Jerry Jones: Firing Jason Garrett Is 'Not in the Cowboys' Best Interest'

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones offered head coach Jason Garrett a vote of confidence on Tuesday by telling 105.3 The Fan (h/t Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News), "It's not in the Cowboys' best interest right now to be considering a coaching change."  

While Jones didn't rule out the possibility of making other changes to the coaching staff, he said Garrett's "job is not an issue here at all."

"I do understand frustration right after you lose a game that has such meaningfulness," Jones noted Monday, per Brandon George of the Dallas Morning News. "But I get to look at a lot of different things and have been around a lot of head coaches and coordinators. So I feel good about our head coach."

There are two ways to judge Garrett after the 2017 season. 

The first is that he failed to lead the Cowboys to the postseason in 2017, the fifth time the Cowboys have missed the playoffs in his seven seasons as their full-time head coach, despite having a loaded roster that went 13-3 last season. If Garrett were on the hot seat, that would be the basis.

NFL reporter Ed Werder believes Garrett offers limited upside as a head coach: 

The second, however, is that the Cowboys dealt with a number of extenuating circumstances that affected their play on the field. Star running back Ezekiel Elliott was suspended for six games, a stretch that saw the team go 3-3. A number of key players were either lost or hampered by injuries for chunks of the season, most notably linebacker Sean Lee and offensive lineman Tyron Smith. Wideout Dez Bryant continued to show decline.

For those reasons, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com doesn't believe Garrett should be fired, while Mike Garafolo of NFL Network believes if the Cowboys fired Garrett, he wouldn't be without a job for long: 

It's hard to imagine there won't be any change in Dallas. Losing Elliott may have been a major factor, but the Cowboys were only 5-3 when his suspension began. The team's passing game was suspect all season long, and Dak Prescott took a step backward after a superb rookie year. The defense was just average.  

Jones may not put the blame at Garrett's feet, but it's clear the Cowboys need to address those issues if they are to return to the NFL's elite in 2018.