It looks like Mike McCarthy is considering going very young for his offensive coordinator position, as Kellen Moore appears to be a top candidate to return to the Dallas Cowboys. The same can’t be said for the lead dog in the race to become …
It looks like Mike McCarthy is considering going very young for his offensive coordinator position, as Kellen Moore appears to be a top candidate to return to the Dallas Cowboys. The same can’t be said for the lead dog in the race to become McCarthy’s defensive coordinator.
That honor appears to belong to Mike Nolan, longtime NFL coordinator and current linebackers coach for the New Orleans Saints. Nolan has coached in the league for 33 years, 21 as a coordinator or head coach, and is the son of Dick Nolan, one of Tom Landry’s assistants.
Saints LB coach Mike Nolan has been named as one of McCarthy’s targets as the next #Cowboys DC.
He was being congratulated by family & friends in the Saints parking lot today.
When @sayneykid asked if he was headed to Dallas, Nolan’s response was:
Many have connected Nolan to the opening over the last 24 hours. Nolan actually has some head coaching experience, being the famous suit-wearer when the league went in that direction during his stint as the man for the San Francisco 49ers.
During his 21-year stint as HC or DC, his defenses have finished in the Top 10 in points allowed on eight different occasions, including a No. 1 ranking his first year as a DC, 1993 with the New York Giants. In addition to New York – with both the Giants and Jets- and the 49ers, he’s also spent time in Miami, Baltimore, Atlanta, Washington and Denver.
Over half of his seasons (11) have resulted in his unit ranking in the Top 11 in takeaways, something the Cowboys have struggled with on their defensive units for the last several seasons.
Nolan has also spent seven seasons in the leagues’ bottom 10 in points allowed, including two when he was head coach in San Francisco.
The Cowboys front office didn’t waste much time in hiring their new coach; fans wasted no time at all in reacting on social media.
It is a privilege, not a right, to play, coach, and work for the Dallas Cowboys.
Those words adorn the base of a large silver star that sits in a prime location at The Star in Frisco. It’s a key stop/photo opportunity for fans who pony up for the guided tour at team headquarters. To reach the outdoor practice fields, the players’ locker room, the team’s meeting/lecture hall, or the indoor practice arena, it is almost impossible to not pass that star and see those words.
Mike McCarthy is now the ninth man to have earned the privilege to coach the team. After a full week of non-news and foot-dragging, the team finally made the release of Jason Garrett official on Sunday evening. Garrett’s replacement was named less than 18 hours later.
And social media had plenty to say. Many remarked at McCarthy’s interview on Saturday that lasted into Sunday.
New Cowboys’ HC Mike McCarthy stayed over Jerry Jones’ house on Saturday night, per source. “Once you stay at Jerrry’s house, he doesn’t lose his guy,” said source.
Fans and observers alike were quick with the slumber party jokes, theorizing that the two talked offensive schemes and quarterback philosophies over pizza rolls and pillow fights.
But many suspect that McCarthy will, in fact, bring a different approach to the Dallas sidelines, including an analytical component that Garrett himself admitted to never embracing.
Mike McCarthy plans to install a 14-person football technology department with an 8-person analytics team.
Jason Garrett said he doesn't consult win probability data for play calling "during the game" (suggesting they look at it afterwards to find mistakes).
Of course, any discussion of McCarthy’s resume as a head coach turns a spotlight on his reputation as a quarterback mentor, having helped develop passers from Rich Gannon to Alex Smith to, most notably, Aaron Rodgers. It is thought his leadership will be a major boost to Dak Prescott, even after his best season as a pro.
Mike McCarthy was one of the best-case scenario hires for Dak Prescott.
If this franchise believes Prescott is the quarterback to lead them to a Super Bowl, McCarthy is the kind of hire they make. Love it.
Easy to understand why MM would be so impressive in an interview setting with his playoff experience & QB expertise. Would not be surprised if it was a very Dak-centric interview where MM laid out his plans to #MaximizeDak. I'd bet the Joneses were very impressed by his QB school
This is a really smart hire. Some people have forgotten about Mike McCarthy’s success due to the end of his tenure with the Packers. He’s a REALLY good coach who is just what the Cowboys need as a leader and offensive mind. https://t.co/IhgqU9qGSc
A lot of attention has been given to how McCarthy has spent his time out of coaching. He was fired in Green Bay in December 2018 and was quickly linked to job openings with Arizona, Cleveland, and the New York Jets. He did not interview with the Cardinals, reportedly turned down the Browns gig, and did not land the Jets job. In January 2019, McCarthy announced he would sit out the season.
Yet according to reports, McCarthy actually approached the last twelve months as if he were an active coach. He broke down film, he ran meetings, he crunched numbers, he prepared gameplans. He kept a regular routine and even had a staff of assistants. The only thing he didn’t have was an actual team of players.
It’s hard to watch this and imagine that McCarthy did anything other than blow the Joneses away in his job interview.
