Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin is a fan of Jason Garrett no longer calling the offensive plays for the Dallas Cowboys. Garrett, who is entering his third season as Cowboys head coach, has called plays since the start of the 2007 season.
But the former Cowboys superstar says managing the bigger picture is more important for Garrett, and something that should help him grow as the Cowboys head coach.
"It's a great opportunity to really handle all of the little things that are keeping the Cowboys from moving forward," Irvin told the Elf & Slater show Wednesday on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM). "I'm happy to see this new structure."
In Irvin's opinion, the things holding the Cowboys back include too many penalties, game management errors and inefficiency in the red zone. The Cowboys were called for 7.4 penalties per game (30th in the league) and finished 20th in red zone scoring last season, according to TeamRankings.com.
Garrett's first game not calling plays for the Cowboys was Sunday night's preseason opener. The former Cowboys backup quarterback said "it actually felt great" not to have that responsibility.
"It gives you a chance to see the game a little more completely," Garrett said. "We've talked about that before on the practice field and really in my day-to-day functioning. I always try to be the head coach of the whole football team, but I had some responsibilities that I certainly had to handle as the de facto coordinator. That was a little bit different.
"But I thought the lines of communication really throughout the game with everything we did were really, really good. I just thought the staff functioned really well together. We had a couple of new guys on each side of the ball, and I thought everyone handled their roles well and communication was a big part of that."
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