Tag: Mike McCarthy

Cowboys 2025 head coach search should focus on future rather than the past

Mike McCarthy’s resume isn’t what the Cowboys should focus on when picking a head coach in 2025

Ever since the Cowboys’ postseason implosion to Green Bay last January the head coach position in Dallas has been a topic for debate. Mike McCarthy, entering the last year on his deal, had been a disappointing presence since taking the helm in 2020.

Hired to push a highly talented roster over the top, the Cowboys managed just one playoff win under McCarthy. While the Cowboys did manage three consecutive 12-win seasons under McCarthy’s leadership, each campaign ended in embarrassing playoff upsets where Dallas barely looked competitive. All this made McCarthy’s return in 2024 surprising and his departure in 2025 almost imminent.

Yet amidst the current 5-8 season where the Cowboys have all but been eliminated from playoff contention, there’s been talk of McCarthy possibly returning. Players have voiced their support, media analysts have discussed the validity, and even Cowboys legend Troy Aikman has said he expects “Mike McCarthy to be back in 2025.”

“Short of Bill Belichick, I don’t know who you’re going to bring in that has a better resume, “Aikman said via The Athletic. “I just feel that for a team that I really do not think is that far away…I sense that it’s a team that really believes in Mike McCarthy. I feel the locker room wants him back. I think he’s a really good football coach. I believe Jerry Jones thinks he’s a really good coach too.”

If Aikman wanted to light a spark in the Dallas fanbase, then mission accomplished, because that statement hit the fanbase like a tanker truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant.

Aikman’s take on McCarthy’s likeability is, by all indications, indisputable. McCarthy is a players’ coach rather than a disciplinarian. He’s familiar and he’s friendly. It explains the on-field mistakes and it explains the love from the players. He also stays in his own lane, which the front office certainly appreciates.

Aikman’s take on his resume is also indisputable. McCarthy ranks 14th in all-time wins (although John Harbaugh and Sean Payton may pass him this season) and he has a Super Bowl to his name. Looking at the list of expected coaching candidates this winter, no one but Belichick can touch McCarthy’s resume. Most of the upcoming head coach pool consists of up-and-comers and schematic innovators, not old guys with illustrious resumes.

The problem is Aikman’s looking at the young up-and-coming candidates as a negative and the various veteran retreads as a positive. It’s an odd take in a day and age where innovation is treated like gold and strategy is often all that separates the winners from the losers.

Work experience and past success has value but only when that success also projects to the future. A major criticism of the Cowboys under McCarthy has been the simplicity of their offense. As one of the more transparent attacks, McCarthy’s offense has been resistant to the many tricks of the trade that newer coordinators have embraced.

To conclude McCarthy is good today just because he was good in the past (which is what the resume reference implies) is a dangerous step to take. An up-and-comer replacement may carry more risk, he may be not as well liked by players, and he may step on the toes of the front office more often, but that might be what the Cowboys need to take that next step.

McCarthy coming back might be a possibility, but not under the logic that he’s the best man for the job. Best resume?

Yes.

But best forecast for the future?

No way.

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Cowboys’ number savant invited to NFL accelerator program for front offices

Cowboys Director of Analytics John Park to attend NFL’s accelerator program for diverse candidates. | From @ArmyChiefW3

The NFL is holding its annual front office accelerator program for diverse candidates and the Cowboys have no choice but to allow other clubs to mingle with their Director of Strategic Football Operations savant John Park.

The three-day meeting held in Irving, Texas allows the 34 candidates with the potential of becoming a general manager anytime within the next three years, to talk with former GMs about their experiences.

After a few years to adjust, the candidates will now be given 30 minutes in private rooms to speak with current front office members. Assistant GMs, scouts, plus two members of the league office will also be in attendance.

Dallas hired John Park as Director of Strategic Football Operations after holding the same position with Indianapolis since 2016.

Park holds a Master’s in Actuarial Science, which compiles and analyzes statistics to calculate insurance risks and premiums. After five years in that profession, he jumped to the NFL where he has fast-tracked his way through the football ranks.

Park was viewed as a big loss for Indianapolis and could be as equally damaging if he were to leave Dallas for the reigns of another NFL franchise.

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy talked at length about analytics before he took the job in Dallas and Park’s hiring was a monumental shift in strategy.

Tom Robinson, the Cowboys former Director of Football Research, had been with the team since 2010 and took over the director’s role in 2014 before leaving to make room for Park.

