Not sure we agree with Sports Illustrated here, but the national publication has named the Dallas Cowboys' staff shakeup one of the league's top coaching staff moves this offseason. If you mean in the sense that it made no sense, then we can maybe agree, but otherwise, it just seemed kind of silly, no?
Gregg Williams, the infamous ringleader of "Bountygate" in New Orleans a couple of years ago, was re-hired by the St. Louis Rams as the defensive coordinator — the same team who had hired him the offseason the scandal came out and before he was suspended indefinitely by the NFL. Now, two years later, he's back and that was named the top coordinator/playcaller hire of 2014.
Second to Williams' hire was the Cowboys' mass staff shuffle. Hiring Scott Linehan to be the playcaller and passing game coordinator, while keeping Bill Callahan as the offensive coordinator was one thing. Promoting Rod Marinelli from defensive line coach to defensive coordinator and keeping disgraced DC Monte Kiffin on as "assistant head coach, defense" was on another level of stupid. Yet, SI recognized it as a win for the Cowboys.
Marinelli's promotion is a no-doubt win. Other than that, time will tell if the other moves were worth all the commotion. As writer Don Banks pointed out, it's now a bit concerning for head coach Jason Garrett, who now has three former NFL head coaches on his staff (Linehan, Callahan and Marinelli), who could all easy replacements for Garrett midseason if things don't, um, go well.
It also seems it's going to be hard for players to know who they are working for, and could create some division from within.
