Jason Garrett on the Dan Patrick Show Full Interview | 01/19/23

Intro [Music] [Applause] Jason Garrett football night America and uh their coverage of the divisional playoffs begins Saturday at three Eastern football night in America from Kansas City as the Chiefs host Jacksonville good to talk to you again Jason which opening do you think is the best right now Sean Payton oh um great question I think it depends on the coach I'd say Sean Payton yeah I think the things that that Sean will value uh are things that a lot of people value and and I think maybe he has some more um uh options than most uh I think more than anything else he wants a structure and an organization where he has clout and he has um you know a decision-making power that you know makes everything kind of stop with him uh uh and and so I think that's probably that's probably line one for him uh resources in the organization to make decisions uh to go get players and having a big budget I think that's a big thing and and I think the other part of it is the quarterback situation um you know Sean was very fortunate in in New Orleans to have a Hall of Fame quarterback and Drew Brees and they were tremendous collaboration but but I think he he recognized that it was harder his last year when Drew Brees wasn't there so having a planet quarterback whether the guy's in place or whether there's no one's in place so he can go get a guy to be his next Drew Brees I think those are probably the biggest factors for him okay taking all Russell Wilson Kyler Murray of that into consideration which team fits that criteria um two two ways to go Sean has to Sean has to decide what his feelings are about Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray does does he see those guys as people he wants to work with obviously both have been very accomplished players Russell Wilson it's a nine-time pro bowler and obviously it wasn't his best year in Denver this past year but he's had a ton of success you know he could potentially be a Hall of Fame quarterback so does Sean see him as someone he can kind of get right and get playing to the level that he played at before uh certainly the the the the people in Denver have an immense amount of resources the Walmart family and all of that uh Denver's a great place to live it's a great history and tradition in that organization so uh you know George Payton who's the general manager there fantastic person so you know I that could be attractive to him uh again what's his feeling on Kyler Murray uh there's a commitment in Arizona to Kyler Murray for a long time how does that work out I I gotta believe that you know he would have have a lot of say in what goes on there going forward but then Carolina you know there's a lot of money there in Carolina there is no established quarterback maybe that's a better way to go where you don't have a guide you can kind of clean the Slate so you know we can argue them 100 different ways I think as much as anything else when he's traveling the country visiting with people it's going to be a gut instinct and a gut feel for what he thinks is the best environment Interview Process take us through the interviewing process when you got the Cowboys job so when you get off the plane then what happens like take us through the steps of how many interviews how many people are you selling yourself to Jerry Jones my philosophy of the franchise this is what I see this is the you know the crystal ball do you want the real story Dan yeah yeah yeah it's a really good story it's a long story um you know I was coaching with the Miami Dolphins at the time I just finished playing and then Nick Saban became the head coach there and uh and so I was a quarterback with the dolphins my last year for the last part of the season and a couple weeks later I became their quarterback coach and I did that for a couple years then Coach Saban Went to went to Alabama and uh Cam Cameron was hired as the Dolphins head coach and I wasn't going to be there but I was still with them but I was under contract so I was going to kind of see what the potential options were maybe in college football and just kind of play it out a little bit so I go to the I go to the Senior Bowl wearing my Miami Dolphins gear and and Coach Parcells retires from the Cowboys uh on Monday of that week so I'm at the Senior Bowl on Tuesday and I'm at practice and I get a phone call and uh it's uh you know some people from the Dolphins saying that the Cowboys want to visit with me about this job and uh you know Wayne hizanga was the owner of the of the Dolphins at the time and he and Jerry Jones obviously have a relationship and and they talked and uh Jerry had explained to him that you know I had been a player for the Cowboys for eight years and that had been a big part of my life before and he'd love to have a visit with me even though I was under contract and so the the deal was you have until 12 noon on Thursday you have this window to talk and figure something out so I kind of get all my stuff together and I leave early Wednesday morning to to go from Mobile Alabama to Dallas and it was kind of a surreal experience I think the flight was was literally at six A.M and and I get to the airport early and there had been a WWE event in Mobile the night before so so I'm I'm on this little plane uh from Mobile to Dallas with all these professional wrestlers and uh so I'm in line with these guys I'm like who are you guys oh yeah we had this big event the night before and you know these CL I mean there were like 10 of them you know men and women it was like the crazy you know it was dark and Misty out I'm like where am I right now what am I doing and uh so anyway I got my Dolphins gear on and I'm heading to Dallas and I get there early I get there like eight o'clock in the morning and I go over to Valley Ranch the old facility and and uh I just spent the day with Jerry and Steven and uh and we just talked all about kind of what the idea would be now you got to remember that the Cowboys didn't have a head coach so it was you know I'm two years into coaching so you know what is this for is this for the head coach is this for a coordinator position you know why are we talking so we kind of explained all of that and and you know what my philosophy would be and how I would build a program and and everything and so it went on all day long and I've known Jerry for years and Stephen for years but we just spent a lot of time together uh that day and it ended up at like two o'clock in the morning at this place Al bernay's in Dallas which is kind of this famous steak place in the back just listening to uh Stephen and Jerry and us having a great conversation and and when you when you play it back I'd probably