Category: Mike McCarthy

That time Mike McCarthy abandoned his 4th-down boldness and bravado

Mike McCarthy may well be a very good hire for the Dallas Cowboys, but there’s one instance where his decision making should give pause.

It became clear back in December that the soon-to-be Dallas Cowboys hire was pushing hard for his return to the NFL’s head coaching circle. There were two separate public relation pieces Mike McCarthy and his team put out to sell owners and fans on the idea he’s a changed man, ready for a shot at another Lombardi trophy.

The first was the “McCarthy Project“, a sit down with NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero that showed a more human, less robotic side of the yinzer. Along with time spent with Pro Football Talk’s Peter King, the articles showcased McCarthy’s self- reflection and willingness to adapt to a game some believed had passed him by.

If the talk of analytics taking hold are to be believed, this hire by Jerry Jones and company has the opportunity to get the Cowboys back to true contenders in a modern version of the 100-year old league. If it’s purely lip service, Dallas fans are going to be saddled with a coach who, in one of his biggest moments, came up lame.

Flashback to January of 2015.

The Green Bay Packers had just advanced past the Cowboys in the “Dez Caught It” game at Lambeau Field. McCarthy and company headed to Seattle to take on the Seahawks for a Super Bowl berth.

It can only be described as coaching malpractice.

There’s numbers to insinuate McCarthy had largely been aggressive on fourth downs in his career. First, from a deep dive by The Athletic’s Bob Sturm, showing McCarthy went for it on 4th-and-4-or-more than any other coach between 2010-2018 in the first three quarters of the game.

These numbers speak to the same kind of trend.

When comparing McCarthy to the man he replaced in Dallas, Jason Garrett, he comes off like a teenager playing Madden, treating fourth down like any other play. All of that can be true, but for at least one day in Seattle, he cost his team a trip to the Super Bowl by becoming incredibly conservative.

The first two scores of the game came off the leg of kicker Mason Crosby. Both field goal attempts were snapped from the one-yard-line and while the old football adage may be “take the points,” the analytically inclined will call out both of those decisions as abysmal.

The Packers’ fourth score (following a touchdown) had McCarthy forego yet another opportunity at a 4th-and-1, kicking a 40-yard field goal. Those decisions led to a 16-0 lead, but he had passed up three separate opportunities to turn three points into seven.

The first time the Packers touched the ball in the second half ended when they faced yet another 4th-and-1 at their own 48-yard-line and chose to punt the ball away. Just two and a half minutes later, quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seahawks had passed the point from which Green Bay had punted, and scored a touchdown soon after that.

With Green Bay leading 19-7, McCarthy chose to implement the vaunted “prevent offense” and went into a shell in attempt to run the clock. The only part of that strategy that was successful was taking the ball out of Aaron Rodgers’ hands. Those two drives lasted a whopping two minutes (though, to be fair, the Seahawks used two timeouts in the process) and gained two yards in the process.

To be fair, McCarthy wasn’t the only culprit.

Green Bay’s special teams play was horrendous. There was the 30-yard shanked punt and an onside kick gaffe that let Seattle back in it. There was an atrocious defensive play on the two-point conversion that gave Seattle a 3-point lead before another Packers field goal pushed the game to overtime.

At the end of the day, McCarthy’s decision making was subpar. It was the first true sign of decline with a full season of Rodgers at quarterback and though the Packers would go on to make an NFC championship two years later, 2014 was their best team in the tail end of McCarthy’s tenure.

They should have been the NFC representatives in the Super Bowl that year, but McCarthy failed to answer his own calling card. While he preaches self-reflection now that he’s in charge of the Cowboys, avoiding timidity such as this example will have to be a big part of things.

[vertical-gallery id=638027][lawrence-newsletter]

Peete and Repeat: Cowboys bring RB coach back for second stint

The Dallas Cowboys bring back Skip Peete in the role of running backs coach after a seven year absence.

