Category: Mike McCarthy

Cowboys McCarthy, Prescott at crossroads after humiliating wild-card loss

If the Cowboys want to turn the page on their head coach, they can, but while it’s not impossible it’s implausible they’ll move on from their QB this offseason. Here’s why.

The Dallas Cowboys 48-32 loss has once again ended a season in a manner that feels premature. Last year’s 12-win team made it to a road divisional game in San Francisco. While there was hope the club could advance over an inexperienced QB, results from 2023 have confirmed that Brock Purdy and the 49ers are the real deal and that loss was not the embarrassment it seemed like at the time.

But this loss, to the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers is much different. Dallas will have to take a long look in the mirror and determine whether or not they’ve hit their ceiling with this head coach and quarterback combination. Both sides of the team shoulder equal blame for the disaster on Sunday, but as the faces of the franchise, Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott are at a crossroads, and in the crosshairs.

There’s going to be a lot to unpack about both roles over the next 24 hours, but the options Jerry Jones and company have are wholly different for the two men.

Why this loss might be it for Mike McCarthy as Cowboys head coach

Our @ReidDHanson checks in with a sobering evaluation of what McCarthy has brought to the table, and whether it’s enough to invite him back for Year 5.

Three consecutive 12-win seasons. That was the reflexive response when the job security of Mike McCarthy was publicly questioned this past week. In today’s up-and-down NFL, the Cowboys have been the epitome of consistency during the McCarthy era. Aside from Dak Prescott’s missing season, the Cowboys have been perennial contenders; Something they hadn’t been since the Super Bowl teams of the 1990s.

Yet McCarthy’s limited postseason success as the Cowboys head coach has kept the topic alive and his seat uncomfortably hot. McCarthy’s Cowboys have now gone 1-3 in postseason games as a 12-win team following Sunday’s 48-32 debacle. They’ve been upset, bullied and embarrassed. Aside from one big win over an 8-9 Buccaneers team in 2022, Dallas has consistently disappointed in the postseason. Hence the hot seat.

LaCanfora: ‘I’d be shocked’ if Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy survives wild-card loss

From @ToddBrock24f7: One NFL GM says Sunday’s playoff opener is a must-win game for McCarthy, since the Cowboys’ “next man up is already there.”

The Cowboys’ postseason opener is obviously a must-win game if Dallas is to make a run at a sixth Lombardi Trophy to put in the lobby of The Star. But this Sunday’s wild-card showdown could also be a make-or-break moment for the Cowboys coaching staff.

Head coach Mike McCarthy has led the team to a third straight 12-win finish, something no one else in franchise history has done. But that still may not be enough to guarantee his return for the 2024 season, according to one NFL insider and the league execs he’s spoken to.

On Thursday, the Washington Post‘s Jason LaCanfora framed the McCarthy situation in the simplest possible terms:

“I’d be shocked if he kept his job should the Cowboys … lose on Sunday at home.”

Firing a coach who has a Super Bowl title on his résumé, a .627 record since coming to town, and a year remaining on his current contract might seem a wee bit drastic to those who feel just reaching the playoffs is enough. For the Cowboys faithful who have been clamoring for a return to championship glory for longer than most of the team’s current players have been alive, though, the wait has been long enough.

Same goes for 81-year-old owner Jerry Jones, writes LaCanfora:

“Jones believes he has a Super Bowl roster, again, while McCarthy’s past foibles winning big games and managing high-tension situations remain front of mind. He won the NFC East despite going just 2-2 down the stretch, due largely to [the Eagles’] epic collapse, and good luck finding a personnel executive or coach around the league who doesn’t believe that if Jones needed a head coach, he would do whatever it takes to hire defensive coordinator Dan Quinn after Quinn pulled out of head coaching consideration elsewhere a year ago to stay in Dallas.”

Quinn, of course, is a popular name once again for the 2024 hiring cycle, with the Panthers, Commanders, Chargers, and Titans all having formally requested an interview with him for their open head coach positions.

