Tag: Mike McCarthy

Parsons makes waves with remarks interpreted as shot at McCarthy’s Cowboys future

From @ToddBrock24f7: Parsons had some harsh words when asked about his head coach’s future with the team, but his answer was more about his veteran teammates.

Though there have been more lopsided final scores through the years, the Cowboys’ humiliating 34-6 loss on Sunday ranks as one of the most thorough and demoralizing defeats in the franchise’s history.

Emotions within Cowboys Nation are raw. The same goes for inside the locker room, too, where coaches and players can expect another difficult week of doom-and-gloom queries about the current state of the team amid a 3-6 season that shows no sign whatsoever of improving.

The more outspoken members of the organization will no doubt have things to say, and in a year when so much has not gone as planned, many of the comments and remarks to come out of Dallas over the coming days and weeks will also land in ways that no one saw coming.

Micah Parsons has already kicked off the headline-making soundbite frenzy with his reply to a question about his head coach’s future with the team.

Longtime Cowboys writer Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports asked the edge rusher about the feeling inside the locker room regarding whether Mike McCarthy- on the final year of his contract- will return to the role in 2025.

“That’s above my pay grade about if Mike is coaching again next year,” Parsons prefaced. But what he went on to say next will stir up all kinds of chatter with the team’s media, fans, and outside observers.

“All coaching aside, Mike can leave and go wherever he wants, but guys I kind of feel bad for is guys like Zack Martin and guys who might be on their last year, on their way out, because that’s who I want to go 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. Those are the kind of guys that I have so much sympathy and hurt for.”

There are two primary ways the outspoken 25-year-old’s comments are being interpreted by a fanbase helplessly watching their season roll off the edge of a cliff in dramatic slow-motion.

Reading No. 1 focuses on the two times Parsons references his coach by name. This translation seems to almost assume that McCarthy will be somewhere else next season and that Parsons won’t lose much sleep over it, because he doesn’t feel the coach has put in the same kind of investment that Parsons and some of his his teammates have.

Reading No. 2 suggests that Parsons is really zeroing in on the team’s veteran players, like Martin. He views the wasted 2024 season as an unfortunate way to end either a long Cowboys stint or a star-studded pro career and feels like he and his younger teammates are letting down their mentors who deserve one last chance at a ring.

There’s truth to both interpretations.

The hot-take sports-talk shows will hammer home “McCarthy can leave” as a shouting point and turn Parsons’s reference to how little “time and work” the coach supposedly devoted into some sort of out-loud coded admission that McCarthy has lost the locker room.

But Parsons is correct on everything he said, even if the tone and context were unnecessarily harsh toward his head coach.

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The frustrating reality is that the window is closing for seasoned Cowboys players like Martin (or DeMarcus Lawrence or Dak Prescott or Ezekiel Elliott or Jourdan Lewis). And while there will be Pro Bowl honors and All-Pro nods and individual statistics and personal accolades to carry them into their post-gridiron lives, there may not be more than a smattering of playoff-game appearances, and no postseason success whatsoever past the divisional round.

Parsons can likely already see himself in their stories: great players sacrificing themselves daily but stuck on teams that could never get themselves collectively over the hump to true football glory.

Ten years of weight rooms and trainer’s tables; giving blood, sweat, and tears to the game. A decade of destroying their bodies in exchange for temporary hero status, and then it’s all over. Maybe the lucky select few get a radio or TV gig to give the token ex-player’s perspective.

For a coach, however, even if it ends disastrously, there’s usually a different-colored cap to put on and another clipboard to hold next season.

To a competitor like Parsons, that has to be beyond maddening. And when he’s asked about it in the moments after another embarrassing no-show by the entire roster, what’s going to come out won’t be the typical, politically-correct, boring, safe, vanilla, cliched answers to a reporter’s question.

But now, whether he meant to or not, Parsons has thrown McCarthy right out into traffic. Both will be asked about the comments this week. McCarthy will likely brush it off. Other Cowboys players will be asked about it, too. So will Jerry Jones.

Parsons has already clapped back, posting Monday on social media:

“Loll damn yeah ima just eat the fine for now on! Because the way yall twist words and flip them around for content is nasty work!”

He’ll no doubt have even more to say on the subject in this week’s episode of his podcast.

And a season already going up in flames will produce a new hotspot off to the side that will get everyone’s attention, at least until next Monday night’s meeting with Houston, when Parsons, McCarthy, and the Cowboys will get their next opportunity to alter the 2024 narrative before a nationwide primetime audience.

