Jason Garrett named NFL Head Coach of the Year after 13-3 season

Jason Garrett survived three straight .500 seasons when he started his tenure with the Dallas Cowboys. Three years and two game-changing rookies later, he’s now the Associated Press’s NFL Coach of the Year.

Garrett pressed Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott into action, and the pair of first-year players pushed Dallas to the top of the NFC. Prescott started the season as the team’s third-string quarterback, but became an unlikely MVP candidate thanks to injuries to Tony Romo and Kellen Moore. Prescott set an NFL record for most passes without an interception to start a career and led his team on a league-high 11-game winning streak en route to a 13-3 season.

Elliott was even better. The No. 4 overall pick proved his value by eclipsing Tony Dorsett’s franchise rookie rushing record in just 10 games. The Ohio State product ran for more than 1,600 yards in only 15 games to establish himself as the league’s premier rusher.

That pair combined with a solid foundation, including the league’s best offensive line, to lift Garrett’s team to new heights. The 13-win season set a new career regular-season high for the 50-year old coach. And it made him an easy choice for the award.

Things weren’t always so rosy for Garrett. He took over for the deposed Wade Phillips in 2010 and led a 1-7 team to a 5-3 finish to cement his hold on the job. The Cowboys went 8-8 in each of his next three seasons to create grumblings about his future with the franchise, but a 12-4 season and an NFC East title in 2014 cooled off his hot seat.

Dallas fell to 4-12 the following year after Romo suffered a season-ending injury, but his broken collarbone proved to be a blessing for Garrett and the team. It allowed the Cowboys to select Elliott at the top of the first round the following spring, then nudged the team to pick up Prescott three rounds later as insurance for their oft-injured starting quarterback.

The moves paid off, allowing Garrett to look like a genius after a stellar 2016. The veteran coach found a way to integrate dynamic new athletes with a solid existing structure and rode those playmakers to the top of the NFC. That 13-3 record was enough to vault him past Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, and Dan Quinn as the league’s top coach in 2016.