if it's a "good fit." And even out here Tuesday, Ron Rivera, the Chicago defensive coordinator who arrived about 4:30 p.m. following weather-related flights delays to interview with Jones, used the same word.
"I'm here to get a feel for Mr. Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, at the same time let them know who I am and see if we fit," Rivera said.
So if the fit is a priority, then ask yourself, which guy does Jones know (see trust) most? That would be Turner, the team's three-year offensive coordinator (1991-93) and NFL head coach for nine years, not to mention the offensive coordinator in San Diego, Miami and San Francisco.
You would say, at best, Wade Phillips is an acquaintance of Jones, and as for the other serious candidates, he would know Gary Gibbs most, certainly better than Rivera and Jim Caldwell, scheduled to interview on Wednesday after the Cowboys gained permission to talk with the Colts quarterback coach on Tuesday.
So Turner, right?
Now then, if we are connecting the dots, it might seem a leap of faith to hire one of these defensive-oriented guys as your head coach and say to Jason Garrett, go ahead, you're the offensive coordinator. Run my show, now that you've coached for two years in the NFL.
The Cowboys could better qualify that move if Garrett had an experienced net to work with, and Turner provides that net. And wouldn't that be something if he could deliver Wade Wilson back here as the quarterbacks coach. That would be some pretty stout offensive hands to work with Romo, along with Tony Sparano, who did a pretty nice job in his first NFL shot calling plays this past season under Parcells' likely strict guidance. Sparano would provide an even thicker net.
Even better would be if Turner, assuming he's the head coach, and Jones could pry Rivera out of Chicago to become the Cowboys' defensive coordinator. Man oh man. Now they would have to wait, because the Bears will have until Feb. 20 to negotiate a new deal with Rivera, whose contract is expiring in Chicago. Now that's all assuming he didn't blow the doors off Jones' office during his Tuesday interview and become the head coach to tangle my logic.
Maybe you hire Rivera as the assistant head coach, and you would think Jones could offer him more money than what the normally frugal Bears might if it comes down to that. Then you make Todd Bowles the defensive coordinator/secondary coach, giving him a little pop.
"That I'm not here to discuss," Rivera predictably said when asked about the possibilities of becoming the Cowboys' defensive coordinator, though certainly didn't rule out that possibility when facing the same question last week at the Super Bowl in Miami. "I'm here to discuss the head coaching job of the Dallas Cowboys."
OK, but come on, don't be throwing cold water on my thought process. I'm on a roll.
So after that, maybe you bring back Joe Avezzano as the special teams coach, or, if you get Rivera, maybe Rivera can talk Bears special teams coach Dave Toub, who has an expiring contract, to head this way instead of toward Philadelphia, which reportedly is interested in hiring him. Either he did a good job or Devin Hester made him look pretty good; isn't that the case with most coaches who have exceptional players.
Now you have pieced together a pretty good staff, save hiring a running backs coach and a tight ends coach. Now you're juiced about this whole deal.
Plus, you're not taking chances. Oh, there is always risk when hiring a head coach, but the idea is to firmly minimize that risk, and this would seem to lessen your odds of failure.
But hire one of these defensive-oriented guys as head coach, then you're out on a limb offensively, no? Just got to think this thing through.
Of course, mine is the logic of a man who could lose his job making a head coaching hire. Jerry Jones isn't going to lose his, so that gives him the latitude to take some risks, as he has in the past, some working and some not so much. So to predict his next move is extremely difficult, and it sure seemed over the weekend Turner was still kind of tense about the whole situation, suggesting by no means is this cut and dried.
To me, though, hiring a head coach to a team which has