For the past decade the Dallas Cowboys have spent the off-season churning the roster. This year they’re churning coaches as running back coach Gary Brown has been officially replaced by Skip Peete who manned the role in Dallas between 2007-2012.

It’s not the first familiar face to earn a spot on Mike McCarthy’s staff, as they retained both Kellen Moore and Doug Nussmeier from the offensive coaching room, but this is the first face that’s returning for a second stint with the team after the absence.

Peete was most recently on the coaching staff of Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams where he worked with Todd Gurley. He will have a similarly talented back in Ezekiel Elliott upon his return to the Cowboys. In his last stint in Dallas, he never had a back with the kind of pedigree Elliott provides.

The speculation around this role had run rampant since the hiring of head coach Mike McCarthy. There were no reports that Brown was definitively ousted from his post, but it was clear that the McCarthy and company were looking to hire from the outside. The name that had appeared in the forefront was Stan Drayton from the University of Texas. Whether he removed himself from consideration is unknown.

It’s certain that Brown was a favorite of Elliott. The bond they formed was evident in Amazon’s coverage of the team in their “All or Nothing” series, though perhaps their relationship had moved beyond coach and player and was too friendly for McCarthy’s liking.

Brown was prepared for this, however. In the season finale of “Sounds from the Sideline” from The Mothership, he addressed his group as the game wound down.

Cowboys rounding out offensive staff, hire Lunda Wells away from Giants

The Dallas Cowboys have hired tight ends coach Lunda Wells, who spent the previous two seasons in the same role with the New York Giants.

This much is clear about Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy: he has carte blanche in terms of his coaching staff. The latest move is the hiring of former New York Giants tight end coach Lunda Wells to replace Doug Nussmeier who took over the quarterback coaching gig from Jon Kitna.

There were thoughts that perhaps future Hall of Famer Jason Witten could get the nod coaching the position he played so well for so many years. With the Cowboys being run as a family business, and the amount of respect that owner Jerry Jones has for Witten, it seemed as if that would be a logical fit for this organization.

In Wells, the Cowboys have perhaps identified a young coach on the ascent. He’s spent a little more than a decade in the coaching game, starting his career in the college ranks with LSU in 2008 as an offensive line assistant, a position he held for two years before working with special teams and acting as an assistant to the head coach.

The Giants brought him into the fold in 2012 as an offensive assistant before moving him to assistant offensive line coach for the next four seasons. In 2018 he was promoted to tight ends coach where he worked with Evan Engram. Engram isn’t the prototypical tight end of yesteryear, and spent half of each of the two seasons with Wells injured, never capturing the spark he showed in his rookie campaign.

The head coach wielding control over his staff hasn’t often been the case in Dallas in the past 20 years, with Jones dictating the terms of those in his employ, but it isn’t unheard of. Despite the long running meme of his meddlesome ways, Jones has turned over complete control at least once since recent Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson parted ways following back to back Super Bowl wins.

Bill Parcells was the last man with enough pull to convince Jones to relinquish control and allow him to do whatever it was he wanted to do, but McCarthy, a Super Bowl champion in his own right has walked in the door at The Star in Frisco and made himself right at home.

[lawrence-newsletter]

Mike McCarthy adds Texas A&M’s Maurice Linguist to coaching staff

McCarthy is still in the process of hiring his coaching staff, it seems like Texas A&M’s Maurice Linguist is the newest Cowboys hire.

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has only been in his new position for six days and he is already ahead of schedule when it comes to hiring a new staff.

Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel reported early Sunday morning that the Cowboys have hired Texas A&M’s cornerbacks coach Maurice Linguist. The exact position title for Linguist is unknown at this time, but we do know he will be coaching in the Cowboys secondary.

