The questions will come, and they’ll keep coming. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy knows this. And in his first time talking with a room full of reporters since the end of his team’s season, it took just a matter of minutes for someone to bring up Sean Payton.
McCarthy did his best to put an end to the rumors and speculation that the former Saints coach and onetime Dallas assistant is in some kind of standby mode, just waiting for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to relieve McCarthy of his duties and and install Payton as the tenth head coach in franchise history.
“I’ll just say this about the narrative,” McCarthy said from the scouting combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday. “It’s a narrative I don’t want to be a part of. I don’t think anybody would want to be a part of it, on either side of the fence. In fairness to Sean, he’s being asked the questions, but nothing good comes out of that. But I think you do need to understand that I get to spend a lot of time with Jerry, both as the owner and as the GM, and our conversations- as we talk about the partnership between a head coach and the GM- those are conversations him and I have: the strength of the partnership, what’s in front of us, short-term plan, long-term plan, obviously, we’ve got some big decisions here to make with our roster, all those things. He addressed it, we laughed about it, I moved on.”
Jerry and Stephen Jones have both stated their confidence in McCarthy, despite some early ambiguity from Jerry that seemed to paint a whole lot of gray area over the head coaching situation.
Stephen was asked about McCarthy’s status Monday as the 2022 combine got underway.
“Unfortunately, when you’re a coach or a quarterback or a player for the Cowboys, you’re going to get a lot of attention, and it’s not all going to be positive,” the team’s chief operating officer said. “I mean, Jerry and I know that better than anybody. You’re going to have people who are going to be your critics, people who are going to step up and have question marks. But we feel good about Mike.”
Jones continued by casting the 2021 season, seen as a disappointment by most everyone both inside and outside the organization, in a more positive light. “What did we go, 12-5? Most people consider that a success. That’s not around here, because we want to win a championship. I think his track record speaks for itself. He’s won a Super Bowl. He’s been to championship games. I love the way his leadership style is. He’s got a great pulse for our football team, and [I] just feel like he’s the right guy for us.”
After improving from 6-10 in his first season to 12-5 in the follow-up campaign, McCarthy echoed that sentiment Tuesday by pledging to focus on what’s important to him moving forward, instead of indulging rumors about his job security or coaching like he’s a lame duck.
“I don’t see it as any type of topic or anything that gets in the way of winning,” McCarthy said.
But that doesn’t mean the specter of Sean Payton won’t be resurrected at every bump in the Cowboys’ upcoming road.
[listicle id=694412]
[listicle id=694407]
[listicle id=694405]
[lawrence-newsletter]