Jerry Jones really waited to get rid of Jason Garrett until the Eagles’ playoff game

Jason Garrett was never coming back as the Cowboys’ head coach in 2020. This was painfully obvious after a stacked Dallas team finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs despite playing in an inimitably winnable NFC East.

Yet, Black Monday came and went without any official news of Garrett’s future. More days passed with radio silence as well. Head coaching candidates came and went from the Cowboys’ facilities in Arlington, but no official announcement was made about the team’s still-employed, 10-year head coach.

Until the third quarter of the Eagles’ playoff opener Sunday evening, that is. The Cowboys officially announced they wouldn’t renew Garrett’s expiring contract at 6:51 pm ET: roughly 12 minutes into the third quarter of Philadelphia’s Wild Card Round game against the Seahawks.

“We are extremely grateful to Jason Garrett for his more than 20 years of service to the Dallas Cowboys as a player, assistant coach and head coach,” Jones said in a post on DallasCowboys.com. “His level of commitment, character and dedication to this organization has been outstanding at every stage of his career.”

That post also made light of the team’s hesitation to seal Garrett’s fate, though it failed to give a reason why Jones decided to wait at least six days after head coaches Pat Shurmur and Freddie Kitchens had been fired. Garrett was under contract through January 14, so Jones could have made his announcement at any time in the coming week — or on Saturday, when news of Marvin Lewis and Mike McCarthy’s interviews went public. Instead he chose Sunday night ...right in the middle of Philadelphia’s playoff game.

That hesitation gave needy clubs like the Giants, Panthers, Browns, and Washington a leg up when it came to scheduling interviews for potential coaching candidates. It also limited Garrett’s options should his services be desired by another NFL team in 2020.

Those are all negatives that could be balanced out by one extremely petty positive for Jones. He, in the midst of his division rival’s playoff game, hijacked some headlines and shifted the Sunday spotlight from the Eagles to his Cowboys. While that may not have been his plan from the beginning, it may be the silver lining on the removal of a head coach Jones clearly respected after nine-plus seasons on the sideline.