number of staff decisions through the years, and these were no different,” Garrett said. “A lot of hard conversations to be had about people that you care about who have made a great investment in this organization and our football team, guys that I have loyalty to, guys the Joneses have loyalty to. We’ve had a lot of discussions about coaches and players through the years, and the lines of communication have always been open. My opinions are well-known, Jerry Jones’ opinions, Stephen Jones’ opinions, our coaches’ opinions – they’re all very well-known, and at the end of the day we made collective decisions that we think are in the best interests of our football team.”

-- Carlos Mendez

Twitter @calexmendez

NCAA committee chairman expects smooth run in Cowboys Stadium debut as tourney site

Although the chairman of the NCAA men’s basketball committee anticipates “more madness than we’re used to in March” in a parity-filled season, he stressed today that officials anticipate a smooth logistical run during Cowboys Stadium’s debut as an NCAA venue when it hosts the South Regional, March 29-31.

The key, said tournament chair Mike Bobinski, rests with the experience of the administrative staff from the Big 12, which will oversee the regional site.

“We feel like Cowboys Stadium will be a tremendous regional host and an equally tremendous Final Four host,” Bobinski said. “The Big 12 has hosted a number of regionals before ... For teams to play in one of the iconic venues in the country is great. We’re excited about being there.”

Bobinski said the setup of Cowboys Stadium at the South Regional will be used “as a dress rehearsal” for the 2014 Final Four, which also is coming to the facility.

_ Jimmy Burch