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Mike McCarthy slams screen to turf as Cowboys’ frustrations mount

Mike McCarthy was overcome by frustration

The Dallas Cowboys are having a season to forget.

They were making the Atlanta Falcons’ pass rush look fierce on Sunday. The Falcons had six sacks coming into the game and had two in three quarters.

Brian Anger almost threw an interception on a fake punt.

Dalvin Cook, who has been infrequently used, was the 12th player on the field before a fourth-and-one that became a fourth-and-six.

All that led to Mike McCarthy finally losing his cool on the sidelines.

Mike McCarthy furiously spiked his tablet after a brutal 4th-down play call failed against the Falcons

The Cowboys’ season summed up.

The Cowboys head into every season with lofty expectations because, well, they’re the Cowboys. And every season, they manage to come short of those expectations. We’re only nine weeks into the season, and frustrations are boiling over the Dallas sidelines.

After the Cowboys forced a turnover against the Falcons on a Kirk Cousins fumble, Dallas was determined to come away with six points on the drive. Yet, facing a fourth-and-one play against one of the weakest defensive fronts in the NFL, Mike McCarthy’s offense got too fancy at the wrong time.

The Cowboys called a jet sweep to CeeDee Lamb on fourth down, and the Falcons were all over it.

When the cameras panned over to McCarthy on the sidelines, he knew that play was a huge mistake. The team’s tablet just happened to take the brunt of the punishment.

Not many videos sum up the Cowboys’ 2024 better than that one.

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Here’s how Jerry Jones screwed future Cowboys teams by his approach

Mike McCarthy is coaching only for the season while the Cowboys must keep an eye towards the future Those two things aren’t aligned. | From @ReidDHanson

Jerry Jones created this situation. He’s the owner and general manager who decided to play the 2024 season with a lame-duck leadership structure. Bringing Mike McCarthy and his entire coaching staff back to play out the last year of their deals in 2024, he created a win-now environment that no longer served the best interests of the team long-term.

The Cowboys enter Week 9 standing at 3-4. They are in third place in the NFC East, 13th place in the NFC and, at 12 percent, statistical longshots to make the postseason. Winning a Super Bowl in 2024 is no longer the only goal for the team. Building for a better tomorrow has to also sit at the forefront of objectives list this season.

The only problem is the Cowboys coaching staff doesn’t care about tomorrow.

McCarthy and company are solely focused on the here and now. They’re only under contract for roughly the next 11 weeks. Beyond that is Jones’ problem. Funny thing about expiring deals is it can be as much a demotivator as much as a motivator. Playing only for 2024 means the coaching staff isn’t interested about anything beyond the season. They don’t inherently care about developing or experimenting if it means bumps along the way.

The idea of testing out players like Asim Richards or Juanyeh Thomas and right tackle and safety (respectively) doesn’t necessarily appeal to them even if both players could be long-term solutions in 2025 and beyond.

If given the opportunity to start they may prove they’re up to the job by season’s end. Such a test would position the Cowboys better for the offseason because, at the very least, they’d know what they had in the two players and could adjust their offseason task list accordingly. But since the Cowboys’ coaching staff is only playing for 2024, they aren’t interested in experiments with the unknown. They don’t want to endure growing pains for a better tomorrow. Their goals are no longer completely aligned with the franchise.

It’s a situation Jones created when he embarked on the season. It wouldn’t have come up if the Cowboys had been on pace for another 12-win campaign like they’ve had the last three seasons prior, but alas they are not. They are on track for a 6-11 season and a top 10 draft pick next April.

This isn’t to say McCarthy doesn’t have the best interests of the club in mind. It’s just he’s unmotivated to do so given the contract situation. This also isn’t to suggest McCarthy should have been extended last winter. It’s just to point out the problems with using a coaching staff on expiring contracts.

With goals no longer aligned, the Cowboys front office will either need to take a more active role in game day management or suffer the consequences of a coaching staff completely uninterested in the long-term health of the team. It’s an ugly situation but they all brought this on themselves.

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Prescott, Cowboys suffering this dubious feat for first time since 2019

The Dallas Cowboys haven’t struggled to put wins together this badly since the last lame-duck season. Message. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Dak Prescott has enjoyed a fair amount of success since taking over for the Dallas Cowboys as their quarterback in 2016. A fourth-round rookie who started his first offseason way down deep on the depth chart emerged as a franchise quarterback. Dallas had immediate success with Prescott, who has earned four Pro Bowl nominations and finished among the top MVP candidates two times in his eight-year career.

