The Playbook

Jason Garrett has left the Baltimore Ravens facility in Owings Mills, Maryland without accepting the Ravens head coaching position today.

Several reports claim that the Ravens did tender an offer but Garrett wouldn't confirm or deny the reports when he stopped and talked with reporters outside the Ravens complex.

Garrett called it a "great day" that the visit was everything he expected and more and that he will continue through this process and at some time soon, will make a decision. It's obvious that Garrett is the leading candidate after Ravens officials spent a significant amount of time with Jason's wife Brill, who toured the complex as well as several spots of the Baltimore community.

Sound's like bad news for the Cowboys but it was really bad news for the Ravens that they let him get out of town without signing him, and likely great news for the Cowboys since the ball is now in the hands of Jerry Jones.

What will Garrett want in return?

If it's money, that probably won't be an issue for Jones who has reportedly vowed to match any financial offer. It could however, be an issue for Wade Phillips. His deal is in the neighborhood of three million dollars a year and Garrett could very well have an offer that would come close to or eclipse that. No NFL team has an offensive coordinator making more than the head coach.

If it's to be a head coach, Jones has quite a decision to make. Does he "promote" Phillips to a spot in the front office and make Garrett the new Cowboys head coach?

With it being a foregone conclusion that Tony Sparano is out the door after the Dolphins whisked him out of town for a second interview today, the Cowboys can't afford to lose both of the men who designed one of the top offenses in the NFL this year. That would leave the organization having to find an offensive coordinator who is familiar with this scheme, unless they promoted receivers coach Ray Sherman to the position.

Wade Phillips really gave Jerry Jones an out to replace him as head coach with the comments he made at the season ending news conference at Valley Ranch on Monday. By saying " I feel the best team lost the game, we out played them but we lost and that goes to the coach, I accept it" Reminds me of an episode from "The Apprentice" when one of the project managers went to the board room and told Donald Trump, as the project manager, he accepted the responsibility for the loss, feeling that showed strong leadership and accountability. Trump briskly fired him for that admission.

I don't know if Jones will pull the trigger like Trump did, but if he's second guessing his decision to hire Garrett as the head coach last year, chances are he won't let the opportunity slip thorugh his fingers again. Whether that means giving Garrett contract that guarantees he'll be the next head coach of the Cowboys or whether Jones makes the move now, expect Jerry to lock Garrett up in the next day or two.

When Wade Phillips took over as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, he inherited several assistant coaches from the Bill Parcells regime. Don't be surprised to see several of them heading for South Florida very soon. Tony Sparano started the exodus today accepting the head coaching position of the Miami Dolphins. Along with Parcells, that's four men who were in the Cowboy organization now orchistrating the turn around for the once proud franchise that finished 1-15 this past year.

Parcells started the parade from Valley Ranch to Davie, Florida by hiring Jeff Ireland from the Cowboys scouting department as his General Manager. Irelend than hired his right hand man in Dallas, Brian Gaine and now Sparano.

Who's next?
-Cowboys secondary coach Todd Bowles
-Linebackers coach Paul Pasqualoni
-Defensive Line coach Kacy Rodgers

All three of these men are high on Parcells' list and close with Sparano.

While Jerry Jones is busy putting together a counter offer to try to retain Jason Garrett he issued a statement of congratulations to Sparano for his promotion today.

"I commend Wayne Huizenga, Bill Parcells and the Miami Dolphins on the hiring of an excellent football coach. I have a great deal of confidence in Tony and his ability to get the job done there in Miami. He fulfilled several very key roles here and was productive with every assignment. He is a dedicated and hard working man. His players respect him and work hard for him. I wish Tony and his family the very best."

Wade Phillips also praised his former offensive line coach today. "I talked to Tony today and told him how proud I was of him and how happy we are for him. I also told him how much I appreciated how helpful he was to me this past year. He has been a big contributor to this organization for the past few years, and we wish him the very best. He’s a quality football coach and an outstanding person.”

Though this was an exciting day for Sparano, he couldn't help but reflect on having to dig out of the dissapointment he's felt after losing to the Giants on Sunday.

"Obviously, it's been a real crazy week for me, but I'm glad that it ends this way," he said. "At the end of the day, if you're going to lose a football game like we lost down there in Dallas this week, it does leave a bitter taste in my mouth. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm about finishing. It's not about starting this thing, and I learned this from somebody else, putting your toe in the water, you've got to finish, and we didn't finish, so it left a bad taste in my mouth. Once that was over and I was able to get involved in some of these opportunities, that sort of cleared the smoke a little bit, but I think about last week a lot right now."

Hopefully the Cowboys won't have to go through this whole routine all over again with Jason Garrett.