And that list doesn’t even include the Seahawks job. Quinn was immediately seen by most as the obvious front-runner to take over for Pete Carroll, given Quinn’s rise to prominence in creating Seattle’ famed Legion of Boom defense over a decade ago.

But Jones was able to retain Quinn on-staff in Dallas the past two offeseasons, with plenty of observers interpreting it as a way to keep Quinn in-house… in the event of a housecleaning.

One NFL exec LaCanfora spoke with under the condition of anonymity agreed.

“Mike needs to win this game, and everybody on that staff knows it,” said the unnamed GM. “The next man up is already there.”

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Per league rules, Quinn would not be allowed to meet in-person with another club before the conclusion of the divisional round of the playoffs. But if LaCanfora and his sources are to be believed, things in Cowboys Nation may have already blown up by then.

Even if the Cowboys handle their business as favorites over Green Bay in the wild-card round, McCarthy’s job status will be a rinse-and-repeat hypothetical question a week later. And then again if they advance to the conference championship; don’t think getting mopped by San Francisco in the NFC title game would be seen as any sort of improvement by the decision-makers in the organization.

It’s win or go home for the Cowboys from here on out. And just maybe for their head coach, too.

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Cowboys fans shouldn’t be distracted by McCarthy contract headlines

From @ToddBrock24f7: Sunday morning brought whispers of a supposedly imminent extension for the head coach, but Jerry Jones is keeping his options open.

The Dallas Cowboys have one of the NFL’s best records through the first 14 weeks of the 2023 season.

Mike McCarthy is under contract with the team through 2024.

These are incontrovertible facts. Black and white. But things get myriad shades of gray in a hurry if you ask owner Jerry Jones to make any sort of proclamation beyond that.

Despite a Sunday-morning headline from NFL insider Ian Rapoport that almost makes it sound like Jones is working on a contract extension for the 60-year-old head coach and play-caller, the truth is there is no news whatsoever on that front.

According to Rapoport, Jones was asked at this week’s league meeting in Dallas “whether he envisions” an extension for McCarthy. Rapoport goes on to state, “The indication was yes.”

But was it really?

Look at what Jones actually said in response:

“That’ll have a course that seeks its own time frame.”

Read that again.

That is a big fat helping of typical Jerry Jones word salad. Ten words that come across as profound on the surface but say absolutely nothing of consequence, a sentence that borders on nonsensical rambling.

He was at least somewhat more definitive with his next utterance:

“I don’t do anything of that sort until the season is over.”

While the Cowboys are, in fact, in great shape heading into Week 15- near the top of most sets of power rankings and a favorite to do damage in the playoffs- they haven’t even matched their win total of last season… or the season before… and there was a not-insignificant faction of Cowboys Nation ready to run McCarthy out of town after both of those January exits.

If the team were to catastrophically collapse over the final four games, or get bounced out of the bracket on Wild Card Weekend, or get spanked in the divisional round, or get blown off the field in the NFC championship, the seat under McCarthy would no doubt- once again- get pretty toasty pretty quickly.

And Jones is a man who insists on keeping his options open.

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Add in the probability that defensive coordinator Dan Quin- (the obvious choice if McCarthy were to no longer be the guy- is eventually going to be offered a head coaching position somewhere he actually wants to go (and would likely take assistants with him), and Jones would be downright foolish to call any sort of a shot now.

A Super Bowl ring (or even, really, just an appearance in the big game) would almost certainly make a McCarthy extension a foregone conclusion, especially after the improvements he’s made to the offense’s production since taking over playcalling duties. As Rapoport rightly suggests, “in most other situations, McCarthy would be the subject of coach of the year talk.”

But despite how casually tossing out a headline about McCarthy and an imminent contract extension makes for a great tease on the Sunday pre-game shows, it’s simply too early for the front office to actually make that kind of decision about McCarthy’s future, despite the way things look right this minute.

And that’s what Jones’s non-answer really means.

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‘These are going to be juggernauts’: McCarthy gears up to take Cowboys’ show on the road

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys are treating this December stretch of quality opponents as playoff prep; their next task is to beat a good team on the road.