While McCarthy is generally seen across the board as a very good coach and a quality hire, many questioned the suddenness with which Jerry Jones pulled the trigger, especially after so many other big names were tossed around as potential candidates. Highly successful college coaches like Urban Meyer, Lincoln Riley, Matt Rhule, and Jim Harbaugh were all thought to be on some hypothetical wish list, yet none were apparently officially interviewed.
Jerry Jones showed some of his cards in this coaching decision last month when he said on @1053thefan that “college coaches have the lowest percentage rate of success” taking over as NFL head coaches. Jerry wanted someone with NFL head coaching experience
After the weekend’s wild card games, it was theorized that Jerry might even make exploratory phone calls to New England and New Orleans to inquire about Bill Belichick and Sean Payton, respectively.
Yet after confirmed interviews with just McCarthy and former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, a decision was made.
This is where my mind is blown. Like they could have had McCarthy last year if they wanted him so bad. https://t.co/Jbgva2r0k6
Ultimately, though, last year is last year. Jerry Jones clearly wanted to be right about Garrett; it’s possible he believed that adding Kellen Moore and Jon Kitna to the staff would be enough to help get Garrett over the hump. They were not, at least not in one season. And Jones has decided not to invest any more time in that experiment.
At the time of this writing, there’s no word on which assistants and coordinators might remain on McCarthy’s staff.
Maybe the jury was still out on Prescott, and his performance this year cemented the idea that everything else- including the head coaching position- should be built around him as a long-term fixture. (And maybe McCarthy’s acceptance of the job confirms that the new coach sees Prescott as the real deal.)
But rather than embark on a total rebuild with a coach who still has to learn how to coach in the NFL, the Cowboys are getting a skipper who can take immediate command of an already-promising ship.
No question the Cowboys have a talented nucleus. Mike McCarthy is getting a roster built to win now. https://t.co/foHoFLK1GO
The privilege of leading the Dallas Cowboys now belongs to Mike McCarthy. Fans are hopeful that with him will soon come the privilege of seeing a sixth Lombardi Trophy sitting inside the front door at The Star.
We opined earlier in the day about the myriad of pending decisions the Dallas Cowboys have to make, after hiring Mike McCarthy to be the ninth coach in franchise history. Chief among them is who will take on the role of his offensive coordinator and …
We opined earlier in the day about the myriad of pending decisions the Dallas Cowboys have to make, after hiring Mike McCarthy to be the ninth coach in franchise history. Chief among them is who will take on the role of his offensive coordinator and whether or not they will have play-calling responsibilities.
Along with that, we openly wondered how much control McCarthy would have over the entire staff. Would it be a Bill Parcells situation where a request to consider was made, or a Wade Phillips situation, where a staff was chosen for him. It appears, courtesy of Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer that McCarthy indicated he was very interested in working with one-year-of-experience Kellen Moore and that may come to fruition.
.@JayGlazer says Mike #McCarthy didn't have to make ANY concessions when it comes to his staff. Predicts Kellen Moore will stay and Mike Nolan runs the D. Also said MM loves Dak. Said Giants were more in on McCarthy than Browns but couldn't get 2nd interview.
It’s also been discovered how long of a contract McCarthy received from Jones. It is in fact a five-year deal, though financial terms have yet to be revealed.
Two notes on new #Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy: 1. He signed a 5-year deal with Dallas, source said. 2. McCarthy likes OC Kellen Moore, I’m told. Nothing more firm than that, but it does seem like McCarthy is more than open to keeping him.
McCarthy spent 13 seasons with the Packers in Green Bay and is taking over for Jason Garrett, who spent 9.5 seasons at the helm in Dallas. Moore has been with the Cowboys as a coach for the last two seasons, first as QB coach and as offensive coordinator in 2019.
The Cowboys work is only beginning in constructing a team that can get over the hump.
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The Dallas Cowboys have their man, as they have hired former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy to try and get the team where Jason Garrett couldn’t. For 10 years, with multiple offensive and defensive coordinators and a litany of position coaches, the Cowboys tried to find the right formula to operate under the ownership of Jerry Jones.
Garrett’s coaching career seemingly ended in Dallas the way he began it; with an offensive coordinator forced on the head coach. Garrett was hired as OC before the Jones’ settled on Wade Phillips. Garrett spent 2019 as the head coach while Kellen Moore called the offense. Now, with McCarthy in the building, the questions once again swirl around the staff that will be in place.
There are well-reasoned rumors that McCarthy may have to follow in Garrett’s footsteps and have some of his staff chosen for him. Moore, wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal, quarterback coach Jon Kitna and offensive line coach Marc Colomobo are all reported to have a year remaining on their respective contracts.
Whether or not those guys, as well as other positions such as the strength and conditioning coaches are retained are part of the interesting (chaotic?) nature of the next order of business for the franchise.
How much control over these choices will McCarthy have?
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Was he able to convince the Jones’ to allow him to do things his way? Is he able to fire any of the assistants he doesn’t think will be able to coach the way he wants things coached, or will he be saddled with pieces that he doesn’t get to control?