But Sunday night’s loss, a 30-24 defeat at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers, put Prescott in a position that hasn’t happened since 2019. With Prescott under center, the Cowboys have lost at least two consecutive games on two different occasions.

Dallas didn’t lose two consecutive games, at all, in 2022 nor in 2023. They lost two consecutive games once in 2021, and that included an Thanksgiving Day overtime defeat to the Las Vegas Raiders. In 2020, Prescott was lost for the season in Week 5, so the last two losing streaks of that year weren’t on him.

Things have to go all the way back to the 2019 season to see a Prescott-led team down this bad. There’s a parallel here, as well. 2019 was the lame-duck coaching year of Jason Garrett. Mike McCarthy and staff are under the same duress.

That season the Cowboys started off with three straight wins before losing three straight to drop back down to .500. They’d win three out of their next four before dropping four of their next five. Things never quite got right with that version of the ballclub and that feeling is familiar as Dallas works their way into the middle of the 2024 schedule.

Bill Belichick joining the Cowboys in 2025 feels inevitable right now

Bill Belichick joining the Cowboys in 2025 feels inevitable at this point.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sounds ready for change.

During a Tuesday interview with 105.3 The Fan, Jones admitted that the Cowboys are “not playing very good football right now” after their 3-3 start and recent 47-9 blowout loss to the Detroit Lions.

“Well, we’re designing bad plays, or we’re designing bad concepts,” Jones said on what Dallas should be looking at right now. “The facts are that there’s some of that, but there’s also some of execution. There’s some of the talent.

“I like our talent. I really do like our talent. I like our young talent, but young talent has a few more mistakes associated with it than if you are dealing with a veteran player.”

The comments about bad plays and bad concepts are going to suck up the oxygen, as will the fact that Jones made all these remarks while discussing why the team didn’t sign Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry in free agency.

However, it’s the comment about maximizing the team’s talent and limiting the mistakes of its young talent in particular that hint where Dallas might be going in 2025.

In what was purported to be a make-or-break year for coach Mike McCarthy, Dallas looks like one of the most mediocre teams in football. This is right after re-signing franchise pillars like quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to gigantic contracts, too.

The Cowboys sit at 29th in DVOA for their defense and 26th in offense. The team only has one good win this season against the Pittsburgh Steelers to match against two against the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants.

With a gauntlet schedule coming up (49ers, Falcons, Eagles, Texans, Commanders), it’s possible Dallas loses all five of those games if the team can’t play better than it has. A Cowboys team in free fall could inspire Jones to part ways with McCarthy midseason and signal he’s ready for new leadership. We all know who his first phone will probably be in January.

Jones just turned 82. He’s not the type of owner who can afford to tear the franchise down and build it back up again. Like he said, Dallas has talent. It has the pieces right now to at least make the playoffs. If Jones feels that his roster needs more discipline and his team needs an immediate jolt of proven coaching, he is going to hire Bill Belichick as his next coach.

Belichick has become a media darling this season, seemingly unbothered by even calling out the Patriots. However, everything points to him wanting to return to coaching in 2025. Belichick is chasing Don Shula’s all-time winning mark as a coach. Dallas hypothetically gives him as good a chance to do that as any other team that could make a coaching change.

Jones has said in the past that he thinks he could work with his “friend” Belichick, who recently empathized with the Jones family over how things are going in Dallas.

“Stephen and Jerry Jones have shelled out a lot of money to some very high profile players and have tried to give the team as many resources as they can to win and just haven’t had good results,” Belichick said on Sirius XM’s Let’s Go last week, per The Athletic‘s Jon Machota.

If you read between the lines on that particular quote, it sure sounds like a coach trying to butter up a franchise from afar for the team they’ve built. Remember what Jones said about talent. If you’re interviewing with the Cowboys in January about a possible vacancy, promising to utilize the talent available to you is one of the surest ways to get the job.

It’s really not hard to see Jones selling himself on a vision of Belichick riding in on a white horse to rescue his franchise from stagnation, to fix the defense himself and help guide the offense to more consistency. We’re sure Belichick brings Josh McDaniels with him, who was always one of the NFL’s better offensive coordinators with the New England Patriots.