“Every season I’ve been a part of, there’s a path, and the path is always under construction.”

That’s what Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters at The Star on Monday when asked about the difficult stretch of games the team is in, facing five dangerous teams in a row, all of whom are battling for a playoff berth.

Dallas has navigated the first two-fifths of that treacherous piece of road with skill, starting with a hard-fought win over Seattle and then getting the engine firing on all cylinders with a 20-point blowout of Philadelphia to claim a share of the NFC East lead.

But this next chunk of path isn’t just under construction, it’s also going to traverse unfamiliar territory in unfriendly weather.

Unfriendly, yes. But at least not downright nasty.

When the Cowboys visit Orchard Park this Sunday, there shouldn’t be any snow on the ground, and temperatures are expected to reach a high of 47 degrees.

The game will be a punishing affair nonetheless, with the home team literally fighting for their postseason lives. At 7-6, the Bills have not lived up to expectations this season. They are currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, holding the 11th seed in the AFC. But if they can win out, they’re in.

So the postseason basically starts now for Buffalo.

McCarthy has his Cowboys- who are almost assuredly in the dance but have not yet clinched- in a similar mindset.

“It’s always important in December. There’s confidence that comes in these games, and I’m looking forward to the competition of it,” he explained.

Dallas answered a lot of questions about strength of schedule and quality of opponents in Week 14, dismissing the two-loss Eagles by a wide margin. But the high-powered Bills, Dolphins, and Lions are lying in wait around the next three bends.

Call it an ideal three-week test-run for the gauntlet that is the NFL postseason.

“To play in these kind of games, I think, is great preparation for playoff football, because these are going to be juggernauts,” McCarthy shared. “I think this is what you need as part of that opportunity to win and grow.”

The next area of growth for the 2023 Cowboys is beating a top-tier opponent in their building. All three Dallas losses this year have come on the road. And the three away games they won? Those came against squads that are today a combined 11-28.

Beating a team like Buffalo- at their house, in December- would be an important step toward what’s likely to be required in January.

“Your team has to be able to be built to go win anywhere,” McCarthy noted, “and that’s the reality of this league.”

The Cowboys certainly hope what they did Sunday night in front of their own crowd is a show they can take on the road the next two weeks. The offense ran 74 plays and held the ball for over 36 minutes, racking up nearly 400 yards and putting up points on seven of their nine drives. The defense held Jalen Hurts & Co. out of the end zone all night and notched three takeaways (four if you count a turnover on downs), all on their own side of midfield. Special teams contributed, too, with rookie kicker Brandon Aubrey booting four field goals, all from 45 yards or beyond.

“Complementary football is how you win,” McCarthy raved. “[With] complementary football, you win anywhere. You can win in a parking lot, on the road, at home. That’s the vision. That’s why I talk about it. That’s why it’s so important.”

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The Cowboys certainly did it at home on Sunday night with their fifth consecutive victory, leading to a confidence level in the facility that the coach says is palpable.

“It’s definitely high, and it should be. Is it the highest of the year? Probably so,” he said, even while admitting that the buzz would be quickly tempered by the next task on the team’s to-do list.

“I think we all had great moments with our family and friends. But it was midnight, 1 o’clock in the morning. The reality is, you wake up in Buffalo [preparation]. Buffalo’s an uncommon opponent. There’s a lot of new faces on tape, even for me personally- players that I’ve never competed against.”

So while this weekend’s road trip will take the Cowboys to an out-of-the-way destination where they’ll experience some inhospitable weather and an even colder reception from the locals, their coach isn’t yet looking ahead to the next stop in their travels.

“We need to beat Buffalo,” McCarthy stated plainly. “And then we’re standing here with 11 wins, and then we’ll look around, and I think it’ll be a little more clear what needs to be done.”

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Mike McCarthy back home, working remotely to prep Cowboys for massive Eagles rematch

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 60-year-old coach plans to handle all his normal duties this Sunday night after undergoing an emergency appendectomy Wednesday.

