Tag: Mike McCarthy

McCarthy sends Jerry Jones strong message with this defiant Week 11 decision

Jones has left McCarthy out to dry, so it’s no wonder the sole Week 11 “DNP-Coaches Decision” went the way it did. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys are not a good football team. Their 2024 season is over, and has been for several weeks. Entering Week 11, they had less than a three percent chance of making the playoffs, and after losing to the Houston Texans, 34-10, that now sits at less than one percent. With no healthy pass rushers the majority of the season, one healthy corner the majority of the season, an offensive line in disarray and now no franchise quarterback, the season is a wash.

The problem is, the coaching staff isn’t going to be around next year, so they have no real vested interest in making decisions that benefit the franchise in the long run. That was evident in the fact that head coach Mike McCarthy had Cooper Rush throwing the ball 55 times last night, while Trey Lance sat on the bench getting zero snaps.

The Cowboys’ offense was on the field for 83 snaps. Lance was literally the only active Cowboys player not to see the field on Monday night. 47 of 48 players all saw at least three snaps and 46 of them at least seven.

After the game, McCarthy paid lip service to the “mistake”, saying that’s the one thing he’d second guess himself on.

“I think the one thing I should have done at the end, and I just didn’t do, was put Trey in there. I could’ve gotten him a series. That’s one thing that I would second-guess myself on,” McCarthy said. “I 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’ve gave him that series, and I regret not doing that.” – via ProFootballTalk

Really?

McCarthy wants fans to believe he simply couldn’t figure out how to send Lance onto the field on any of the Cowboys’ final five drives? No. This was a message to owner and GM Jerry Jones that he gets what he asked for in the way the front office approached this season.

The Texans took a 17-point lead with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Dallas offense took 38 snaps from that point forward, and a lifelong coach simply couldn’t figure out that Lance should see the field?

Sorry, not buying it. There’s not much McCarthy can do to show defiance against the machine that will put him out to pasture come January, if not sooner.

Not playing Lance in Week 11 was absolutely one of them.

McCarthy sends Jerry Jones strong message with this defiant Week 11 decision

Jones has left McCarthy out to dry, so it’s no wonder the sole Week 11 “DNP-Coaches Decision” went the way it did. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys are not a good football team. Their 2024 season is over, and has been for several weeks. Entering Week 11, they had less than a three percent chance of making the playoffs, and after losing to the Houston Texans, 34-10, that now sits at less than one percent. With no healthy pass rushers the majority of the season, one healthy corner the majority of the season, an offensive line in disarray and now no franchise quarterback, the season is a wash.

The problem is, the coaching staff isn’t going to be around next year, so they have no real vested interest in making decisions that benefit the franchise in the long run. That was evident in the fact that head coach Mike McCarthy had Cooper Rush throwing the ball 55 times last night, while Trey Lance sat on the bench getting zero snaps.

The Cowboys’ offense was on the field for 83 snaps. Lance was literally the only active Cowboys player not to see the field on Monday night. 47 of 48 players all saw at least three snaps and 46 of them at least seven.

After the game, McCarthy paid lip service to the “mistake”, saying that’s the one thing he’d second guess himself on.

“I think the one thing I should have done at the end, and I just didn’t do, was put Trey in there. I could’ve gotten him a series. That’s one thing that I would second-guess myself on,” McCarthy said. “I 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’ve gave him that series, and I regret not doing that.” – via ProFootballTalk

Really?

McCarthy wants fans to believe he simply couldn’t figure out how to send Lance onto the field on any of the Cowboys’ final five drives? No. This was a message to owner and GM Jerry Jones that he gets what he asked for in the way the front office approached this season.

The Texans took a 17-point lead with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Dallas offense took 38 snaps from that point forward, and a lifelong coach simply couldn’t figure out that Lance should see the field?

Sorry, not buying it. There’s not much McCarthy can do to show defiance against the machine that will put him out to pasture come January, if not sooner.

Not playing Lance in Week 11 was absolutely one of them.

Cowboys take 64-yard field goal off board, wind up with nothing

The adage of never take points off the scoreboard bit Dallas coach Mike McCarthy

Brandon Aubrey made up for hitting the upright with a 40-yard field goal in the first half by kicking a 64-yard field goal in the third quarter of the Dallas Cowboys’ game with the Houston Texans at AT& Stadium on Monday.

Mike McCarthy decided to take the field goal off the board because Derek Barnett was called for a 15-yard head slap personal foul.

