People seem to be eager for Jason Garrett to give up play calling duties for the Dallas Cowboys. This is despite the fact that he called the plays when Dallas went 13-3 and had one of the best offenses in the NFL. This is despite the fact that he just called the season where Tony Romo played the best football of his NFL career.
However, one thing that Dallas fans might want to consider is that, if Garrett gives up his play calling, Bill Callahan will be who steps into those shoes.
Callahan is the new Dallas Cowboys' offensive coordinator. Before this he worked for the Oakland Raiders as the offensive coordinator under Jon Gruden and head coach after Gruden left. In his first year as Raiders' head coach, he led a team full of Gruden's players to the Super Bowl, only to get blown out by Gruden and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
With Callahan coaching the team, they finished ranked first in passing for the first time in franchise history and in total offense for only the second time in Raiders' history. That sounds pretty great.
However, in his second year his players mutinied. No less than Tim Brown said that Callahan was trying to sabotage the team's success that season and they finished with a 4-12 record. One year after making the Super Bowl, Callahan drove them straight into the basement. Luckily, Callahan explained the collapse by calling them the dumbest team in America.
Then Callahan went to college and became the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Nebraska has always been one of the best teams in college football, with a long and vaulted history. In his first season at Nebraska, he led them to a 5-6 record, their first losing season in over 40 years. He took a team whose strength was the run and had them work from the west coast offense.
He finished up at Nebraska with a record of 27-22, finishing with a losing record in two of his four seasons there. He had a losing record against fellow Big 12 schools and was 1-10 against ranked schools. He was a failure.
He came back to the NFL and the New York Jets and became an assistant there. Look at how the Jets played this season to see what Callahan might be bringing to the Cowboys. I'm not saying Callahan will be a failure in Dallas but I am saying that pushing Garrett out of play calling for Callahan might not be the best move.
Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys' fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys' related news, good or bad