Mike McCarthy is back at home after an emergency appendectomy on Wednesday. And while the Cowboys head coach isn’t fully up and around quite yet, just 24 hours after the procedure, he is still planning on manning the sideline Sunday night when his team takes the field against the division-leading Eagles.

“Full steam ahead,” said offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer on Thursday at the pre-practice press conference normally handled by McCarthy. Schottenheimer confirmed that McCarthy has already gotten back to work, doing what he can remotely on refining the Philadelphia game plans that were put in place earlier in the week and with an eye toward resuming normal playcalling duties for the Week 14 clash.

“We don’t anticipate anything different,” Schottenheimer explained. “Again, he’s involved in all the things. We’ll have a long conversation again this afternoon. He’s watching the practices and yeah, full steam ahead.”

McCarthy, 60, wasted no time in reconnecting with his staff after Wednesday’s surgery; Schottenheimer told reporters that he and McCarthy spoke by phone Wednesday night and again multiple times on Thursday, with the coach giving notes on the week’s game prep.

“He’s been very involved. He’s in good spirits,” Schottenheimer said. “It’s always good when he has a lot of suggestions when you talk to him on the phone: ‘Well, what do you think of this?’ That’s when I know he’s feeling good.”

McCarthy was not feeling so good Wednesday morning. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said that he saw McCarthy at the facility early and that his boss “just didn’t look good” while complaining of abdominal pain. After consulting with the team’s medical staff, McCarthy went to a hospital for further evaluation, where a diagnosis of acute appendicitis was given.

The players didn’t even find out what was happening until McCarthy wasn’t at the team’s midweek walkthrough; Quinn and special teams coordinator John Fassel led the day’s practice on next to no notice.

“There wasn’t much warning. It was like, ‘Here you go. You’ve got it.’ [Practice] was already scripted,” Fassel said, per the team website. “We just followed along with the plan that was already in motion, and we’ve got good bodies that can pick it up and keep it going.”

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The Cowboys staff quickly fell back on lessons learned during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, when any player, coach, or staffer was just a nasal swab away from being sent home.

“You always have to have a contingency plan. Mike’s great about that; he does,” Quinn explained. “I think we all learned a lot a few years back in COVID: when a coach is down or a player is down, how does that go? He’s done a fantastic job of mapping- not just him or me or anybody else- who could then in that same spot say, ‘Hey, this is the next step and this is how we go.’ So we’re super organized and ready for that.”

Adjustments were made on the fly, and the business of football has continued in Frisco. The Cowboys don’t seem to have missed a beat in prepping for the biggest game of the year, even without their recuperating head coach. And all indications are they won’t be missing McCarthy, either, when kickoff finally rolls around.

Joked Quinn: “Do you think that tough Irishman is going to miss this game?”

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Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy to have appendix surgery, plans to coach vs Eagles Sunday night

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 60-year-old coach experience abdominal pain Wednesday morning, but is expected to be released from the hospital later in the day.

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is set to have appendix surgery on Wednesday, according to the team, but he still plans to be on the sideline Sunday night when the Cowboys host the division-leading Eagles.

McCarthy, who just turned 60 last month, reportedly experienced abdominal pains Wednesday morning “that warranted further evaluation and resulted in a diagnosis of acute appendicitis,” the Cowboys said via a statement.

The coach is expected to be released later in the day; coordinators Brian Schottenheimer, Dan Quinn, and John Fassel will run team practices until McCarthy returns. Additionally, Quinn will handle Wednesday’s regularly-scheduled press conference; Schottenheimer will do Thursday’s.

The typical recovery time from an appendix surgery is only a few days, provided the appendix has not burst. If the appendix has burst, recovery time can be longer.

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McCarthy reportedly intends to be back on the job in time for an NFC East showdown that could see the 9-3 Cowboys move into a first-place tie with a win over the 10-2 Eagles.

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‘Really ridiculous’: Jerry Jones attempts to shut down talk of replacing Prescott, McCarthy

From @ToddBrock24f7: Despite a 42-10 blowout loss and loads of doubt around the fanbase, the Cowboys owner is unwilling to consider a change at QB or playcaller.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones saw the same disastrous performance in Santa Clara that the team’s fans did, but he has a very different take from most on what to do about it moving forward.