Jerry Jones probably wants to head-slap his coach after the drive wound up with nothing. A fourth-and-two pass went awry and Dallas headed to the fourth quarter down 20-10.

It has been that kind of season at AT&T Stadium.

Cowboys predicted as potential landing spot for $25 million coaching hire in 2025

The Dallas Cowboys have had an interesting coaching dynamic ever since Jerry Jones bought them from Bum Bright over three decades ago. Jones brought his University of Arkansas buddy, Miami Hurricanes head coach Jimmy Johnson with him in 1989 and …

The Dallas Cowboys have had an interesting coaching dynamic ever since Jerry Jones bought them from Bum Bright over three decades ago. Jones brought his University of Arkansas buddy, Miami Hurricanes head coach Jimmy Johnson with him in 1989 and together they laid the foundation for a dynasty.

After the relationship declined, another Arkansas friend, Barry Switzer took over and won the third of four Lombardi’s in four seasons. Following that success, though, it’s been an interesting swing between inexperienced or well-regarded champions. For every Chan Gailey there’s been a Bill Parcells, for every Dave Campo there’s been a Mike McCarthy. None of them have been able to recapture the magic formula from the early 1990s.

Of course the common denominator is that each coach has had to work with Jones as their GM, but seeing how that’s not going to change, what will he look for in his next coach after McCarthy’s tenure ends in January (or sooner)?

That could be a head coach with more success than every one of the others combined. Bill Belichick is starting to refloat his interest in returning to the sidelines in 2025, and Dallas is predicted to be one of the spots where he could land.

Belichick, 72, has spent this year working in the media, most notably for ESPN’s College Gameday and CW Network’s Inside the NFL. When last in the NFL with the New England Patriots, his salary was believed to be the highest among NFL head coaches, $25 million. He earned it, winning seven titles with the Patriots over a two-decade run.

Comparatively, McCarthy is believed to be making around $5 million to coach the Cowboys.

It’s Week 11, and Cowboys’ McCarthy just named his lead RB

From @ToddBrock24f7: Rico Dowdle has quietly surpassed two RBs with 7 Pro Bowl nods between them to land in the top-20 in a couple key rushing stats.

The Cowboys’ rushing attack has been a debilitating weakness all season, with the team ranking 31st out of 32 teams in rushing attempts per game, rushing yards per game, and rushing yards per carry with the season now more than half over.

The team’s running-back-by-committee approach has been the primary contributing factor in the eyes of most observers. The Cowboys split carries among Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle to start the season, finally called up Dalvin Cook only to have him turn in very pedestrian numbers, and they feed Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke so sparingly it’s easy to forget they’re still on the team.

Of the five, only the fullback Luepke has taken offensive snaps in every game of the 2024 campaign, with the Dallas coaching staff unwilling to further commit to any of their other backfield options.

Except, maybe, now.

When asked Thursday about Dowdle, head coach Mike McCarthy- in Week 11 but for the first time this season- said out loud what most of Cowboys Nation has been thinking for months.

“He’s the lead back,” McCarthy said during a pre-practice press conference, “I thought he had a really good first half [versus Philadelphia], and I think that’s really illustrated by the attempts. Rico needs to touch the ball.”

Dowdle’s 10 carries for 50 yards in the first and second quarters of Sunday’s 34-6 loss to the Eagles represented his busiest and most productive first half of the season. And while the game getting away from the Cowboys in the third stanza slowed down the 26-year-old’s stats, Dowdle has quietly managed to climb his way up the rankings of several key categories among the league’s rushers.

At an average of 4.5 yards per carry, Dowdle currently stands 19th across the NFL, ahead of flashier names like Joe Mixon, Alvin Kamara, David Montgomery, Najee Harris, Breece Hall, and even ex-Cowboy Tony Pollard.

Filter running backs by success rate, and it gets even better. That metric calculates how often a ballcarrier gains at least 40% of the yards required on first down, 60% on second down, and 100% on third or fourth down.

Dowdle’s success rate of 55.4% puts him 10th in the league. That kind of clip makes his limited usage- just 83 rushing attempts (36th place) and only 374 rushing yards (35th place)- seem like outright negligence on the part of the Dallas coaching staff.

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Many have blamed that reluctance to let Rico run on some assumed mandate from the front office to lean on Elliott, the two-time rushing rushing champ, fan favorite, and prodigal son who returned to the team in 2024 after an obvious decline led to his release in early 2023. Elliott is having a career-worst season production-wise and has reportedly been enough of a distraction that he was made inactive and left in Dallas for a Week 9 away game.