Linguist already has some familiarity with one current Cowboys’ safety. During his two years at Texas A&M, he helped coach safety Donovan Wilson. The Cowboys drafted Wilson a year ago in the sixth-round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

He is no stranger to the state of Texas. Linguist was born in Dallas and played safety for the Baylor Bears from 2003 to 2006. Here is a little more information on the Cowboys new coach. This will be his first shot at coaching in the NFL.

The Cowboys are moving on from passing game coordinator Kris Richard.

This video should give you an idea of Linguist’s coaching technique. Here he talks about the point of attack when tackling.

You can follow Corey on Twitter @CoreyClarkRadio.

[lawrence-newsletter]

Aikman, Irvin and the lofty expectations for Mike McCarthy

There were bars set high and surprising comparisons galore as two Cowboys legends weigh in on the team’s new head coach.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones could not have set the bar for his new head coach any higher. And he couldn’t have done it much earlier than he did. Less than three minutes into Wednesday’s press conference that introduced Mike McCarthy as the ninth head coach in team history- before McCarthy had even said a word- Jones was invoking the name of the most decorated quarterback to have ever worn the star.

He’s still figuring out where the bathrooms are at the team’s headquarters, but McCarthy is already being mentioned in the same breath as the franchise’s greatest champions. Several of those champions, including Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, think he just may prove to be worthy of the lofty comparison.

“When I first got in the NFL,” Jones recalled to begin the press conference, after reading a list of highlights off McCarthy’s impressive resume, “I looked real smart- very smart- because right as we walked through the door, Troy Aikman was the first pick in the draft. And the Dallas Cowboys had the first pick in the draft. And the Dallas Cowboys needed a great quarterback to start. Those combinations of things can make you look real smart when that timing comes together. That’s the analogy that I’m alluding to here. Yes. We. Needed. Mike. We needed a coach, but to have his availability, and to have his track record and ability to check all the boxes that I just talked about was fortuitous for this franchise.”

Likening McCarthy’s arrival to taking Aikman with the first overall pick in 1989 makes the 56-year-old coach’s mandate in Dallas crystal-clear. His joining the organization may not necessarily kickstart a dynasty per se, but it had better add a sixth Lombardi Trophy to the case in pretty short order.

For what it’s worth, Aikman himself thinks McCarthy’s hiring is an encouraging step in that direction.

“I do think that the guy that they hired is outstanding,” Aikman told The Musers on 96.7 FM/1310 AM The Ticket [KTCK-AM] on Wednesday. “I’ve known him a long time; I’ve gotten to know him very well. And I think he’ll come in and do a great job.”

Former coach Jason Garrett served as Aikman’s backup for the team’s remarkable run during the mid- to late-1990s and was there for the Cowboys’ two most recent championships in Super Bowls XXVIII and XXX. Aikman has spoken recently about the way his friend’s tenure in Dallas came to an end under the Jones regime, reminding fans that the NFL is, first and foremost, a business for those who are in it, and that even successful coaches often find themselves looking for new employment.

Aikman remarked that McCarthy knows something of that as well after his sudden dismissal from the Packers in early December of 2018.

“The way that it ended in Green Bay? I think he deserved better,” Aikman explained. “I don’t feel that, after all those years of success, that he deserved to be fired before the season ended. And I thought that he handled all of that exceptionally well, but I wasn’t certain that… I didn’t anticipate that the Cowboys would be of interest, that he would be of interest to the Cowboys. And so when I heard that it was possible that he might be named the head coach, that the interview went well, he stayed over, I thought that was a really good thing.

“I think of the guys that are available- and even if you looked at guys who aren’t available- I think that Mike McCarthy would certainly be on that short list. I think it was an outstanding hire. I think he’ll come in; it’ll be a different voice- of course it always is with a new head coach- and he’ll have a different approach, and I think for some people, that’ll be really refreshing. And we’ll see where it goes.”

Aikman’s primary receiver from the glory days thinks it may go right to the top of the NFL mountain. Michael Irvin drew a recent pro basketball analogy in speaking with TMZ about what he expects from the Cowboys’ new skipper.

