Things went pretty well for the Dallas Cowboys in 2016.
After Tony Romo went down with injury in the preseason, expectations were lowered considerably but, after Dak Prescott's emergence and the dominant play of Ezekiel Elliott in the running game, the Cowboys excelled. Dallas put up a 13-3 record before falling just short of the Super Bowl and, at least to some degree, head coach Jason Garrett deserves a lot of credit for that performance.
With that said, not everyone agrees that Garrett is an elite coach and we can safely put The Ringer's Mike Lombardi on that list.
Lombardi, in speaking with NBCDFW's Newy Scruggs, basically went after Garrett's ability as a head coach.
"When you watch Jason Garrett coach, you really never sense he's got control of the game. He's subcontracted everything out. [Rod] Marinelli does the defense. [Scott] Linehan does the offense. [Rich] Bisaccia does the kicking game."
"I just don't get the sense this guy's in command of the game, and that's really where the head coach needs to be."
Garrett would not be the first head coach to excel as an overall manager rather than a specialist but this is damning criticism from an analyst who spent a long time in NFL front offices. It would seem to be a bit aggressive to criticize Garrett's ability offensively, as he was famously a quarterback in the league, but the 2016 season could be a referendum on this type of analysis, especially if Dallas is able to repeat that showing in 2017.