After not making a move for almost a decade, Dallas could be searching for a new analytical mind if Park continues his rapid NFL ascension. With the spotlight now on him, chances are the Cowboys will be skimming the market soon.

Two Reasons: Cowboys only have selves to blame for disappointing 2024

The Dallas Cowboys haven’t met expectations in 2024, and the team only has themselves to blame for their issues. | From @cdpiglet

Coming off of their third 12-5 season in a row and a second seed in the playoffs, the Dallas Cowboys have fallen far from contention in 2024. That began well before the loss of starting quarterback Dak Prescott to a season-ending injury. If the team is upset by these results, it has only itself to blame.

The issues began with inactivity. The decision not to extend Prescott or star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb earlier in the offseason instead of right before September  was a two-fold error. Not only did it put them behind on the field, as it caused Lamb to miss training camp, but those extensions would’ve freed up cap space for Dallas to sign free agents to replace the nine players who signed elsewhere.

The only outside free agent the Cowboys signed before training camp began was Eric Kendricks, who was a direct replacement for a cut/retired player, Leighton Vander Esch.

That doesn’t negate the poor performance of the head coach and play-caller, Mike McCarthy.

Only recently did he make Rico Dowdle the primary running back, instead choosing a committee approach instead of featuring one of the top 10 running backs (success rate) on the season. In games Dowdle had at least 20 touches the Cowboys are 3-0, but only 2-6 in games when he gets under 20. After rushing 20 times for 87 yards against the Steelers’ top-three rush defense, Dowdle should’ve been the clear top back on the team.

McCarthy instead fed Ezekiel Elliott as the back with the most attempts the next game.

Beyond that, McCarthy hasn’t done a good job opening up the offense, failing to get the team’s playmakers the ball in spots where they can make plays. Speedster Kavontae Turpin has never had more than four receptions in a game all season and had more than five targets only once.

Against the Houston Texans, Turpin caught all three of his targets for 86 yards and a touchdown but had only one target the next game. In their last contest, the team targeted Turpin four straight plays on the opening drive and had him wide open on a slot corner route Cooper Rush missed in the end zone. Fans will have to wait and see if there were any lessons learned.

Dallas was due to regress, but the drop didn’t have to be this drastic if the front office and head coach had done their jobs more effectively. Now, they are trying to make a surge towards an unlikely playoff berth while many fans are already doing 2025 mock drafts, but the projections could’ve been much more positive if the people in charge had done their jobs earlier.

You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or YouTube on the Across the Cowboys Podcast.

Jerry Jones might give Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy a contract extension because he’s deeply unserious

This is loser behavior.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones might consider extending head coach Mike McCarthy‘s contract. Yes, that’s a serious statement.

If you’re a Cowboys fan, I suggest you look away now because reading this might infuriate you. All Eagles, Commanders and Giants fans, prepare to have a good laugh because what is about to be shared is profoundly unserious behavior. On Tuesday, while speaking on a local radio station, Jerry Jones revealed that giving Mike McCarthy an extension is not something out of the realm of possibility.

“I don’t think that’s crazy at all,” Jones said. “That’s not crazy. Mike McCarthy’s one outstanding coach…This is a Super Bowl-winning coach. Mike McCarthy has been there and done that. He has great ideas…We got a lot of football left.” Sure, Jerry. Let us know how that works out. It’s fine. It’s not like McCarthy isn’t 1-3 in the playoffs with the Cowboys, and his last Super Bowl wasn’t 14 years ago. HOW ‘BOUT DEM COWBOYS.

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Jerry Jones won’t rule out extending Mike McCarthy as Cowboys coach

Jerry Jones with some praise for coach Mike McCarthy

Maybe it is just the spirit of Thanksgiving. Or the afterglow of the upset win over the Washington Commanders.

On his weekly radio show appearance, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was in a good mood about his head coach Mike McCarthy.

“I don’t think that’s crazy at all. That’s not crazy,” Jones said. “Listen, Mike McCarthy is an outstanding coach … Mike McCarthy has been there, done that. He’s got great ideas. So the bottom line is in no place in my body language or anything else have you seen an indication about what we’re going to be doing relative to this staff at the end of this year. And we shouldn’t. We’ve got a lot of football left.”

Prior to this season, the Cowboys coach had three consecutive 12-win seasons. Injuries and the usual chaos around Dallas saw the team fall to 3-7 before the win at Washington.

