No current NFL coach has been on the job longer and accomplished less than Jason Garrett now that Cincinnati has fired Marvin Lewis.
Garrett owns one playoff win since taking over the Cowboys midway through the 2010 season.
New England's Bill Belichick, Baltimore's John Harbaugh, Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin, New Orleans Sean Payton, Seattle's Pete Carroll and Carolina's Ron Rivera have each led their teams to the Super Bowl.
All but Rivera own at least one Super Bowl Ring.
Garrett is 69-56 with the Cowboys, and only Tom Landry has directed more wins in franchise history. Don't forget, he was named NFL Coach of the Year following the 2016 season.
Cowboys fans aren't demanding a Super Bowl win just yet, but it's time for Garrett to double his playoff wins.
His future depends on it.
Now, that doesn't mean he's getting fired if the Cowboys lose Saturday against Seattle at AT&T Stadium in NFC divisional playoff game.
But it does mean he's probably not going to get a new contract as he enters the final year of the five-year, $30 million deal he received after the 2014 season.
That said, Jerry Jones is looking for reasons to keep Garrett.
Jones likes the continuity Garrett provides, and Jones likes the fact that he gets the benefit of the knowledge Garrett has learned while coaching the Cowboys.
As you would expect, he made a litany of mistakes as a first-time head coach at any level.
These days, he's much better.
Seriously.
The Cowboys have won the division three times in the last five seasons, and they have recorded 13-, 12- and 10-win seasons in that span.
But Garrett hasn't had playoff success and that's what matters most in a city that claims five Super Bowl titles.
This is the kind of playoff game Garrett needs to win.
Dallas is 7-1 at home and has won seven of its past eight games.
The defense has been ranked in the top five much of the season — they finished seventh, allowing 329.3 yards per game) — and ranks fifth in the NFL in run defense (94.6 yards per game).
Seattle is the NFL's best running team, averaging 160.0 yards per game, so this is strength against strength.
But Garrett should feel good about defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli and passing game coordinator Kris Richard's ability to control Russell Wilson and Seattle's offense.
They're good, but they're not Kansas City, New Orleans and the Los Angeles Rams good.
Garrett's mission this week is simple: Make sure his team is ready when the game starts.
In 2014, the Cowboys fell behind 14-0 to the Detroit Lions at AT&T Stadium before rallying to win their Wild Card game.
I'm 2016, they trailed Green Bay 14-3 in the first quarter and 21-3 in the first half before mounting a fourth-quarter rally that tied the score before they eventually lost, 34-31, on a 51-yard field goal as time expired.
This team is not the prolific offensive unit Garrett had in 2016.
This team has one of the NFL's worst red-zone offenses, an inconsistent passing game and an offensive line.
It's among the youngest teams in the playoffs, in part, because there's not a player over 30 in the starting lineup
Garrett still kept the team focused on its day-to-day tasks when it was floundering at 3-5.
A couple of months ago, when the Cowboys seemed destined to miss the playoffs, Jones still praised him.
"He's gained a Harvard, or whatever kind of degree — the best in the world — in the NFL through being your head coach of the Dallas Cowboys," Jones said. "I want to put all of that together and use it.
"Now, does he have some things that others may do better, or does he have some things that he could do better? Of course. But what we've got here is an asset that I think will get us to where we want to go, and that's a championship."
The journey begins Saturday.