Cook was signed late in the preseason but stashed on the practice squad until Week 8. While the hope was that Cook would be some sort of savior by providing fresh legs midway through the schedule, his performance has only emphasized why the Cowboys should have made a bid during free agency for Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, or the aforementioned Mixon (all top-10 rushers currently).

Vaughn simply doesn’t look like a legitimate NFL running back (and that’s not a cheap shot at his height), and Luepke was never meant to be a volume rusher.

Dowdle is the lead back in Dallas… but not only because the team has no other choice (save for the practice squad’s Malik Davis, who hasn’t logged a carry since the finale of the 2022 regular season). Though he’s had to claw for every snap and even stand by during an unexpected inactive declaration in San Francisco due to a mystery illness, Dowdle, the undrafted free agent out of South Carolina, now leads the Cowboys- and by a lot- in rushing attempts and rushing yards. And he’s top-five on the team in receptions and receiving yards, too.

It’s shaping up to be a lost season for the Cowboys, but with eight games still left to play, it’s become clear that Rico Dowdle will be one of the keys to whatever glimmers of success the team is able to eke out.

And now, it seems, that’s finally clear enough for McCarthy to say out loud.

“Got to get him the ball,” the coach said Thursday. “That’s my focus, just continue to give him opportunities.”

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Former Panthers WR set to make his Cowboys debut in Week 11

WR Jonathan Mingo, who was traded by the Panthers last week, is expected to make his Cowboys debut on Monday night.

A former Carolina Panthers wideout is about to hit the reset button on his NFL career.

Jonathan Mingo, now a member of the Dallas Cowboys, is expected to make his team debut this Monday night against the Houston Texans. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed the news about the second-year receiver on Thursday afternoon.

The Panthers selected Mingo with the 39th overall pick of the 2023 NFL draft. He’d go on to appear in 24 games with Carolina, amassing just 539 yards and no touchdowns on 55 receptions.

Mingo was traded to Dallas last Tuesday, just a few hours before the league trade deadline.

Panthers president of football operations and general manager Dan Morgan explained the deal a day later.

“Great player, still a developing player,” Morgan said of Mingo. “Thought it was a good deal between us and Dallas. They get a young player that they can grow and develop and we get a draft pick we’re happy with. So, I think it was a win-win for both sides.”

Morgan and the Panthers received a 2025 fourth-round pick for Mingo and a 2025 seventh-round pick.

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Former Panthers WR set to make his Cowboys debut in Week 12

WR Jonathan Mingo, who was traded by the Panthers last week, is expected to make his Cowboys debut on Monday night.

A former Carolina Panthers wideout is about to hit the reset button on his NFL career.

Jonathan Mingo, now a member of the Dallas Cowboys, is expected to make his team debut this Monday night against the Houston Texans. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed the news about the second-year receiver on Thursday afternoon.

The Panthers selected Mingo with the 39th overall pick of the 2023 NFL draft. He’d go on to appear in 24 games with Carolina, amassing just 539 yards and no touchdowns on 55 receptions.

Mingo was traded to Dallas last Tuesday, just a few hours before the league trade deadline.

Panthers president of football operations and general manager Dan Morgan explained the deal a day later.

“Great player, still a developing player,” Morgan said of Mingo. “Thought it was a good deal between us and Dallas. They get a young player that they can grow and develop and we get a draft pick we’re happy with. So, I think it was a win-win for both sides.”

Morgan and the Panthers received a 2025 fourth-round pick for Mingo and a 2025 seventh-round pick.

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Cowboys fans get glimpse of another potential Mike McCarthy replacement in Week 11

The Cowboys face potential head coaching candidate Bobby Slowik in Week 11 when they take on the Houston Texans. | From @ReidDHanson

All indications are the Cowboys will be looking for new head coach this winter when Mike McCarthy’s contract runs out. Armed with draft picks, available spending cash, and a desire for change, Dallas will be an attractive place for a head coach looking to make an instant impact.

Bobby Slowik, the Texans’ prized offensive coordinator, is likely on his way out of Houston this winter. The Shanahan-like play caller has seen his stock rise to meteoric levels over the past season and a half and is now one of the hottest names on head coaching market in 2025.

Slowik is a play designer who creates deception by using a series of similar looking personnel groups and alignments. He’s a run truther but he backs it up by designing run-friendly plays and using run-friendly wrinkles. He’s taken a fledging Houston offense and built it up to sky-high levels with an inexperienced QB.

Play action, motion at the snap and various post-snap options all put his offenses in position to succeed. It’s allowed his offenses to produce higher outputs as complete unit than the individual pieces would otherwise provide.