While Irvin admitted that he was “mourning” the end of Garrett’s time in Dallas, he believes his friend and former teammate should get another opportunity to lead an NFL team.

“You look at the greatest of all time, and that’s Bill Belichick,” Irvin said. “You know, if he stopped at Cleveland, what would we have? But he got another opportunity in New England, and he ultimately became the greatest of all time.”

Comparing Jason Garrett to Bill Belichick may be more of a leap than many Cowboys fans can make right now. They’re still wrapping their heads around the idea that hiring Mike McCarthy might be akin to drafting Troy Aikman.

[vertical-gallery id=637633][lawrence-newsletter]

WR coach Sanjay Lal won’t return to Cowboys under Mike McCarthy

Mike McCarthy’s housecleaning in Dallas continues with the reported dismissal of the team’s two-year wide receivers coach.

Mike McCarthy has officially moved in; now the housecleaning really kicks into gear. After several coaching moves in the defensive and special teams departments, the newly-named ninth head coach in club history is now shaking things up on the offensive staff, too. Offensive line coach Marc Colombo will not return in 2020; that news leaked shortly before McCarthy’s introductory press conference on Wednesday.

Wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal will also be departing, according to reports.

Lal took over the team’s receiver group in 2018 after serving in the same capacity for the Colts, Bills, Jets, and Raiders over the previous nine years. As Slater notes, Lal oversaw the best season in Pro Bowler Amari Cooper’s career and a breakout second year for Michael Gallup.

The development of Lal’s receivers in Kellen Moore’s offense added versatility to a scheme that had become frequently predictable, especially on third downs.

But the Cowboys pass-catchers also ranked as the league’s worst in 2019 in terms of drops. Despite having another year on his contract with the franchise, Lal himself will, it seems, be dropped from McCarthy’s new staff.

There is no word on who the Cowboys’ new wide receivers coach may be.

[vertical-gallery id=637633][lawrence-newsletter]

Mike McCarthy presser entertaining, light on details of plans for Cowboys

A summary of head coach Mike McCarthy’s introductory press conference with the Dallas Cowboys.

The Mike McCarthy press conference to introduce him as the ninth head coach in the history of the Dallas Cowboys was more entertaining than it was informative. It was a certainly stark difference to the previous regime’s talking points, but it’s early on and the honeymoon glow is still abound.

The press conference was well attended, not only by the media which was out in force, but by some of the players currently on the roster and it didn’t take long for McCarthy to show emotion, choking up almost immediately.

The gravity of the situation isn’t lost on him, referencing his previous stop as head coach of the Green Bay Packers to explain how he knows what the expectation is for football in Dallas. McCarthy went on to call the Dallas Cowboys “the most iconic franchise in professional sports.”

The word was mum when it came to officially naming staff and game plans, though several names have been bandied about.  The main thing everyone wants to know is whether or not the team will switch to a 3-4 defense under defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, but McCarthy indicated that will all be revealed when they officially announce the coaching staff.

As for the staff, owner Jerry Jones clearly knows the chatter among the fan base, that he’s been too heavily involved in building the coaching staffs in recent memory and he was explicit in stating he wanted McCarthy to pick his own.

 

It wouldn’t be a press conference in Dallas without a mention of Jason Garrett, who, even as he was being ousted, remained as classy as ever. He gave rave reviews of his successor, telling Jones “you’re not going to meet anybody more special than Mike.”

Jones spoke lovingly, not only of his previous coach, but the entire Garrett family, noting that he’s written a check to a Garrett in some form or fashion for 28 of his 30 years in the league as he has worked with both his father and his brother through his tenure.

The highlight of the press conference came when the timeless question was posed to McCarthy: Did Dez catch it? It drew laughs from those in attendance and was answered as diplomatically as possible, saying “It was a great catch, I can say now. It wasn’t then, technically.”

