IRVING, Texas -- Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Wednesday the final decision on who calls plays for the offense would be his, but that he hasn't yet made that decision.
Garrett said he has the man to take over if he decides to make a change -- offensive line coach Bill Callahan.
When the 2012 regular season ended, Garrett said he expected the "status quo" to remain regarding play-calling duties. Now, it appears things have changed.
"I think the biggest thing for me, and line one, the coaches and players are so tired of hearing me saying this, but it's about the team, the team, the team," Garrett said during his 53-minute news conference. "Every decision we make is in the best interest of our football team. It's my job as the head coach to do that. I've told you before, I've never been a guy who is, 'Come hell or high water, I'm the playcaller.' That's not me.
"One of the things, when you analyze some of the best offenses in football over the last six years, ironically enough, most of the best offenses has the head coach calling the plays. Probably with the exception of New England and Sean [Payton] down in New Orleans, Norv [Turner] in San Diego, Gary Kubiak down in Houston, Mike McCarthy in Green Bay, our team, if you look at us, statistically, we're all in there together. And, ironically enough, the head coach calls those plays. But I'm very respectful of the responsibilities that I have as a head coach."
Garrett, however, admitted there has been an ongoing debate at Valley Ranch for 2½ years about who should call the plays, and this offseason was the time to explore the possibility of making a change. The process of how to make that adjustment, if it happens, is still being worked out.
"What we're trying to do right now is work though the mechanics of that here through the offseason," Garrett said. "I don't want to definitively say that one way or the other.
"Again, like I said, there's been an evolution here of me trying to delegate a lot of the responsibilities that I had as an offensive coordinator as I became the head coach. We're trying to move in that direction. Bill and I have talked about different ways that we can do it."