It’s these traits that make Slowik such an attractive option for Cowboys fans. Eager to turn the page on yet another disappointing chapter in Cowboys history, many fans look at Slowik as a true step in the right direction. He’s not only an offensive savant up to date on all the tips and tricks that drive defenses wild but he’s also someone with a fair degree of defensive coaching experience.

Unlike most head coaches, Slowik is a coach who adds considerable value with scheme on one side of the ball and also has work experience on the other side of the ball. As if that wasn’t enough, Slowik worked for three years at Pro Football Focus, understanding analytics in a way very few NFL coaches can. Slowik is the complete package, and the Cowboys may be able to hire him this winter.

For anyone interested in getting a glimpse at the trending head coach candidate they needn’t look much further than Monday. In Week 11 the Cowboys take on the Texans and get a great firsthand look at someone who could be the next head coach of the Cowboys. Not since Week 6 against the Lions and Ben Johnson did Dallas get such a privilege. If Slowik can show half as much as Johnson did, fans are in for a real treat, so to speak.

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Cowboys head coach surprisingly low on Hot Seat scale for remainder of 2024

Mike McCarthy may not be on as hot of a seat as many feel he should be. Here’s why Jerry Jones may not pull the trigger.

The Dallas Cowboys are down, and fading fast. Sitting with a 3-6 record, they haven’t quite reached a projected top-10 draft selection, but they are much closer to the No. 1 overall selection than they are to making the playoffs. The man at the center of it all is head coach Mike McCarthy, who appears to be on his last legs as a playcaller.

McCarthy took over the duties from Kellen Moore, who himself is on his second OC job since leaving Dallas, but has the Eagles at 7-2 and in first place with a rejuvenated rushing attack centered around Saquon Barkley. Meanwhile the Cowboys’ offense has fallen flat this season. And now with Dak Prescott out for the year, it doesn’t appear to have any semblance of picking up.

That will likely mean the end of McCarthy’s tenure in Dallas, but one outlet doesn’t think he’s in danger of facing the same fate as Robert Saleh (NY Jets) or Dennis Allen (Saints). Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report ranks McCarthy’s chances of being let go in season as a lowly 2 out of 10.

The 3-6 Cowboys are falling apart. The defense stinks, players are publicly criticizing their head coach, and quarterback Dak Prescott appears headed for season-ending hamstring surgery. A significant rebuild is incoming, and McCarthy won’t be a part of it.

However, the Cowboys may not fire their head coach because they don’t have to. McCarthy is in the final year of his contract, which Dallas can simply choose not to renew. Franchise owner Jerry Jones probably won’t pull the plug on McCarthy before the offseason.

The only time Jones has fired a coach in-season came in 2010, when he replaced Wade Phillips with Jason Garrett. He’s stated publicly that he won’t repeat that decision in 2024.

Realistically, Jones will only deviate from his plan if a coach who isn’t currently employed by another team decides he wants to get an early start on the 2025 season—and, yes, we’re thinking of Bill Belichick, probably as much as Jones is.

Hot Seat Level: 2, until McCarthy’s contract expires, then he’s gone

Related: 20 candidates to replace Mike McCarthy as Cowboys head coach

Micah Parsons ripped Mike McCarthy during blistering rant about failing veteran players

Micah Parsons’ rant might have been about veteran players, but he totally ripped Mike McCarthy during it.

In case you missed it, the Cowboys are cooked, and now players are unintentionally — perhaps intentionally — throwing head coach Mike McCarthy under the bus.

Anything that could go wrong for America’s team seemingly has this season. The Cowboys are a mess from week to week, Dak Prescott’s on injured reserve, and when he’s not making weird trades, owner Jerry Jones is making nonsensical arguments about the sun at AT&T Stadium.

After an ugly loss to the Eagles, linebacker Micah Parsons was asked about Mike McCarthy’s future, as those questions will inevitably start if they haven’t already. Parsons attempted to express his disappointment about how the team is failing its veterans but ripped McCarthy during a blistering rant. Here’s what he said (See the 4:24 mark of the video below):

“You know that’s above my paygrade on if Mike is coaching again next year…Mike can leave and go wherever he wants but [the] guys I kind of feel bad for — guys like Zack Martin. Guys who might be in their last year on their way out, you know, because that’s who I wanted to hold the trophy for.”

“You want to win games and do great things with those type of legends who put in more time and work [than] Mike McCarthy ever did. So, those are the kind of guys that I have so much sympathy and hurt for.”

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