gotten up at three o'clock in the morning in Mobile and that was about two o'clock so I've been up for about 23 straight hours talking philosophy and were you offered a job at this Steakhouse what's that were you offered the job at the steakhouse no uh Stephen told me later the stamina that I had that day was really impressive to Jerry when did they offer you the job uh I can't remember you know we talked about it the next day and and and and eventually we said hey don't leave we're gonna figure something out here wow and uh and so before 12 noon on Thursday which was the deadline we decided that I was going to stay in Dallas in some capacity Coaching Career did you ever think that maybe it was too much for you too soon after your playing career with not having a long coaching history well it certainly happened fast there's no question about that um but but I had been in football for a long time and I was fortunate to be around really good people and eventually I was named the offensive coordinator and you rely on your experiences with North Turner and Ernie zampizi and Sean Payton and John Gruden and and a lot of those guys that I was fortunate to be around and uh you know you dive in you know when you get when you've got your first job at ESPN you probably weren't ready you dive in you figure it out you make your mistakes you keep going and that's what we did we're talking to Jason Garrett football Joe Burrow night in America would you rather have a cocky quarterback or a confident quarterback um I think in order to be great you have to you have to be on the edge of Cockiness I think cocky matters as long as cocky doesn't mean that you're not willing to go through the steps to prepare the right way you know um I think that's an important thing Joe burrow tows the line yeah love them he's got he's got Swagger that's his personality that's who he is uh he clearly works at it he clearly cares about it he clearly respects the process and who he's going against but he's got a little he's got a little Edge to him and uh he's got some fantastic outfits he likes to express himself that way but but you know he when he gets in that huddle he's in charge and I think that's what's most important we talked to Tony Dungy yesterday and he said after the third Miss by the Cowboys kicker he would have benched him and then just gone for two after that what do you think of that philosophy what would you have done in that situation well you know I think it was probably easier for them to stick with him because the game was out of hand um you know my instinct and probably I'm biased towards Brett Maher because he was a really good kicker for us yeah I probably would have stuck with him and kept giving him chances knowing that he was had to kick his way out of it but Tony makes a great point you know if that game is close and it's you know 24-24 you know what do you do there yes and those become harder decisions you ever yelled at a kicker uh I don't think I ever yelled at a kicker we don't yell at kickers too we put our arms around kickers don't we we we we treat them differently than we do anybody else right yeah it's it's interesting that there's uh a fragility to Kickers that you know kind of comes with the with the position so uh you treat them with kid gloves have you seen uh enough of Trevor Lawrence does he enter into that picture with Justin Herbert or Joe burrow or you know these younger quarterbacks is he there yet I don't think he's there yet but boy he's on his way and uh you know to talk about a great marriage between him and Doug Peterson and that offensive staff you see marked improvement in him over the course of the year and you know as much as anything else you know a couple things you're always trying to teach your quarterbacks as quick and decisive you know go back make your decisions get the ball out of your hand I think that's such an important trait for guys and uh it goes back to a little bit what we're talking about confidence and Cockiness and preparation all of that gets manifested in those qualities he's quick he's decisive he's getting it out of his hand and it really looks like a different quarterback the last half of this year how's TV treating you it's been great I've I've really enjoyed it you know you know the people at NBC or first class and you know what's been fun about it for me Dan is I I go in knowing that I don't know how to do this and you try to have a humility about that but you're also going to dive in and try to get it done and they've been so good in being supportive and positive with me but also very instructive which I've appreciated I actually said that to him I said the only thing I'm going to be mad at you is if you don't tell me yeah I'm coachable just tell me if it's not good just tell me and I'll try to figure it out and make it better the next time and everybody at NBC has been great in that regard how close did you come to taking the Stanford job you know it's an intriguing place it really is I've always had great admiration for it and that's why I went out there and visited with them uh you know you get a chance to talk to uh Andrew Luck and Condoleezza Rice and Bruce Dunleavy and Bernard Muir Bernard Muir is the A.D at Stanford and Bruce dunleave is a distinguished Alum and you're talking about being the head coach out there it was a really fun experience stimulating experience but you know at the end of it the college landscape is changing and uh you know you embrace the standards at a place like Stanford you want to coach those kinds of kids who are so driven but with transfer portal and nil and a lot of the other factors it might be hard to win an environment like that so I was thankful for the opportunity but I'm glad I did what I did yeah who would have thought that the NFL would be simpler than college football but it's the case isn't it crazy yeah yeah and only getting crazier here until they understand what nil is uh you know I'm really I'm really hoping they somehow put some curves on these things and I don't know how they do it um you know I think it's good nil is a good thing in concept but hopefully it gets used the right way to benefit the kids and not to you know uh too much uh recruiting of high school kids and and and transfers uh is a Bad Thing using nil so hopefully they can get that all sorted out thanks for sharing this story there with the Cowboys job and uh have fun in Kansas City great to talk to you again Jace I always love talking to you Dan that's Jason Garrett football night in America it'll be football afternoon in America they got Kansas City and the Jags that'll uh be starting I think at three Eastern on NBC in peacock we'll take a break we've got our play of the day up next