For scores of Cowboys fans hungry for success beyond the regular season, head coach Mike McCarthy is the problem. And the front office hasn’t done much to dispel that notion, letting the 60-year-old and his entire coaching staff head into the 2024 regular season on the final year of their contracts.
Even after three straight 12-win campaigns, it’s do-or-die time for McCarthy in Dallas. According to the reading of some tea leaves, the succession plan is already in place, whether it’s current defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, the curiously-unemployed Bill Belichick, or some back-pocket candidate to be named later.
But maybe cutting McCarthy loose- even if the Cowboys don’t make it to Super Bowl LVIII- shouldn’t be the knee-jerk reaction. Head coaches who are on the league’s all-time top-20 winningest list don’t come along every day.
That’s exactly where McCarthy ranks right now… and he looks to climb a few historic rungs this season.
McCarthy currently stands at 167 regular-season victories. That’s 17th place among all NFL coaches ever, but it shouldn’t take him long to surpass a handful of hallowed names this fall.
With just four more wins, McCarthy will overtake Mike Shanahan, Tom Coughlin, and Pete Carroll for sole possession of 14th place. That could happen as early as Sept. 26, with the Cowboys’ Thursday night matchup against the Giants (who were once coached by Coughlin).
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Six wins would move McCarthy past the legendary Bill Parcells, who got his final 34 wins with the Cowboys from 2003 to 2006. That would make McCarthy the franchise’s second-winningest coach in total victories.
Seven wins gets McCarthy to 174 and pushes him pass Jeff Fisher. There’s a very good chance that will happen before Thanksgiving and be good enough for sole possession of 12th place. (Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin is also tied with Fisher for the moment but will have 11th place all to himself with the Steelers’ first win of 2024.)
| Rk | Coach | W | L | T | Pct. |
| 1 | Don Shula | 328 | 156 | 6 | .677 |
| 2 | George Halas | 318 | 148 | 31 | .682 |
| 3 | Bill Belichick | 302 | 165 | 0 | .647 |
| 4 | Andy Reid | 258 | 144 | 1 | .641 |
| 5 | Tom Landry | 250 | 162 | 6 | .607 |
| 6 | Curly Lambeau | 226 | 132 | 22 | .631 |
| 7 | Marty Schottenheimer | 200 | 126 | 1 | .613 |
| 8 | Chuck Noll | 193 | 148 | 1 | .566 |
| 9 | Dan Reeves | 190 | 165 | 2 | .535 |
| 10 | Chuck Knox | 186 | 147 | 1 | .558 |
| T11 | Jeff Fisher | 173 | 165 | 1 | .512 |
| T11 | Mike Tomlin | 173 | 100 | 2 | .633 |
| 13 | Bill Parcells | 172 | 130 | 1 | .569 |
| T14 | Pete Carroll | 170 | 120 | 1 | .586 |
| T14 | Tom Coughlin | 170 | 150 | 0 | .531 |
| T14 | Mike Shanahan | 170 | 138 | 0 | .552 |
| 17 | Mike McCarthy | 167 | 102 | 2 | .620 |
| 18 | Paul Brown | 166 | 100 | 6 | .624 |
| 19 | Mike Holmgren | 161 | 111 | 0 | .592 |
| T20 | John Harbaugh | 160 | 99 | 0 | .618 |
| T20 | Sean Payton | 160 | 98 | 0 | .620 |
McCarthy passed Bud Grant, Mike Holmgren, and Paul Brown during the 2023 season and is entering very rarefied air for head coaches.
In all likelihood, the Cowboys will win more than seven games in 2024, and McCarthy will find himself on the doorstep of the all-time top 10 in NFL coaching wins.
Strange to think that it still may not be enough to save his job.
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