Dallas Cowboys: Byron Jones success at corner a knock on Rod Marinelli

With early indications on Byron Jones moving to cornerback being favorable, it begs the question of how defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli didn’t see his strengths before

There’s a prevailing issue with the Dallas Cowboys that keeps repeating. If someone on the staff can’t do their job, they shouldn’t be fired. Instead, they should get an assistant under them that can do the job better — thus making up for their inadequacies.

It happened when head coach Jason Garrett failed at his job year after year. Once he was unable to break the mediocre mode, team owner Jerry Jones stepped in and stripped his play-calling duties. Jones then surrounded Garrett with play callers on offense and defense that he could trust to get the job done.

It’s a backwards way of thinking as most coaches enhance their assistants and teach them. In Dallas, it’s the other way around as their coaches get better the less they do.

More from NFL Spin Zone

• Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
• Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
• Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
• Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
• Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens

That philosophy has now trickled down to their coordinators as both Scott Linehan and Rod Marinelli were given many different assistants this offseason. This came when Linehan’s play calling on offense was realized to be uninventive and predictable.

For Marinelli, his defensive scheme continually had players out of position and there were wide-open passes for opponents at all times.

The most high-profile move to try and elevate these less-than-ideal coordinators was to bring in former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Kris Richard. The well-respected assistant will take over defensive backs and one of the first things he did was move Byron Jones from free safety — a position he really hadn’t been playing very well under Marinelli.

Early reports out of camp have been positive as Jones is turning heads with his blanket coverage and ability to turn the ball over. It’s no doubt Richard is loving it and he explained to beat writer David Helman what he loves about Jones’ game.

While the initial reaction is excitement, the real question is what Marinelli was doing the past couple seasons playing Jones at free safety? Jones showed in college he was better as a man-coverage guy and even as a rookie he made a name for himself in that role.

So naturally, Marinelli moved him to a center field role and took away a large defensive back from covering the bigger receivers in the NFL.

So once again, we have a high-profile coach in Big D being saved from himself. Marinelli will get the credit as the boss of the defense, but Richard is the one who understands where defensive backs should be and how to best utilize them.

If Jones continues to progress it will only further cement that Marinelli is past his prime and the team really should consider making the same kind of move with him they did with Monte Kiffin. After they realized Kiffin was done, he was placed in a booth to ‘oversee’ things and Marinelli was promoted.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to do that once again. Who knows, it could even make Jason Garrett look better again when an assistant raises the team’s play.