He referenced asking referee Gene Steratore what the rule was at the time which Jerry Jones took umbrage with it capping it off with:

There will be more news in the coming days regarding actual football related material that will be covered in depth here at the Cowboys Wire. But for now, enjoy what is the beginning of a long ride.

[vertical-gallery id=637633][lawrence-newsletter]

Joe Philbin tapped as Mike McCarthy OL coach, Marc Colombo out

The Dallas Cowboys will move on without the services of Marc Colombo working with the offensive line, Joe Philbin will replace him.

Shortly before the press conference at The Star in Frisco to introduce Mike McCarthy as the newest head coach in Dallas Cowboys history, word leaked that Marc Colombo would not be retained on the coaching staff heading into the 2020 season.

The replacement that’s been tapped is Joe Philbin, formerly the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator of the McCarthy era for the Green Bay Packers. He was also named the interim head coach after McCarthy was fired heading into the final four games of the 2018 season.

 

Philbin was out of the NFL in 2019 but previously had served in various capacities offensively in the league. He is most infamous for his work as the Miami Dolphins head coach that ultimately went nowhere, finishing with a sub .500 record at 26-30, getting fired only four games into the 2015 season.

Colombo, who played in Dallas from 2006-2010 was brought in as the assistant offensive line coach in 2018. He was elevated in late October after the firing of Paul Alexander, leading to a rebound in play for a stellar line that had been struggling to that point.

[vertical-gallery id=637526][lawrence-newsletter]

What analytics say about McCarthy in areas Rodgers didn’t influence

Coaches and QBs are always linked, but here areas that are mostly on a HC during McCarthy’s tenure in Green Bay.

The 2019 Dallas Cowboys were certainly a volatile, emotional experience. Despite the sensational high points like Dak Prescott’s early-to-mid-season MVP-campaign, inconsistency down the stretch stirred tension and anxiety. Even with Dallas holding the division lead in the final month of the season, speculation grew as to whether Jason Garrett would return as head coach in 2020. The news broke later than some anticipated, but nevertheless, for the first time in a decade, Garrett will not be on the sideline for the Dallas Cowboys. Instead, Mike McCarthy will be stepping in to fill the void after a year-long hiatus from the NFL.

In his last stint as head coach, McCarthy’s reputation came under heavy scrutiny when reports surfaced depicting a toxic relationship with Aaron Rodgers, and a prodigious amount of dysfunction within the locker room. However, it’s difficult to fully discern the truth of such a situation to know how much blame should be allocated to McCarthy. He’s likely not fully innocent, but it’s doubtful he’s the only guilty party either.

Even with the unhappy ending in Green Bay, McCarthy did manage to stay at the helm for nearly 13 seasons and exit with what is now the third-best active winning percentage among NFL coaches (.618). In that time, he helped develop Aaron Rodgers into a two-time MVP, made the playoffs nine times, and won a Super Bowl in 2010. Unluckily, three of those playoff runs ended in the NFC-Championship game (including the infamous botched onside kick recovery by Brandon Bostick). On paper, that’s a pretty solid resume.

Despite this, there were other concerns regarding McCarthy as a head-coaching candidate. Some speculated that the Rodgers-McCarthy tension was at least partially fueled by stagnancy in the coach’s offensive play-calling. Pop onto Twitter and search “McCarthy” and there will be somebody making a crack about his over-usage of the slant-flat combo.

Again, there’s probably at least some notion of truth to the jokes.

But in a year away from the NFL, McCarthy has done everything you could ask of someone determined to get back to the top. As Peter King outlined in the article, McCarthy has spent time in self-reflection, evaluation, intense study, and preparation for where he and the NFL are heading next. Openness to constructive criticism and the ability to adapt on the fly are huge positives for a high-leverage position like an NFL coach. It’s encouraging to see these signs now, but incorporating them once you’re in the job is much more difficult.

