NFL power rankings: Head coaches from 32-1

No. 13: Jason Garrett, Dallas Cowboys

Now through six full seasons as Cowboys’ head coach, which seems unbelievable, Garrett is the longest-tenured head coach Jerry Jones has had as the team’s owner. Three straight 8-8 campaigns have turned into two division titles over the last three seasons, with a key player injury-riddled 4-12 mulligan in 2015 in between.

It takes a unique coach to function under the overriding umbrella that Jones puts over the Cowboys’ organization, and Garrett has done so pretty admirably for longer than anyone could have expected. He hasn’t seemed to push for much say in personnel moves, preferring to just coach the team, meet those obligations and stay in the background as much as the Cowboys’ head coach ever can. Some might say that makes Garrett a patsy for Jones, and thus makes him easy to control and the perfect coach to work under Jones, but I see Garrett slowly emerging from that shadow.

Garrett has some job security, entering the third year of a five-year deal he signed in 2015 and with those two aforementioned division titles in recent years. How he’s able to navigate the team through the challenge of some early season suspensions, most notably Ezekiel Elliott’s six-game ban (as of right now), will have a lot say about how the Cowboys’ 2017 season turns out.

Shy of the Cowboys winning another Super Bowl during his tenure, and probably even then, Garrett won’t ever get credit for the team’s success and fans will always give him the lion share of the blame for any shortcomings. Jones does not share credit easily (see Jimmy Johnson’s departure. etc.), and he’ll publicly take credit whenever possible. But Garrett is in the top half of NFL head coaches, faint as that praise may seem to be.