We’ve got a new GM in town, with Adam Peters set to be introduced by Commanders owner Josh Harris this afternoon. We also know that the head coach search has started in earnest, as the brass will interview Cowboys DC Dan Quinn via Zoom on Thursday, now that Dallas has been eliminated from the playoffs.
Ben Volin, who covers the NFL for the Boston Globe, joined the Junks Tuesday as he does every so often to discuss Super Wild Card Weekend…and yeah, the fact that Dallas’ head coaching job is also in question makes it time for the obligatory Bill Belichick discussion.
“I definitely think it's a Belichick landing spot. If not there, then the Atlanta Falcons, who announced via Twitter last night that they had interviewed Bill Belichick. which produced all kinds of hilarious jokes and memes, and how often did he bring up 28-3 and show his Super Bowl ring and all that,” Volin said. “Jerry Jones, to his credit has been patient the last 10-15 years; he gave Jason Garrett much more leash than he should have, and he has not been a guy who just makes moves by the seat of his pants. That said when you're Mike McCarthy and you've gone 12-5 three straight years and it's resulted in no playoff success, how do you keep bringing him back and selling that message to the locker room?”
Volin thinks the Cowboys are ‘stuck with Dak Prescott for one more year,’ so a change has to be made somewhere.
“What’s your plan b if you move on from Dak? I think they're probably sticking with him, so you've gotta make a change somewhere, and to me, I think it's time to make a change at the head coach,” Volin said. “It’s one thing to have the regular season success, no question McCarthy has done a good job there, but Jerry Jones is 81 years old and he's growing more and more impatient. It's been almost 30 years since he’s even been to a conference championship game, and that was embarrassing the other night - and it wasn't just Mike McCarthy's fault. I thought Dan Quinn’s defense had a real embarrassing performance, and to see a team looking that sloppy and unprepared, that's a total reflection of the coaching. So, you know, if you're Jerry Jones, you're thinking, well, we've got a good team, we just need someone to take us over the top – well, look who's available now: Bill Belichick, Mr. Six Super Bowl Rings himself. So I just think that makes a lot of sense for the Cowboys.”
Volin thinks wherever Belichick goes, any job he interviews for is probably his if he wants it and it’s his decision where to go, but it seems like DC won’t be that place – so, yeah, about that Commanders job, where Quinn is being interviewed despite Dallas’ defensive disaster Sunday?
Well, it starts with Peters, who Volin thinks would’ve been interviewed back in New England if the Pats ‘were serious about a reset, and not just promoting Jerod Mayo,’ but he’s not surprised Peters ended up as the guy in DC, and thinks the head coaching hire will follow a similar tract.
“You look at how Harris runs some of his other teams, it’s the young, analytics-based guys, and Peters is 44 and comes from the organization that everyone wants to try to emulate right now,” Volin said. “I gotta think that they're gonna look for a similar profile with their head coach. It looks like they probably want a young, good-looking offensive coach. The two names that you keep hearing are Ben Johnson, who several teams want him, and then Frank Smith, the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins, who has been getting a lot of buzz – I actually heard a few weeks ago that he might be the favorite in Washington – but I think it will come down to that type of coach. It’s a new day in Washington.”