Jason Garrett Wants the Dallas Cowboys to Know What a Hypotenuse Is

Jason Garrett is using geometry quizzes to kickstart his offense this training camp, according to the Wall Street Journal. At the start of camp, he told his players they needed to be “intensely familiar” with the Pythagorean Theorem. We assume he means a² + b² = c², as opposed to the way of looking at a team’s scoring to project an underlying record, to see who is over or underperforming in close games.

"“If you think about the depth of something for a receiver, if you’re running a straight line from the line of scrimmage six yards deep, that’s a certain depth, it takes a certain amount of time,” Garrett said last month. “But if you’re doing it 10 yards inside and running to that same spot, that’s the hypotenuse of that right triangle. It’s longer. They have to understand that.”"

Garrett, of course, played at Princeton. He is thus versed in the hypotenuse, something that has yet to reach the rest of the country. Of course, triangles are not new to the passing game, you can read about it here and other places. Just this week, I talked triangles with 10 year olds in flag football. The funny part is all the quotes from Cowboys’ players and others, who seem very concerned about being triangle men.

Wide receiver Jared Green ran to his room to Google it and find out what they were saying. Rams fans will be surprised to know that Detroit offensive coordinator Scott Linehan says he could not pass one of Garrett’s geometry quizzes. Dwayne Harris said, “I’m terrible at math. The only know math I know is dollar signs.”

[photo via USA Today Sports Images]