“I just think the game is too important. The win is too important,” Jones said. “You look at a coach and, boy, a coach is sitting there, don’t think they don’t add up their wins and losses during their career and they don’t like to have a loss on there if they can just ask for it. And so my point is, for all of us, a win is a very satisfying thing under any circumstance and it helps you build.

“And so there’s a lot of ambiguity with those draft picks. As you know, I’ve had draft picks that were extraordinarily high that didn’t work. I’ve had them low that knocked it out of the park. And so you’ve got to weigh what happens when you get the picks and the odds of you knocking one out of the park there as well, as opposed to winning a game.”

Jerry Jones claims he isn’t ruling out an extension for Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy

Never one to waste an opportunity to be in the headlines, the Cowboys owner spoke words about McCarthy’s future not being set in stone. | From @ArmyChiefW3

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones took to the airwaves Tuesday for his weekly radio interview on 105.3 The Fan. His mood was obviously more upbeat than it has been over the last month and a half as Dallas was able to snap their five-game losing streak that wrapped around their bye week, with a 34-26 victory over rival Washington.

Among the several topics discussed was the future of Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy. It’s widely assumed McCarthy, who is on the last year of his five-year contract, is a dead man walking; finishing out the contract before a new coach is recruited and the direction of the organization changes once again. But the mercurial owner certainly knows how to keep a story alive as he hinted that McCarthy could see an extension this coming offseason.

McCarthy resumed his coaching career in Dallas after being fired by the Packers, winning six games during the pandemic and dealt with injuries to many players including quarterback Dak Prescott. He entered the 2024 season with three straight 12-win seasons, but has failed to get past the divisional round of the playoffs in any of those campaigns.

This year, McCarthy’s offense has sputtered and any questions about him giving up play-calling were met with a swift and stout rebuttal.

Despite the down year, any thoughts of landing a top-10 draft pick by tanking the remainder of the season will have to wait as the owner still has hopes of making the playoffs.

Despite employing numerous All-Pro players along the offensive line during his tenure, the Cowboys run game has gradually fizzled and all the pressure was placed on quarterback Dak Prescott; similar to how McCarthy’s 13-year tenure in Green Bay with future Hall of Fame QB Aaron Rodgers ended.

A renewed run game along with more modern philosophies on both sides of the ball are theories a new coach could bring to Dallas in order to replace the short passing game meant to supplement the run in McCarthy’s Texas version of his West Coast offense.

While McCarthy will do everything he can to retain his current job, Cowboys fans may not be ready to endure another season of the Pittsburgh native and appear ready to move on to a more modern approach.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy wants these 2 Commanders to have a terrible game Sunday

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy hopes these two Commanders struggle on Sunday.

The Washington Commanders (7-4) host the Dallas Cowboys (3-7) in a battle of NFC East rivals heading in opposite directions.

The game features a reunion of sorts for several Commanders going up against their former team. Washington head coach Dan Quinn is in his first year as Washington’s head after three seasons as the Cowboys defensive coordinator.

Quinn didn’t come to Washington alone. Former Cowboys Dante Fowler Jr., Dorance Armstrong, Tyler Biadasz, and Noah Brown are playing pivotal roles in the Commanders’ remarkable turnaround.

As the Cowboys prepared for Sunday’s game against Washington, head coach Mike McCarthy spoke about some of his former players.

“Those guys went with an opportunity that they felt they needed to do,” McCarthy said on Wednesday via Garrett Podell of CBS Sports.

“Everybody’s situation is different. I’m proud of those guys. They’re playing very well. Dante’s off the charts. DA is so damn consistent in the way he’s played. The video I’ve seen of him, I’ve been very impressed. That’s how this game works. The financial component, it changes your team every year. That’s why this is always such a challenge. It changes the dynamic.”

McCarthy then joked that he hoped Armstrong and Fowler were terrible on Sunday.

“I’m happy that they got a great opportunity, and I hope they play like s–t Sunday.”

McCarthy was clearly having fun. He coached Armstrong for four seasons and Fowler for two. McCarthy didn’t mention Biadasz and Brown; he was more specifically discussing Washington’s defense.

Fowler is having a career renaissance with the Commanders, leading the team with 8.5 sacks, while Armstrong has stabilized the defensive end position. Fowler is on pace to set a new career-high in sacks.