Dak Prescott’s 14-of-24 passing numbers and his one-touchdown-to-three-interceptions ratio, in a game that the entire organization had built up as a monumentally important measuring stick within the NFC, have renewed longstanding doubts about the quarterback’s viability. And despite posting blowout wins in two-thirds of their outings, the offense under head coach Mike McCarthy’s play-calling has yet to really find itself.

It’s led many within Cowboys Nation to wonder out loud- just five weeks into the season- if it’s time to blow it all up and make a radical change, either in the starting lineup or on the coaching staff… or both.

Jones doesn’t see it that way.

“Do we have the ability to do this? I think that’s the question every fan should be asking,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan’s Shan and RJ. “Do we have the players? Do we have the healthy players that can get this done? Do we have the players that can do the protections and the blocks? The answer is: we do.”

On paper anyway, he seems to be right. At least most Cowboys thought so as recently as a few weeks ago. Having utterly dismantled the Giants and Jets in back-to-back contests to start the season by a combined 70-10 score, Dallas was sitting at or very near the top of most power rankings, a true front-runner for the conference crown.

Their no-show of a showing versus San Francisco erased that talk. Even the eternal optimist Jones was able to say as much.

“When something tells you what it is, don’t try to dream that it’s something else. What I’m trying to say is: we can do better than what we did out there Sunday night. That’s a given. We can do better, we have the potential to do better. We have the preparation to do better. We didn’t do it at all,” he admitted, “Sunday night.”

But with Dallas’s Super Bowl drought having now surpassed 10,000 days, Jones says he is convinced the organization is as close as ever to finally getting back there with Prescott at the helm.

“Let me be very affirmative: I completely believe that we have the quarterback that can take us where we want to go,” the billionaire said.

“Dak Prescott is a quarterback that can get us to the Super Bowl. That’s the way that’s going to be. We have other quarterbacks on that roster, and players that certainly [are capable] if something should happen to Dak. But I want to be real clear: Dak is very capable of making this team be where we want it to go.”

Over the course of his 20-minute weekly call-in, Jones also gave a definitive vote of confidence to the coaching staff as a whole, pointing out that the team is just five games into McCarthy’s new tenure as the offense’s play-caller.

“We’re just getting started,” Jones reminded. “We did view this game as a game that would tell us where we are, and nobody likes where we are.”

The Cowboys are averaging 327 offensive yards per game, a mediocre 17th in the league. They do rank 6th in total points, but four of Dallas’s 13 total touchdowns- or 30 percent- have come from the defense and special teams. Of the offense’s 52 possessions thus far, only 19 have penetrated the red zone… and just seven have resulted in six points.

They never reached the red zone at all at Levi’s Stadium in their 42-10 loss, but Jones doesn’t believe the sky is falling.

“We should recognize that we had a very bad outing, and San Francisco had a very good outing,” he said. “We should recognize that and call it what it is and not mislead ourselves. But as far as sitting here and saying we should completely change out the towels here, that’s not even in the cards. And it’s really ridiculous.”

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The Cowboys will look to get themselves back on track against the 2-2 Los Angeles Chargers, who are coming off a bye week and putting up top-ten numbers in yards per game and points per game under Kellen Moore, the offensive coordinator who Dallas parted ways with in order to hand the reins to McCarthy.

What once looked like a game the Cowboys should win handily now feels like one they absolutely must win- and arguably, with authority- even if for purely psychological reasons. If they go into their own bye week swimming in the doubts and bad juju that are swirling now, keeping their heads above water the rest of the way could prove very difficult.

The Cowboys, clearly, are not the team everyone thought they were.

The question now, though, as Jones himself put it repeatedly on Tuesday: are they capable of becoming that team?

Jones says yes, but he, like the rest of us, are still waiting to see it.

“Sure, we all had aspirations of going through this thing and being dominant, really being dominant,” he concluded. “But the facts are that every game for us is going to be a challenge.”

