As of Tuesday evening, the Dallas Cowboys had not announced any significant change to the coaching staff. This seems strange given the season that we were all just witnessed.

It feels obvious that the Cowboys are going to part ways with Jason Garrett, so why are they taking so long to do so? This is the question boggling every person’s mind as they try to make sense of all the meetings that Dallas insists on having with Garrett.

There are conspiracy theories being floated out because, well, they’re fun. Some believe that the organization is trying to transition Garrett into a front office role while others believe that Jerry is simply holding on for as long as he can so that other openings get filled and he doesn’t have to endure a reality where Garrett is coaching against him. Anything is possible right now.

Maybe the Cowboys already have their next set of motions planned

While the Cowboys need to focus on the Cowboys above all else, the truth is that it would be awfully selfish of them to try to inhibit Jason Garrett from coaching somewhere that wasn’t based out of The Star. Perhaps you don’t care about that because, again, the focus of the Cowboys should be the Cowboys. They should be doing everything that they can to give themselves the advantage over the field. That should be a goal for every day of work.

While it’s possible that this could rub some folks the wrong way, that would still lead us back to the most popular question these days... so why wait this long then? If the Cowboys are theoretically prohibiting Jason Garrett from finding new work aren’t they themselves prohibiting new workers from finding them, too? The obvious answer is yes but it could be meaningless if they already know what they’re going to do in a Garrett-less world.

There are two schools of thought here and NFL Network’s Bobby Belt outlined them both recently on Twitter. First off, it’s possible that the Cowboys already have some sort of understanding with their next head coach which means they simply have to let the clock run out on this one in order to play the best defense possible before they sign on the dotted line with his successor. That’s common sense.

The other potential option here is that the Cowboys are waiting on a coach who is currently in the playoffs, or still coaching a bowl game, which means that they wouldn’t be available for an interview right now anyway, so holding on to Garrett would do no harm in that regard yet it would still provide some level of defense. Baylor’s Matt Rhule will coach his team in the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday night so he fits that description, but so does a current NFL head coach. Mike Zimmer.

This one playoff coach has been linked to the Cowboys and makes sense

Zimmer is someone who the Cowboys know well and someone who the organization is starting to be linked to. Last weekend it was speculated that the Cowboys could even trade for Zimmer, the type of compensation it would require is really hard to know.

What’s more is that in the immediate aftermath of the Cowboys’ season ending, another report popped up from ProFootballTalk that Gary Kubiak could be an option for the team. This is a curious name to be linked to the organization because just a month and a half ago Kubiak specified that he no desires to be a head coach.

Given Kubiak’s past success as a head coach and his return to working in a coaching capacity, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear of potential interest from teams looking for a head coach this offseason. Kubiak cut that idea off ahead of time. During a Tuesday press conference, Kubiak said, via Chad Graff of TheAthletic.com, that working as an assistant is “not giving me the itch” to move back to his former post and added “that’s not for me anymore.” Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski got some head coaching looks this offseason and a strong finish to the year should put him in play again in 2020. That could mean a different title for Kubiak if he’s back in Minnesota, but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be fishing for a bigger title bump than that.

Why would Kubiak be connected to a team with a head coach opening if he had no desires to be a head coach or get a bigger title bump? Especially as recently as six or so weeks ago? Could it be that Kubiak and Zimmer could wind up with the Cowboys, Zimmer as head coach and Kubiak either as an offensive adviser (which he currently is with the Vikings) or offensive coordinator?

As farfetched as that sounds, consider that Mike Zimmer has spoken glowingly of the impact that Kubiak has had on Minnesota this season. In fact he referred to bringing him in as the best decision that he’s made for his team.

Mike Zimmer called Gary Kubiak "the best thing that's happened to me since I've been here."



Kubiak probably edged out some combination of Case Keenum, Stefon Diggs and Marcus Williams for that title. — Ben Goessling (@GoesslingStrib) November 13, 2019

These two coaches are both on a playoff team which means that they wouldn’t be able to interview right now which could be why the Cowboys are fine sitting and chilling on the Jason Garrett front. This is all hypothetical but Mike Zimmer and Gary Kubiak, whose son Klein is a Cowboys scout by the way, fit as a square peg in the square hole of this particular conspiracy theory.

What do you think?