After a disappointing first campaign, the Cowboys head coach has to improve and quickly. Here’s what we want to know.
Over my decade of covering the Dallas Cowboys, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to interview a slew of franchise greats; from current Hall of Famers Roger Staubach, Emmitt Smith to Rayfield Wright, to future ones such as DeMarcus Ware to Jason Witten. I’ve interviewed many others, from star players like Amari Cooper to lesser known rookies such as Terence Mitchell and Brandon Magee. They’ve all been a blast to do and I think I acquitted myself well in those conversations.
But I’ve never been in a position to interview one of the Dallas head coaches. The organization doesn’t make it easy for those outside the national or local media scene to get access to their players and coaches, so I’m normally relegated to my own devices to get interviews and it’s a chase that I’ve chosen not to pursue more often than not. But I’d love the opportunity to sit down and talk with head coach Mike McCarthy, because there are a myriad of questions I want answers to about what transpired during the 2020 season.
For full disclosure, I was a huge fan of the McCarthy hire.
When I was running my Jason Garrett replacement power rankings down the stretch of the 2019 season, McCarthy was a top guy. In fact, he only ranked behind trading picks away to get Bill Belichick and Sean Payton. I believed in his ability to take the team to the Super Bowl and thought the issue in Green Bay was more about things getting stale (remember the context of Garrett’s tenure ending) than him riding the coattails of Aaron Rodgers.
Now? I’m not so sure. I still think great things are possible, but I think it’s just as possible the Jones’ are paying the final three years of McCarthy’s salary to have him go away come January 2022 as the Cowboys are in an NFC championship game.
So with all that in mind, here are what I’d like to ask him if I was afforded the opportunity.
How do you make decisions about playing time in a lost season, between veterans and guys who could help you in the future?
Wouldn’t it have made sense to be playing guys like Garrett Gilbert, Tyler Biadasz, Bradlee Anae, Francis Bernard and getting them reps instead of Andy Dalton, Joe Looney, Dorance Armstrong and Joe Thomas?
While the stock answer is going to be about the team remaining in playoff contention until Week 17, it was still very frustrating to watch the team have a bad season and not get information about the slew of young players on the roster. Perhaps they got their answers in practice, that’s a legit reason. But it still seems like these guys deserved some chance to prove it on the field.
Biadasz was activated from IR in December, but he never got his job back. That seems crazy and deserves a follow up question, at least.
In your introductory press conference, you made a joke about lying to the Jones family about how much you studied the 2019 Dallas Cowboys. So how much work did you really put in?
It was all smiles and awkward giggles when he made the admission, but as an amateur body-language expert (I’m not really), I think Stephen Jones was mighty taken back. Cue up the video.
How difficult is it to have to fire coaches who you brought in after just one season?
Dallas fired Mike Nolan, Jim Tomsula and let Mo Linguist leave to go back to college after just one year in the organization.
McCarthy, like pretty much every other coach ever, brought his boys with him when he was given the job. Joe Philbin, Nolan and position coaches Al Harris and Scott McCurley all spent time with him at previous stops. Was Jim Tomsula essentially hired by Nolan and how much role do you have over the defense and how it functions?
What are your feelings watching the Green Bay Packers go 13-3 in back-to-back years without you?
I’d really like to get into the depths of this question here. I’m sure the first salvo would be a generic response about being happy for Aaron Rodgers and yadda yadda about being together for too long, but I’d hope to be able to dive deeper with follow ups.
How does being around each other too long manifest itself in a football relationship? Were there upticks in disagreement and fights? What does Matt Lafluer’s offense do that yours didn’t, and vice versa? Do you believe the draft should be used to help now or build to the future? Could you ever see a situation where you and Rodgers work together again?
How much did expecting Dak Prescott to be the forever QB of Dallas play a part in wanting to take the job?
This is a leading question. McCarthy spoke glowingly of Prescott early and often throughout the early parts of the honeymoon phase. Here, I’d be looking to glean information about the organization’s direction in negotiating with Prescott as the QB faces a second consecutive franchise tag. Any waffling on a long-term relationship with Prescott would lead me to ask follow ups about the negotiations to see if there’s any slipping of information.