Mike McCarthy not using this elite weapon more is unjustifiable Cowboys crime

KaVontae Turpin has proven once again he needs a bigger role on the Cowboys offense. | From @ReidDHanson

For almost three years, return specialist KaVontae Turpin has made the Cowboys return game one of the most feared in the NFL. The former USFL MVP demanded respect from the start in Dallas, earning Pro Bowl honors as a rookie and seeing an ever-expanding role on offense along the way.

While Turpin’s workload on Mike McCarthy’s offense has seen year-to-year growth, it’s still a generally niche role. Through 11 weeks in 2024, Turpin has just five rushing attempts and 31 targets downfield. He’s on pace for a career season on offense but it’s considerably less than what many in the media and fan circles envisioned for the former TCU receiver.

Turpin has largely been stuck in a supportive and gadget role over the years. Despite the blatant need for speed and playmaking ability on offense, McCarthy has struggled to get Turpin involved. The 28-year-old hasn’t made things easy for his coach, dropping some key passes and running some undisciplined routes, but one can argue it’s not Turpin’s job to fit McCarthy’s roles but rather McCarthy’s job to find the right roles for Turpin.

Such a statement may sound like semantics or even blame shifting but the reality is Turpin is just 5-foot-9, 153-pounds soaking wet and stretched out. He’s not the plug-and-play WR McCarthy has been trying to make him be.

For the better part of the season Turpin’s results on the field have been fairly underwhelming. Until, of course, he was used in a way that leaned on his strengths over the past week. Turpin’s ability to be a gamebreaker was on full display against Houston when he took a routine slant route to the house for 64 yards. He showed off his ability to separate, create in space and take a short pass the distance in the blink of an eye.

According to Seth Walder at ESPN, Turpin’s slant route for six points was just the second slant Turpin has run all season. It’s an inexcusable situation from an offensive coach who naturally leans on slant routes to a near preposterous degree.

Rather than using Turpin on pick routes, screens and slants, the Cowboys have been running their diminutive dynamo downfield where his size and experience are understandably exposed. Over the past 2+ seasons in Dallas, Turpin has been misused and underutilized to an unforgivable degree.

An argument could be made his actual number of touches is near maxed out given his build and that McCarthy was simply preserving him as a return man. But with speed and game breaking ability such as Turpin’s, he doesn’t even need the ball in his hands to be impactful. Motioning him behind the line at the snap and dragging him shallow across the formation after the snap is a great way to spread defenses horizontally, opening space on passing routes and widening rushing lanes on runs.

It’s also worth pointing out no one has any idea where that usage rate maxes out at since it’s yet to be found. Turpin has played in 43 of a possible 44 regular season games since coming to Dallas. He’s been extremely durable even in the high impact life of a return man.

A restricted free agent in 2025, Turpin may be somewhere else in the near future. There stands a very real chance his best years as an offensive weapon are ahead of him if his next coach is more willing to feature him in ways that play to his strength.

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Jerry Jones sings high praise for potential Cowboys head coaching candidate

The Cowboys owner gave credit to the man who has reinvented his reputation after a failed HC gig, and will likely be considered come January. | From @ArmyChiefW3

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy may not survive the season, but even if he isn’t fired, his contract runs out shortly after the season’s conclusion. Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson sits atop the wish list of many NFL franchises, and is a popular name amongst fans and media on social media.

There’s been no word on if Dallas would be interested in his services but on his weekly radio interview with 105.3 The Fan, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones praised this week’s opponent’s opponent’s contender for head coaching gigs, Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury.

Related: Week 12 Mike McCarthy Replacement Rankings

Jones’ comments didn’t end there.

Kingsbury, the former Cardinals head coach, was fired in Arizona after going 28-37-1 in four seasons. After taking some time, he landed in Southern California coaching quarterback, and the eventual 2024  No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams at USC.

Kingsbury, a San Antonio native, began his coaching career in Houston. He was selected in the sixth round by Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots back in the 2003 NFL draft.

Kingsbury would eventually become the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M University before taking the head coaching job at Texas Tech University.

A return to Texas to coach the Cowboys may be atop his wish list and Dallas fans will get a first hand look this weekend at what could be in the near future.

McCarthy: Cowboys players ‘better be frustrated’ after latest loss; ‘We deserve to win’

From @ToddBrock24f7: The coach used the word 9 times after the 34-10 loss, but remains committed to playing whoever gives the team the best chance to win.

This Cowboys Tuesday is presented by the letter F.

Fans were undoubtedly throwing the letter around liberally as they watched their team get mauled again on Monday night. Fifth loss in a row. Fouls. Flags. Fumbles. Fourth-down failures. A foolish fake punt.