Sure, Jones could always get lured into the direction of a hot-shot offensive coach like Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. But consider the risk there. Attractive coordinators like Johnson who make the leap to head coaching fail all the time just as often as they succeed. Being a head coach is tough, much less being one who has seven Super Bowls under his belt.

Jones being in his early eighties will play a role in what he does next, as Father Time waits for no NFL owner. Hiring Belichick carries its own risks, from if his old-school approach to leading a team has grown stale to how much control he’ll want over a roster the Jones family has prized in maintaining. However, the risk it doesn’t carry is Belichick’s record.

For Jones, that might be enough to make this happen this winter. McCarthy’s days in Dallas feel numbered barring a major turnaround. Jones is not going decorate his franchise with dynamite for a multi-year turnaround. He will want results as soon as possible, and Belichick will be the best coaching free agent for which to envision a quick turnaround and a Lombardi.

It’s not necessarily that Belichick will be the best candidate, but he will be the one that helps Jones sleep easier at night. Don’t underestimate an owner who is clearly tired of being the butt of the joke going out and getting the 21st century’s NFL model of consistency to save his franchise from tepid results.

This inevitable union just makes too much sense for both sides. Jones would get the coach he’s dreamed of, the one who has already followed in the footsteps of Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson.

Belichick would get a ready-made roster that he could bend to his will for those coveted all-time victories with full support from ownership the second he walks in the door.

Maybe it winds up with a Cowboys Super Bowl. Maybe it winds up a Texas-sized disaster. Either way, the big, neon arrows are pointing its direction.

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McCarthy: Cowboys coaches to focus on one basic thing to help solve team’s issues

From @ToddBrock24f7: There’s plenty for the Cowboys to work on after their week off, but the head coach keyed in on one thing he feels may help solve it all.

Mike McCarthy is ready to get back to work. Actually, he’s been at work through the bye week, as have all the Cowboys coaches, and now he’s ready to welcome the players back into the building to gear up for the 11-game stretch that will comprise the rest of the regular season.

The team traditionally uses the beginning of the post-bye work week for its “across-the-hall” meetings, where offensive positional groups hear from defensive coaches and vice versa, so that players can hone in on details that their opponents have scouted. And while that will happen again this year, McCarthy says there will be more emphasis on this Cowboys team preparing… as a team.

“We’re doing a little more group-oriented [work], because we feel like we needed to improve the connection and understanding because of our inexperience and youth in some of the areas,” the coach told reporters Monday morning. “More group, as a whole moving forward, we want to do more work there.”

At 3-3, the Cowboys have definitely felt like a splintered bunch. One week, the offense plays well but the defense is atrocious. Or special teams has to bail out the offense over and over due to penalties and red-zone stalls. Linebackers doing too much because of deficiencies on the defensive line. The quarterback having to play hero ball because there is no run game or because receivers can’t get open.

McCarthy suggests that more group work and a more prevalent team-first mindset could go a long way in helping solve all of those issues.

If the coach’s togetherness plan has the players closing ranks somewhat, that may also help them block out some of the noise that’s escalated to a fever pitch recently around Cowboys Nation. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on what’s wrong in Dallas, who’s at fault, and how to fix it.

Just last week, for example, franchise legend and current broadcast analyst Troy Aikman called out the team’s wide receivers– and CeeDee Lamb in particular- for route-running he called “lazy.”

McCarthy emphasized that it’s not just about any one position group.

“For me to address those comments? I don’t, because they don’t carry any weight with me.” McCarthy said in response when asked Monday. “I don’t agree with the word selection, but there is definitely need for improvement in every position.”

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Nearly everyone in the organization has been dragged under the bus recently, very loudly and publicly: the owner/GM who snapped at radio hosts during a live Q&A, a front office who didn’t go out and acquire much in the way of supplemental talent in the offseason, a lame-duck coaching staff that isn’t inspiring much confidence, superstar players not living up to their sky-high expectations or paychecks.

McCarthy chalked it all up to just a part of working for the Dallas Cowboys, no different from dealing with the daily weather at his previous stop.

“It’s all part of that external focus that, frankly, we need to move away from. Working here, the intensity of externals and potential distractions, is high. That’s part of our operation. Green Bay was cold,” he shrugged. “Everybody has something.”