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Risk vs rust debate will wage until Cowboys actually win Week 1

The Cowboys have fallen under scrutiny for not playing starters in the preseason – it’s a criticism that won’t stop until they win Week 1. | From @ReidDHanson

In a move that sparked controversy, both locally and nationally, the Cowboys have decided to rest virtually all of their starters throughout preseason action. At a time when most other NFL teams are trying to find a rhythm with live action reps, Dallas has preferred to err on the side of caution and employ the bubble-wrap method.

After seeing promising young linebacker, DeMarvion Overshown, tear his ACL in Seattle, everyone has been reminded what’s at stake. Losing a player for the season in a meaningless game unquestionably stings. Then again, so does starting the season flat and beginning the year in the loss column.

The Cowboys haven’t had the best track record on opening week as of late. In each of the last three seasons they’ve started with a loss. In each instance they appeared out of sync on at least one side of the ball.

It stands to reason more preseason action could have prevented those issues.

Determining the risk is not worth the reward, Mike McCarthy has put his faith in his practices, banking on his own controlled environment to get his starters game ready.

Entering Year 4 in Dallas, McCarthy has a certain comfort level with his veterans. Even with the slight changes being made to the offense in the post-Kellen Moore era, he trusts his players to be ready to hit the ground running.

“Where are you at as a team?”  asked McCarthy rhetorically. “What are you trying to get done? Do you have a veteran group you believe in? This is Year 3 for a lot of our group.”

From a roster turnover perspective, the Cowboys have been a fairly stable club entering 2023. They had a couple departures but overall were able to retain or upgrade everywhere they wanted to. McCarthy’s Texas Coast offense will be different, but it’s not the degree of change teams with coaching changes typically undertake over an offseason.

Granted, it’s hard to argue with the results: 0-3 in Week 1 over the last three seasons under McCarthy. Those Cowboys teams proved to be pretty solid ballclubs too, even going to the playoffs twice.

But so were the opponents Dallas lost to in those three seasons.

In 2020, Dallas lost to the Rams. The Rams went to the Divisional Round that season. In 2021, Dallas lost to the Buccaneers 31-29. Tampa Bay went on to the Divisional Round that season as well. In 2022, Dallas again lost to the Buccaneers, this time 19-3. Tampa Bay eventually lost to the Cowboys in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

The reality is Dallas just played against some really good football teams in Week 1s over the past three seasons. A case can be made a few more preseason reps wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Until the Cowboys come out firing and win in Week 1, their preseason strategy will continue to be questioned. They pulled a tough draw again on the schedule in 2023, playing Sunday night on the road against the division rival Giants.

New York most recently advanced to the Divisional Round of the playoffs so they come into the game with some skins on the wall. The Cowboys can’t afford to come out flat against a playoff team and expect to walk away with a win.

Rust vs Risk. It’s a debate all over the NFL but a particularly heated one in Dallas. No one should expect it to change until the Cowboys find a way to win one.

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The truth about Dak Prescott’s training camp and his consistency

Prescott’s throwing interceptions all over the place? That’s not what the training camp tallies say, and his head coach applauds his QB. | From @KDDrummondNFL

There’s been a lot of air time spent and ink spilled over the supposed issues quarterback Dak Prescott has had over the course of the 2023 preseason. Prescott had a big uptick in interceptions last season, including the last time folks saw him in competitive action against the San Francisco 49ers in the Cowboys’ final game of the 2022 playoffs. Prescott tossed two interceptions, one his fault, and had another interceptible pass while the offense struggled to do much of anything.

Adding onto his 15 interceptions in 12 games with a lackluster group of targets, the narrative picked up when national media did what they do. Talking Dallas warrants attention and talking bad about the Cowboys brings monumental ratings. So when Prescott tossed a couple interceptions early in training camp, it was easy for the vultures who can’t draw an audience without being sensationalistic seized on the opportunity to throw dirt. But the reality is, Prescott had a great camp and the folks that matter in the organization love having him.