Evaluating McCarthy’s Green Bay tenure is truly difficult, as the offensive success they exhibited is simultaneously tied to Rodgers. Yet again, who gets the credit and blame? Thus, rather than focusing on overall performance, I tried to parse out team aspects and decision-making that are generally more attributable to coaching.

Penalties

Charted above is the number of penalties committed by the Green Bay Packers each year from 2009 – 2018. I’ve excluded 2006-2008 as those years are unavailable via the nflscrapR package.

As you can see, in all about two seasons under McCarthy, the Packers ranked in the top half of the league in regards to penalties committed. Typically, penalties are considered to be a reflection of discipline and coaching. Consequently, it’s certainly positive that McCarthy’s Packers generally performed well in this area.

Challenges

At this stage of my NFL fandom I’m not sure we can even define what constitutes a catch anymore. In an era of high-definition slow-motion replay, the understanding and interpretation of the rule book is murkier than ever. It’s actually remarkable referees get as much right as they do, given the speed of the game they’re assigned to judge. It doesn’t get any easier for a head coach either.

The moment a coach has to challenge a play can be as thin as a razor’s edge. The game continues to move, and their job in managing the flow, morale, chemistry, and game-plan of the team doesn’t stop for them to think it over. It’s often a gut-level reaction, and unfortunately, intuition can often lead us astray.

From 2009-2018, there were 2,933 coach’s challenges in regular season games. Of those, 1,220 resulted in the call on the field being overturned (41.6%). Over that same time-span, McCarthy threw the challenge flag 66 times, and won 32 of those challenges (48.5%). While he was his result was better than average, it’s a small enough sample that perhaps he was just a little lucky.

Passing Tendency

Naturally, when a team is in a situation when they’re likely to win, they generally run the ball more. The chart above depicts this, as the black line shows the league average passing rate based on the game-script at the time of play. Further to the right means the team with the ball is more likely to win. Unsurprisingly, passing rates decrease as the chance of winning increases.

Notice also the green line, which represents the Packers’ passing rate under McCarthy. While the line follows the same general trend (moving down to the right), it’s higher than the black line at every stage of the chart. In essence, this means the Packers were much more likely to throw the ball than the average team, regardless of the game-script.

I’m always a proponent to throw the ball more, and thus, I’m quite pleased with this tendency. However, it’s at least possible that this result was somewhat tied to the personnel McCarthy had to deploy on offense. The closest thing Green Bay had to a feature back under McCarthy was Eddie Lacy when he ran for 1,100 yards in 2013 and 2014. Beyond that, the running back position was typically a committee deployment involving guys like James Starks, Ryan Grant and even converted wide receiver Ty Montgomery.

All this to say, McCarthy hasn’t had a running back like Ezekiel Elliott, and how he chooses to deploy him will be one of the features I’m most intrigued to observe.

Aggressiveness

While showing an overall propensity for passing more, McCarthy has previously come under fire for being too conservative as a play-caller. Admittedly, a coach’s aggressiveness is quite difficult to quantify (unless you’re the Ravens). Here, I chose to focus on fourth-down decisions.

Again, from 2009-2018, the Packers faced 4th-and-less-than-five in opposing territory 234 times. 86 times the offense stayed on the field and went for the first down (36.7%). Over the same time-span, the NFL went for it 2445 times out of 8135 opportunities (30%).

McCarthy may have at least some foundation to incorporate analytics into his coaching methods. Even so, he will need to develop trust in Dak Prescott for any type of aggressive decision-making to transpire.

Summary

Overall, McCarthy comes up with a largely positive resume. Every coaching candidate has some risks and cons, but for a team that’s ready to compete, he’s a fantastic acquisition. Of course, a head coach can’t do it alone. Even if past mistakes or negative traits begin to recur, having the right staff in place can offset these bumps and provide feedback that moves the team back toward their desired process. Thus, the next stage of the hiring process is paramount. But at least for today, Cowboys fans can be optimistic about this hire, and the potential it instills for 2020 and beyond.

