Dallas Cowboys News: Catching Up With Coach Jason Garrett

The 2012 offseason has been something. The past three or four weeks, I have sometimes felt like I was getting dizzy just trying to keep up with everything that was going on with the Dallas Cowboys. We have had cap penalties, hyperactive free agency signings, the mounting of a counterassault against the NFL, the NFLPA, and particularly John Mara, while trying to keep up with all the mocks and other draft news and rumors. And if that wasn't enough, there were some other NFL sideshows, like the Washington Redskins getting ravished even worse by Roger Goodell than the Cowboys, and the whole Peyton Manning mystery tour, which was rapidly followed by the second coming of Tim Tebow, this time to the Big Apple, of all places.

Maybe I just got out of shape last year when nothing happened for so long due to the Great Suckitude (that's the Lockout, for anyone new who missed what was for a time a mandatory term to include in everything I wrote).

Most of the focus has seemingly been on what is going on with Jerry Jones and his coming steel cage death match with Mara, but Cowboys Head Coach Jason Garrett sat down in a couple of interviews lately, and there was some pithy stuff from JG5000. I just thought it would be a good time to take a look at what he's got to say.

Some Red Haired Wisdom after the jump.

The first thing that caught my eye was a post from the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram with the promising title "Garrett jokingly said the Cowboys are not targeting an injured linebacker in the second round as they have unintentionally done the last two years". Well, it promised some discussion of a topic that has been a bit of a sore subject around here, anyway. But I figured with that title it should have some of those knee-slapping JG5000 lines we all know so well. You know, like the time he said . . . uh, well, then there was . . . OK, I was curious to see just how much humor there was.

"It certainly was not intentional to say Ok, ‘We're going to take a guy who had ACL surgery last year, that's what we want to do in the second round,'," Garrett said. "Bruce's was much more clear-cut about when his injury was and what we were going to be able to get from him. Each of those guys has different skills sets, different strengths. They come from different places. I understand why you're asking the question but that's not something we intentionally try to do, like this is our philosophy in the second round. We want to take linebackers who have injury histories. That's not what we want to do."

Boy, if that doesn't get the crowd rolling in the aisles, nothing will. And then he had the big, boffo ending.

"We want to see (Bruce Carter) play more and how he plays on a everyday basis as a healthy football player, we felt that was a good bet. And what you're doing is you're making these educated decisions we like this about him, he came from there and you're trying to put that together and make your best decision. We felt he was an injured player and felt like we could get him at a pick that was good value for us relative to the player we think he can be and we're going to live with that injury."

Hmm. Maybe it was all in the delivery. Anyway, the gist of the comments seem to be that we can rest assured that the team does not plan to continue that strange trend of drafting injured players in the second round. But if Mark Barron falls . . .

I'm not going there.

Over at the mothership (that's DallasCowboys.com, if anyone is wondering), there was a wider ranging discussion, without all the frivolity. It kicked off with how JG reacted to the announcement that Dallas would be in the season opener at the New York Giants.

"If that doesn't get your attention as a coach, as a player and everybody in our organization to be the best they can be each and every day," Garrett said Wednesday, "I don't know what does."

Do you ever get the feeling that if the alien spaceships were landing at Cowboys Stadium, Jason would still find a way to get a mention of the Process in when they stuck a microphone in his face?

Other topics:

- On where Mike Jenkins and Brandon Carr are going to be lining up in the secondary:

"I think sometimes those 'I'm a right corner, I'm a left corner' get a little bit overblown. We'll continue to make the evaluation and try to see what works best for them and our team."

- On how Jenkins and DeMarco Murray are recovering from their injuries.

"We just know they're doing what they're supposed to do and they're getting better every day. We're excited about them being back for us."

- On what he expects from Dez Bryant following the departure of Laurent Robinson.

"Dez loves to play football. Anybody who watches him play can see that. It's our job as coaches to help him develop and mature as a receiver. We are excited about the opportunity for him to do that."

(I like the fact that he puts some of the responsibility for how it works out on the coaching staff.)

- On what the signing of Dan Connor means for the future of Bradie James and Keith Brooking.

"We're not at that point to make those decisions yet. You're referring to Bradie James and Keith Brooking - we like those guys. Those guys have done a lot of really good things for our football team and as the offseason unfolds and we go through the draft and continue to put our team together, we'll continue to evaluate those situations."

Well, I am sure we can offer some suggestions on that situation. But I don't know that they are needed. JG5000 seems clearly in charge, and just as silver-tongued as ever.