Jerry Jones was bold enough to submarine the chance at a special 2024; withholding resources and causing unnecessary drama. He made it very clear that the results through the first four years were not worth investing in, without more evidence, and the evidence has not been presented.
The mission, at least how it was perceived by everyone with a set of eyeballs and synapses that fire, was to prove true playoff success was achievable. After three straight 12-win seasons and no real postseason advancement, Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy faced an ultimatum.
Win, or get out of town. McCarthy had not won, suffering an embarrassing home defeat in the wild-card round after the fourth season of his five-year contract. Lame duck coaches can sometimes have success, but it’s normally a losing gambit. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones thought that he was lighting a fire under the entire coaching staff, and his roster, by using a philosophy from Ice Cube’s classic comedy Friday. “Make it enough”.
Fop sounds like Smokey’s Mom on Friday right now 😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/bE083uxZqE
— AW. (@austinw_93) June 17, 2021
Smokey was handed $3 and given instructions to head to the corner store and bring his mom back a pack of cigarettes. That’s pretty much what Jones did when he declared the team was “all in.” They weren’t going to the Talent ATM to re-up with impact free agents. They weren’t going to tell everyone their jobs were secure. No, they were pushing all of their chips into the middle of the table and waiting to see the turn and river cards.
Things did not go well, as Dallas expectedly flopped out of the gate and their season, despite still mathematically alive entering Week 16, has been over since October. And now, their elimination is official before they even take the field in said Week 16.
Yet somehow, it appears after making an ultimatum that was not realized, the Jones family is considering bringing McCarthy back. At least that’s how people around the league are feeling.
And if true, it makes absolutely no sense in the context of the past year.
For anyone with a grasp on basic tenets of psychology, the Cowboys rough start to the season was a direct result of the choices that were made in January.
Jones could’ve fired McCarthy back then, but didn’t. Instead he said “prove that you can win in the playoffs.”
McCarthy is not going to get the chance to prove it. That shouldn’t result in a new contract, no matter the affection that Prescott and Micah Parsons and potentially others have for their general.
It would be a dereliction of duty to award an extension without McCarthy doing the one thing he was tasked with; making it enough.
McCarthy admitted the club has been nervous in their playoff games; getting his team to play to their capabilities in the clutch is the most important assignment of a head coach.
It doesn’t matter that the team didn’t give up on him in a lost season; that doesn’t trump the playoff nerves that he has exuded upon his troops.
Jones made everything about 2024 far more difficult than he needed to; that’s on him. But he needs to remain committed to that stance at this point. In the immortal words of Slim Charles on the final season of The Wire: Once you in it, you in it. If it’s a lie, then we fight on that lie.
Slim Charles The Wire to Avon: “If it’s a lie then we fight on that lie but we gotta fight” pic.twitter.com/2llBfOklcT
— find a reaction (@findareaction) July 5, 2021
McCarthy was given a defensive coordinator on a one-year deal in Mike Zimmer. The team’s two big offensive stars, QB Dak Prescott and WR CeeDee Lamb weren’t given extensions in the spring and went through the offseason preparing to hit free agency in 2025.
McCarthy was hired because he had a successful resume in Green Bay, hoisting the Lombardi Trophy high above his head in Jerry Jones’ house with the billionaire owner looking down on the festivities. Though many will say those Packers underachieved by having the game’s best quarterback and never returning to the throne, McCarthy was still highly regarded for his time.
He was given two clear edicts upon his hiring.
Turn Dallas into a consistent winner and take them to a a Super Bowl for the first time since the mid 1990s.
After COVID upended the universe including the NFL, McCarthy’s season of culture change was interrupted five games in when Dak Prescott fell to a gruesome leg injury five games into the season. Dallas struggled to a 6-10 finish, but then established that consistency, winning 12 games over and over.
Mission One was accomplished, but Mission Two, the far more important of the two, will go unfulfilled. Dallas will bookend those 12-win years with missing the playoffs and the idea of not knowing the upside of who could replace him is a ridiculous, cowardly stance.
His energy then was that it wasn’t enough. He needs to keep that same energy in moving the franchise forward.
It doesn’t need to get any more complex than that.