There’s plenty of information to digest on exactly why the Cowboys have struggled through six games. Tons of measurables, tendencies, analytics, metrics, and stats to break down. And the coaching staff will certainly continue to pore through all of it.

But McCarthy also believes that above all, there needs to be a return to the good old fundamentals of getting everybody in the same room at the same time.

“We need to spend more time in group settings,” McCarthy continued. “We’ve got to get away from as many individual meetings; we need more group. Our connection between positions needs to be higher. You can talk about details and buzzword the hell out of these conversations, but the reality is if the connections between the positions doesn’t increase, then the unit production’s not going to be where want it to be.”

Fans haven’t seen much from the up-and-down Cowboys that would indicate they’ll end up where anyone wants them to be. So far in 2024, they’ve played like a team that’s destined to fall short, go home early, and await an inevitable blow-up.

But Super Bowl or bust, it seems they’ll all go there together.

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3 things Cowboys need to change during bye week to salvage 2024 season

The team doesn’t look to be adding any talent, so here are the ways they’ll be able to improve from within. | From @cdpiglet

The Dallas Cowboys are 3-3 and currently a single game behind the NFC East division leader Washington Commanders. Still, the team doesn’t feel competitive because it has only one quality victory; its three losses were all at home, and two weren’t even competitive contests. Owner and GM Jerry Jones has already said the team isn’t bringing in new players or making coaching changes, so they will need to get better this bye week with what they already have here, and they can make it happen.

Players returning from injury will make a difference. DaRon Bland is an All-Pro corner. His return will make an immediate impact. Micah Parsons could be back against the San Francisco 49ers, and having a top-tier pass rusher always helps. Rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton and rookie corner Caelen Carson should return as well, and their reps now should get them better for later in the year. Brandin Cooks and Marshawn Kneeland are a few weeks away, and Demarcus Lawrence will eventually return.

Still, the losses to the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens happened with almost all those players available, so the Cowboys must go beyond injuries to solve the issues they’ve had so far this season.

One of the key solutions is better play calling, a strategy that proved successful for them last year. The offense needs to incorporate more creativity, put the ball in the hands of their quarterback, Dak Prescott, and get it to their superstar receiver, CeeDee Lamb. Lamb had 32 receptions for 467 yards and two touchdowns at the bye last season, which happened to be the same break point as this season, Week 7.

He has 34 catches for 475 yards and two scores, nearly identical stats. However, Lamb’s performance skyrocketed after the bye, with 101 receptions for 1,274 yards and 10 touchdowns. This transformation for Lamb could be the key to the 2024 season. His improved play takes pressure off of the other weapons on the team, the run game, and the defense.

The other key to a Dallas turnaround is limiting self-inflicted mistakes. The team is tied for third-worst in turnover differential at -6. Prescott has to be more disciplined with the ball, especially in the red zone.

Penalties are another high priority; the Cowboys are in the bottom five with 47 penalties, including 11 false starts, which is also in the bottom five in the NFL. False starts are about self-discipline, which can be emphasized during the bye and throughout the rest of the season.

Cowboys open as 6-point home underdog, will likely lose to bye week

There’s a lot wrong with Dallas at the moment, and a few days off likely won’t fix things despite the chance at change. | From @KDDrummondNFL

If you’re supremely frustrated by the 2024 Dallas Cowboys, raise your hand. Wait, it would probably be easier to count whomever isn’t frustrated to raise theirs. Okay, thanks for self-identifying… all three of you. Security please escort these patrons out of the stadium. Oh, even they sold their tickets to Lions’ fans?

There’s no way a fan of the Cowboys isn’t upset or embarrassed by the product Jerry Jones has put on the field this season. Anyone looking, okay, anyone shielding the sun out of their eyes while looking at the performance of the team in AT&T Stadium cringes with shame at what has become of the best home team in the NFL over the last two seasons. The Dallas Cowboys are not fit for primetime, late-afternoon windows, and their worthiness to be put on live television at noon is under scrutiny. Is tape-delay sports viewing still a thing?

And it’s wild to say that about a team not currently in position for a top-10 draft pick, but that’s where things are for the 3-3 Cowboys.

So what can come about during the team’s bye week that will stem the misery?

The first thing that can be pointed to is there’s a chance reinforcements will be on the way. Not “We’re getting to 12-5 reinforcements” mind you, but more “We could sniff .500” reinforcements.