[vertical-gallery id=637526][lawrence-newsletter]

News: McCarthy’s staff coming together, how he got to Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys news and notes for January 7, 2020 revolves around the new coaching staff being pieced together.

New head coach Mike McCarthy is busy trying to put together his staff for the 2020 NFL season. One thing is certain: it won’t lack experience. While many of the spots aren’t finalized, the defensive coordinator and special teams, two units that failed the Cowboys on a regular basis in 2019 have been shored up with Mike Nolan and John Fassel. There’s also solid intel he’s chosen a veteran DL coach with mounds of respect.

Offensively, McCarthy will bring a flavor of his own, but that side of the ball wasn’t the reason that Dallas missed the playoffs in the 2019. Reports are surfacing that the proverbial ball is in Kellen Moore’s court to decide whether or not he will maintain the role he enjoyed and performed well in last year. The word is mum as far as position coaches go, but the staff is beginning to take shape in a hurry, despite the confusing week that was while formally announcing the fate of Jason Garrett.

The team will officially introduce McCarthy on Wednesday.

The Starting 11: The Cowboys Could Have Hired Anyone, and They Picked Mike McCarthy :: The Ringer

The biggest problem people have with McCarthy is that it’s not splashy. Many expected the Cowboys to pull out all the stops to lure Lincoln Riley out of his fiefdom in Oklahoma or Sean Payton out of the bayou in New Orleans. McCarthy was hired as a retread while reportedly interviewing only one other candidate in Marvin Lewis. Whether or not it’s the right choice remains to be seen, but being flashy has not always served the Cowboys best in the past.

–TT

Cowboys hire the best coach available: A comprehensive breakdown of Mike McCarthy’s fit in Dallas :: The Athletic

On the other hand there’s Bob Sturm, a Wisconsin native and Green Bay Packers enthusiast who seems to be the polar opposite of most people’s thinking regarding Mike McCarthy, calling him the “best coach available.” He writes up both the pros and cons of the hires, providing a detailed look into the coach who just signed a five-year contract.

–TT

Inside the eight days it took the Dallas Cowboys to hire a head coach :: ESPN

A behind the scenes look at what transpired in between the end of the Dallas season and choosing McCarthy to replace  Jason Garrett. ESPN’s Todd Archer synthesizes information from high-ranking sources inside The Star, including dispelling the funniest rumor of them all: that McCarthy had stayed the night at owner Jerry Jones’s house.

Regardless, it’s clear that the Cowboys’ brass was blown away in the interview process leaving no reason to extend the search for the ninth head coach in team history.

–TT

Cowboys roster breakdown: What will Mike McCarthy inherit, and what changes could be coming? :: The Athletic

A look at the entirety of the Dallas roster heading into the off-season. The amount of contracts that are up in the air can seem alarming, but remember the large amount of cap space the Cowboys have to work with. Some players that don’t have a contract, namely quarterback Dak Prescott, aren’t going anywhere. But others, like cornerback Byron Jones,  have their future in doubt.

–TT

Mike McCarthy fleshing out special staff for Cowboys, hires Bones Fassel :: Cowboys Wire

The Dallas Cowboys special teams has been anything but special recently. For the past two years, it’s been downright bad. But McCarthy isn’t having any of that, bringing in perhaps the gutsiest special teams coach in the league in John “Bones” Fassel.

He’s also got his gaze set upon Jim Tomsula for the defensive line.

–TT

Report: Kellen Moore deciding between Cowboys OC and college job :: Cowboys Wire

The word out of Dallas is Moore will return to the Cowboys as offensive coordinator under Mike McCarthy, however it’s not written in stone. What his role would entail under the new head coach is unclear and will remain so for the foreseeable future, while a move to the college ranks would allow more autonomy for the 31-year-old.

–TT

[vertical-gallery id=637526][lawrence-newsletter]