At some point in this off-season, the Dallas Cowboys will:

A. fire Wade Phillips

B. release Terrell Owens

C. find Jason Garrett a head coaching job

D. none of the above.

So far, alas, the answer is D, and that perplexes some of us.

Almost a month has passed since the Cowboys ended their season somewhat short of the Super Bowl. With the howls of fans and media banshees ringing in his ears, head coach Phillips promised that things would change.

Sort of. Kinda. Well, whatever Jerry wants.

Yet, nothing. Just a no-brainer removal of the special teams coach and a swift kick to the posterior of the so-called "defensive coordinator."

Not exactly a revolution.

The question persists, therefore: What's owner Jerry Jones waiting for? A slow news day?

Ha! There won't be one, we all well know, until Jones shows that he's doing something to reverse the embarrassing plunge that ended the Cowboys' season.

So, what gives? Jones may not agree with the critics, but history tells us that he loathes the foul headlines. He has a brand to protect. And, ahem, a billion-dollar new stadium to fill.

What's he waiting for?

It was the day after Christmas when Jones became agitated at the gotcha game of questions being tossed at him and firmly told the media, "The coaches are in place. I've said that. How can I be any clearer?"

If Jerry is merely being stubborn, therefore, and digging a foxhole to share with Phillips, and if Jones really thinks that a "Win with Wade in '09" campaign will sell tickets, so be it. Maybe he doesn't remember the boos that rained down on his team on the last night at Texas Stadium.

But Jones has never been a stand-pat guy. He'll draw on 17 and expect to get a 4. If there is a better head coach, No. 1 receiver or offensive coordinator out there, Jones will have a Jones to hire him.

The most pungent of the lingering questions, of course, is what's receiver Owens still doing here?

Owens is the consensus team cancer, not to mention the most annoying player in the NFL. The circumstantial evidence against Owens is as high as the upper deck in Jones' new stadium.

His lust for attention knows no boundaries. Owens accepts no responsibility for the fact that the team hasn't won a playoff game since he's been here. Instead, he has blamed, among others, quarterback Tony Romo, offensive coordinator Garrett and ESPN reporter Ed Werder.

Smell a pattern?

Near the end of the 2007 season, Owens suffered a high ankle sprain and the Cowboys' offense dearly missed him. But Owens' play was so unreliable this season, opposing defenses barely bothered to notice him at all.

At age 35, make no mistake, Terrell Eldorado Owens remains an impact player. He's impacted the attitudes of Patrick Crayton, receiver Roy Williams, Marion Barber, Romo, tight end Jason Witten . .. and probably others.

It has been widely suggested that Jones has not released Owens because he's reluctant to pull the plug on an asset that would count $9.675 million against the salary cap.

Jones, it says here, can't afford not to.

When asked about Owens at the Senior Bowl on Monday, Garrett's words to our paper's Rick Herrin were tellingly brief.

Owens may cost $9.675 million, but Jones' investment in Garrett, Romo, Witten and the Cowboys' entire future far surpasses that.

Why hasn't he released him yet? I don't know, unless . . .

Unless Jones wants to let someone else have the honors. A new head coach?

The owner probably doesn't expect much. A playoff victory in this millenium would do.

The reports Tuesday about deeper turmoil within the team may be hearsay or may be fact, but regardless, they sound like symptoms of an ongoing problem.

A problem that can be fixed by hiring . . . the vacationing Mike Shanahan? It still seems like the way Jones, being Jones, is apt to go. Did I mention that Shanahan, as a head coach, has won two Super Bowls?

Jones knows it. Yet, surprisingly, nearly one month after the debacle at Philadelphia, Jones hasn't publicly solved either his coaching problem or his Owens problem.

Jones can't be that stubborn. Standing pat, he knows he can't hit 21.

The only reasonable explanation is that he's waiting for Shanahan to say when.