There was no shortage of opportunities for plenty of F-words in the 34-10 loss, but head coach Mike McCarthy kept coming back to a different one in his postgame press conference.

“It’s very frustrating. It’s frustrating for everybody. Frustrating for the players, frustrating for the coaches, I know it’s disappointing for the fans,” McCarthy told reporters late Monday night from the podium at AT&T Stadium.

He used the word frustrating (or some derivative) nine times in a ten-minute Q&A session.

“Hell, they’d better be frustrated,” he said of his players. “I mean, we’re all frustrated. I think there would be something wrong if they weren’t frustrated.”

Well, something is definitely wrong, even with the rampant frustration. Yet the coach struggled to pinpoint exactly why this team keeps losing so badly.

“We’re not playing well enough or executing well enough, coaching well enough to overcome some of the mistakes we’re making at critical times in the game.”

Like going 0-for-4 on fourth down conversion attempts. Like committing nine penalties (not to mention having four defensive players flagged for personal fouls on the same snap). Like getting into the red zone just once and not having a single snap in goal-to-go. Like fumbling twice on the same play and helplessly watching it turn into a scoop-and-score for the opponent.

Like taking Brandon Aubrey’s field goal off the scoreboard and then coming away empty after a slapstick series of plays that turned the ball over on downs inside the Houston 10.

Like that ill-advised fake punt in the Cowboys’ own end and on the offense’s first possession, the second such debacle in three weeks, and one which McCarthy described as “a poor call by us.”

Like asking the backup quarterback coming off a historically bad performance to attempt the most passes in his career and the most throws by any Cowboys quarterback in a game in over three years.

“I would have liked to have been a lot more balanced, run to pass,” McCarthy explained. “I don’t want to throw the ball 40 times.”

Except it was 55 (56 if you count Bryan Anger’s four-yard lob… in a situation that needed nine).

But despite all the mistakes, miscues, and missed plays, McCarthy says he won’t be doing anything radically different as the team prepares for two more games in the next 10 days.

“We’ve just got to stay after it,” the coach said. “I’m disappointed, I’m frustrated for our guys because I know how much they put into this. We’ve just got to keep banging away.”

Don’t expect much to change during this short week of practices, because McCarthy says practices aren’t the issue.

“Our problem isn’t effort during the week; I haven’t seen that. We’re just not making critical plays.”

Don’t look for some massive overhaul of the roster, either. Despite a record that currently has the team staring at a top-10 draft pick, McCarthy has no interest in giving up on his starters in favor of simply getting younger guys game reps.

“We’re playing the best players to win the game,” he said.

“I have every reason to believe that we can get better. We have to be cleaner. The discipline and the details; you’re tired of hearing about it, but I’ve just got to keep pushing it and making them focus on it. And I do believe we’ll come out on the other side.

“We’ve got to win. We deserve to win. We deserve the opportunity to win, and that’s about putting the best people out there, and right now they’re young. Our young guys are getting a lot of experience, but we need to do whatever the hell we need to do to win.”

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By that logic, then, McCarthy should be at least open to the idea of making a change. Many Cowboys fans are ready to move on from backup quarterback Cooper Rush and get third-stringer Trey Lance a lot more involved.

Even McCarthy himself admitted he should have done so Monday night.

“I think the one thing I should have done at the end, and I didn’t do it, was put Trey in there. I could have gotten him a series. That’s one thing I would second-guess myself on,” he told media members… though whether that was an oversight or a message to ownership is up for debate.

“I really just didn’t want to get into putting him in for a play or two, because he’s more than a gadget player, in my opinion. We had him prepared to take a series, and frankly, there at the end, I should have given him that series. I regret not doing that.”

Add that to the long list of frustrations to come out of the Monday meltdown. But come Tuesday, McCarthy will be back at work, looking to turn it around the only way he knows how: by leaning on the coaches and players around him to keep putting in the work and trusting that the process will lead to something positive.

“Just trust the people in the room, the people that are doing the work. I do, I believe in this locker room,” McCarthy explained.

“There is good coming out of this. You don’t see it because we’re not winning games, but there’s young men that are getting an opportunity to do more, and I do believe that will pay it forward. It needs to hurry the hell up, because we need it in six days.”

Forward. Another F-word. And right now, for a very frustrated Cowboys team desperate to distance themselves from some of the losing squads of the franchise’s past they’re being lumped in with, it may be the only one that offers any hope.

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