Jones runs his football operations as he does what some would consider a routine business. He sits atop the organizational and day-to-day totem, though over the last half decade he’s ceded some of that control to his son, executive VP Stephen Jones.
It hasn’t resulted in the ultimate on-field success in 25 years, though the team’s value has skyrocketed thanks to Jones’ direction. Most other NFL organizations, both successful and middling, have a structure where the head coach is seen as the end-all be-all for the players and they are allowed to construct the makeup of the coaching staff on their own. Jones, in nearly every head coaching situation he’s been a part of, refuses to see it that way. The coaches all work for him and report to him.
How much he demanded that be in place with McCarthy remains to be seen. When Bill Parcells was hired, the only other head coach Jones has employed who had a Super Bowl victory on his resume, he was allowed to bring in his own coaches, but Jones asked him to consider retaining Mike Zimmer on Parcell’s new staff.
Is he requesting the same consideration now with any of the current coaching staff, or demanding it, the way he did with Garrett and Phillips? Do the Joneses want him to be a walk-around coach, allowing the coordinators to manage the scheme and playcalling duties?
It’s an interesting dynamic that will likely determine the fate of the hire in the long run.
Here’s a run down of several open-ended questions about the makeup of McCarthy’s staff.
Offensive Coordinator
As mentioned above, Moore is under contract for the 2020 season. He brought about imaginative playcalling for the most part, though the offense sometimes bogged down and was unable to score a single touchdown in two different games, including the de facto NFC East championship game against the Eagles in Week 16. He did, however, construct an offense that was near the top of many statistical categories, both basic and advanced analytics.
Moore ran a version of Air Coryell’s offense in 2019, though how much of that is him and how much was Garrett’s is a big unknown, and McCarthy is a West Coast guy, through and through. This reminds of when Parcells was hired, he kept Zimmer and then asked his DC to run the 3-4 defense instead of the 40 front.
Defensive Coordinator
Rod Marinelli and Kris Richard are both out of contract. There’s plenty of potential, high-powered names that can be considered here, including the only other coach Dallas interviewed, former Bengals HC and Ravens defensive savant Marvin Lewis. Also to be considered are Jim Haslett, who McCarthy had on his think tank during his time off in 2019, when he re-evaluated how he coached and studied the league through and through to determine trends and analytical advantages.
The possibility of an impact name here is very high.
.@TomPelissero on @nflnetwork says the name to watch for the Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator under Mike McCarthy is Mike Nolan.
Will the Cowboys remain a 4-3 defense like they have since Parcells and Phillips left the building? If they make a transition back to the 3-4, how much of the current personnel match that?
Dallas has a healthy amount of free agency questions and this decision, more than anything, will determine how March goes.
Offensive Line Coach
The Packers ran a zone-blocking scheme under McCarthy, so there shouldn’t be much shift as far as what Dallas has been doing with their vaunted offensive line. The question is whether McCarthy has his own man or will be looking to keep Colombo.
Special Teams Coach
The Cowboys’ special teams play has been an abject disaster after the club lost Rich Bissacia. They ranked 30th in teams’ DVOA in 2019, failing on coverages and having the worst place kicker the league has seen in half a decade.
Other Vacancies
The Cowboys do have a QB coach (Kitna) and WR coach (Lal) in place, but even if those guys return McCarthy will still need to decide on a running back coach, tight ends coach, defensive line coach, linebackers coach and a secondary coach. Those decisions will steer the direction of the Cowboys in 2020 just as much as the hire of McCarthy will.
The Dallas Cowboys have their man, as they’ve reportedly agreed to terms with the former Packers head coach.
The Dallas Cowboys appear to have their man. After interviewing only two candidates for their opening, the team seems to be on the verge of hiring their replacement for Jason Garrett.
That man appears to be former Green Bay Packers head coach and Super Bowl winner Mike McCarthy, who is informing other teams he interviewed with (Cleveland, New York) that he is out of the running for their positions. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the two sides are currently in contract talks. and now according to Fox’s Jay Glazer the sides have agreed to terms.
Scoopage alert: the @dallascowboys have agreed to terms with Mike McCarthy to be their new head coach. Announcement and press conference expected later this week @NFLonFOX#cowboys
Garrett was dismissed on Sunday night, after being in limbo for a week as reports circulated he was asking the Cowboys to keep him in mind until they found a suitable replacement. In comes McCarthy, who was scheduled to meet with Dallas on Thursday, but opted to wait until the weekend for his visit. His one-day visit turned into two and it was clear there was interest on both sides.
McCarthy comes with a Lombadri trophy and West Coast offense, having worked with both Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. He sat out of football in 2019 after being removed by the Packers brass for failing to make the playoffs his final two years. He’s been to four NFC championship games and has a career .618 winning percentage.
The Cowboys also interviewed Marvin Lewis, former head man of Cincinnati. He may also be in line as a possible defensive coordinator, where he made his mark in Baltimore before rehabilitating a moribund Bengals franchise.
