ST. LOUIS — Nothing came easy for Jason Garrett as a quarterback. For a while, everything came easy as a coach.

In his third season as an NFL assistant, and just his fourth year coaching at any level, Garrett was the hot coordinator last year during the annual offseason coaching carousel.

By all accounts, Garrett turned down an offer to become head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Atlanta also was very interested. But Garrett chose to stay in Dallas, where he helped orchestrate one of the most potent Cowboys offenses in franchise history.

En route to a 13-3 regular season in 2007, the Cowboys sent seven offensive players to the Pro Bowl. They finished second in the league in scoring, third in total offense and fourth in passing yards.

Even with an upset playoff loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants, Garrett's Cowboys star shone brightly. Along with his duties as offensive coordinator, he was given the title of assistant head coach after the 2007 season. His reported salary of about $3 million a year made him one of the highest-paid assistants in the league. There was talk that he would be the head coach-in-waiting behind Wade Phillips.

But there's an old saying about NFL standing for "Not For Long." Things can change in a hurry, and it doesn't apply just to players. Garrett learned this the hard way in 2008, when the Cowboys slipped to 18th in scoring, 13th in total offense and ninth in passing yards. In fact, they slipped right out of the playoff race as one of the NFL's biggest underachievers.

Garrett, 42, already has had head-coaching interviews with Denver and Detroit this offseason. He interviewed with the Rams on Wednesday in Los Angeles. But he doesn't seem to be nearly the hot commodity he was a year ago.

Garrett's detractors say this year's problems in Dallas showed that he simply isn't ready to be a head coach.

His supporters say there wasn't much he could do about them since he wasn't the head coach. Plus, there's a long list of coaches and players that wide receiver Terrell Owens couldn't get along with, be it in San Francisco, Philadelphia or Dallas.

Even so, critics point out that Garrett didn't get wide receiver Roy Williams involved enough in the offense. Garrett was held responsible for having Brad Johnson as the backup quarterback. The Cowboys obviously weren't the same on offense when Tony Romo missed three midseason games with a broken finger on his throwing hand.

Owens, meanwhile, wouldn't even refer to Garrett by name for a couple of weeks this season. When asked questions about the offense, Owens' reply would be something along these lines: You're going to have to ask the offensive coordinator.

Even given Owens' track record, the friction of '08 could raise red flags for a Rams team searching for leadership in its next head coach.

Overall, Garrett's reputation in Dallas is of a coach who stresses communication with the players, so much so that they usually seek him out. He's said to be persuasive in meetings, but in an inclusive sort of way. And no one questions his smarts or his savvy.

While it's debatable whether he's ready to be a head coach, Garrett's career as a player has shown it's a mistake to sell him short. After being named player of the year in the Ivy League at Princeton in 1988, Garrett went undrafted. He went on to be cut in the Canadian Football League and the World League. In the NFL, the New Orleans Saints cut him twice.

But by the time Garrett retired as a player in 2004, he had carved out a 12-season career as a backup quarterback in the NFL, earning two Super Bowl rings behind Troy Aikman in Dallas. Over that span he worked for a variety of head coaches, including Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Jon Gruden and Nick Saban, and a variety of offensive coordinators, including Ernie Zampese, Norv Turner and Sean Payton.

Garrett's brother, Judd, was tight ends coach for the Rams in 2006-2007 and is now assistant director of pro scouting in Dallas. His father, Jim, has spent more than 30 years coaching and scouting in the NFL. It was Jim Garrett who, as a Dallas scout, recommended that the Cowboys draft Romo. They signed him as a rookie free agent instead.