Micah Parsons has missed two weeks with a high-ankle sprain and may be able to return for the next game against the San Francisco 49ers. DaRon Bland and Caelen Carson appeared close to playing against the Lions, so hopefully the boundary corners are going to be available. Eric Kendricks’ back injury came up this week and hopefully it’s not a long-term concern.

And although they likely won’t play against the 49ers, DeMarcus Lawrence and Marshawn Kneeland should be back by mid-November if things progress as hoped.

But injuries aren’t the only problem in Dallas. There are coaching issues up and down and those may not be quick fixes.

While it’s unlikely Jerry Jones fires Mike McCarthy this week, perhaps there are some staff shakeups on the way, or at least reassignment of duties. Mike Solari’s tenure, which we predicted wouldn’t be fruitful, has been an abject failure. The team benched their first-round pick, left tackle Tyler Guyton this week. Every veteran has regressed this season, including future Hall of Famer Zack Martin, and the youngsters haven’t progressed.

Perhaps there’s some handing off of duties between McCarthy and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer this week. Yes, McCarthy swore he’d never give up playcalling again after his last few years in Green Bay, but something has to change about the way Dallas deploys their offense.

On the defensive side of things, the Mike Zimmer experiment has been an abject failure. Perhaps it’s time to give assistant head coach Al Harris an opportunity at the big chair and build his profile. Even if it’s a lost season, giving Harris a chance to prove his worth could lead to him getting in the head coach search next season and perhaps lead to a compensatory pick coming back to Dallas.

Yes, that’s the line of thinking that now needs to be adopted as Dallas isn’t going to be challenging for a championship this year.

Along those lines, the bye week is the perfect opportunity for the front office to start sending out feelers for trades. No, not to bring people in, but to ship players out. More on that in a future article.

 

The case for Cowboys keeping Mike McCarthy the rest of 2024

Why firing Mike McCarthy would be a mistake for the Cowboys. | From @ReidDHanson

The Cowboys might not have had much postseason success over the last 25+ seasons, but they are a proud franchise with sky high expectations. Every year they set out with the expectation of competing, and to players, fans and ownership, anything short of a Super Bowl constitutes a failure to some degree.

Despite these lofty expectations in Dallas, the Cowboys have traditionally been remarkably patient with their underachieving head coaches. Jerry Jones, the final say in all things football, isn’t quick on the trigger. After preemptively parting with Chan Gailey in 1999, Jones has been remarkably patient with his head coaches.

In-season firings have been even rarer since Jones has been in the picture. Only after the team seemingly quit on Wade Philips did Jones deliver a midseason pink slip. Midseason firings are riddled with obstacles. Not only must the team find a suitable replacement from the unemployment line, but they have to pay the recently departed coach just to go home and sit on his couch.

Coming off a spectacularly terrible 47-9 loss to the Lions in Week 6, some are calling for McCarthy to get his midseason walking papers. The game marked the third consecutive home loss this season and the third time in the last four home games the Cowboys lost extremely convincingly. The case to replace McCarthy has merit but there’s a better case to made for the contrary.

First, it’s the replacement issue. Who can step up into his role? Mike Zimmer could do it, but should he be rewarded when his side of the ball is giving up 39.67 points per game at home? Brian Schottenheimer is second fiddle to McCarthy on offense but he’s not even calling plays. He’s an unlikely candidate to keep his offensive coordinator job, let alone take the helm at head coach.

John Fassel?

Come on now.

The Cowboys would likely have to pull from outside the franchise and what coach in his right mind would want to step into this mess in the midseason? The Cowboys still have a first-place schedule to deal with, they still have injuries to overcome, and they still have a talent issue at all key offensive playmaker spots. Bill Belichick has better things to do and that is literally anything.

Next, it’s the reputation issue. One of the best qualities of Jerry Jones is his patience with his coaching staff. He had plenty of cause to fire McCarthy following the 2022 season, but he didn’t. He had all the reasons in the world to fire McCarthy following the 2023 season, but he didn’t. He allowed McCarthy to play out the term of his deal and that’s very attractive to a good head coaching candidate wanting to build a program.

Firing McCarthy would unravel that reputation for Jones removing one of the most attractive traits America’s Team has to offer.

The time to fire McCarthy was over the offseason. The Cowboys knew what they had in their head coach then and had options to replace him available to them. They made their bed and now they have to lie in it.

McCarthy should be replaced, but the time isn’t now. Nothing to do now but ride it out and reassess in the offseason.

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