Mike McCarthy is moving quickly to round out his new coaching staff in Dallas. And he’s drawing from a pool of familiar faces to do it. According to ESPN’s Todd Archer, McCarthy will tap two former assistants from his Green Bay tenure for key roles with the Cowboys for the 2020 season.
Jeff Blasko is expected to serve as an assistant under new offensive line coach Joe Philbin, and Scott McCurley looks to have a position awaiting him coaching the Dallas linebackers. Both have experience with McCarthy after being a part of his staff with the Packers at the end of his tenure.
Scott McCurley and Jeff Blasko are reuniting with Mike McCarthy with the Dallas Cowboys after working on his staff in Green Bay, according to sources. McCurley is expected to have a role with the linebackers, while Blasko will serve as the assistant… https://t.co/qtB6ZYQUKk
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) January 13, 2020
McCurley was a member of McCarthy’s original staff in Green Bay, joining the team as an intern in 2006. He was let go by the club last January, a month after McCarthy had been fired.
During his time there, McCurley filled several jobs on the defensive side of the ball, from defensive quality control coach to assistant linebackers coach to defensive assistant. Among other achievements, McCurley helped Packers linebacker Clay Matthews transition from outside to inside linebacker in 2015; Matthews received a Pro Bowl nod in his first year in the middle.
McCurley will help with a Cowboys linebacking unit that currently features Pro Bowlers Jaylon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, and Sean Lee. But there are question marks McCurley will need to address: Lee’s future with the team is undecided, Vander Esch missed the final five games of 2019 with a troublesome neck injury, and Jaylon Smith was widely criticized for a down year in his first season as a captain with a mega-contract.
Blasko spent the 2019 season as the assistant offensive line coach in Cleveland after spending three years with McCarthy in Green Bay. Originally hired by the Packers in 2016 as a coaching administrator, he was promoted to assistant O-line coach, where he helped tackle David Bakhtiari earn All-Pro honors three straight years.
Before that, Blasko spent eight years on college coaching staffs: at Akron, Florida, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. In Dallas, he’ll inherit a line that boasts three 2020 Pro Bowlers in Zack Martin, Travis Frederick, and Tyron Smith.
McCarthy has shown loyalty to his former staffers and a noted affinity for blue-collar guys from his hometown of Pittsburgh. Blasko hails from Bessemer, about an hour north of the Steel City, and went to Pitt for college, where he played linebacker for the Panthers. McCurley is also a Pittsburgh native.