FRISCO, Texas -- As long as the Cowboys sit on a losing streak, the questions about Jason Garrett will persist.
It's been five days since team owner/general manager Jerry Jones backed his head coach's job status following a Thanksgiving loss to the Buffalo Bills. On Tuesday, Jones made his regular appearance on 105.3 FM The Fan -- and he did not ignore the obvious.
"I've seen a lot of coaches, I've seen their names mentioned," Jones said. "But they can't guarantee me a Super Bowl or guarantee my fans a Super Bowl."
Jones has never shied away from the conversation around his team, especially given all the speculation about his head coach's future. The Cowboys are 6-6 and Garrett's contract is up at the end of the season, which lends itself to water cooler discussion quite nicely.
In this particular instance, Jones took issue with the idea that it's easy to identify a coach who has what it takes to bring a team to the rarefied heights of a Super Bowl. He also reiterated his belief that Garrett possesses that skill set.
"Who's got the exclusive skills to get the job done so that collectively you can win a Super Bowl?" he asked. "But there are qualified people. Jason Garrett is one of them."
That makes Jones' final line interesting, though:
"In my opinion, Jason Garrett will be coaching in the NFL next year," he said.
That's peculiar phrasing coming from the guy who holds final authority over whether Garrett will be offered another contract to coach the Dallas Cowboys. "Coaching in the NFL" could pertain to a lot of different positions, most of them not within this organization.
And at the same time, Jones did seem to give his head coach a vote of confidence.
"I'm glad to have him. He is the guy for the job," he said.
Ultimately, it likely comes down to winning football games. Following the loss to the Bills, Jones said he'd like to see the Cowboys rebound in storybook fashion. On Tuesday, he reiterated this his team has the personnel and the good health required to put together a run.
He even went as far as to say he would have signed up for this scenario at the outset of the regular season.
"If I were leaving training camp today, I'd like to have this run that I've got right now -- four games to get to the playoffs," he said. "As healthy as we are, get our act together relative to what we're doing on both sides of the ball and let's go. I feel pretty good about it."
For as desperately as people want to get to the bottom of this situation, it likely hinges on what happens in this final month of the season. And that starts Thursday night in Chicago.
