Tag: Mike McCarthy

Twitter reacts to Mike Zimmer’s return to Cowboys as new DC

A collection of reactions, stats, former-player takes and more to the Cowboys replacing Dan Quinn with another former HC, Mike Zimmer. | From @KDDrumondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys have concluded their search for a new defensive coordinator and are bringing back a familiar face. All-in was the phrase Jerry Jones used to describe their approach to the offseason, but it’s questionable whether he intended to be replacing his DC in a season when the head coach, Mike McCarthy, didn’t have much job security. With Dan Quinn departing to lead the way for the rival Washington Commander, Jones and company set out to replace him atop the defensive totem.

That decision landed Mike Zimmer a new job. Out of football for the last two seasons, Zimmer brings a wealth of experience to the table. This will be his third head coach he’s coordinated for in Dallas alone, on the heels of extensive time as the head coach in Minnesota, where he squared off against McCarthy for years.

Twitter, or X if you’re so inclined, had a lot to say about the pursuit and the hire. There’s a wide gamut of reactions to bringing Zimmer in. Some don’t think Dallas’ hiring pool was deep enough, and there are various thought processes as to why the search mostly focused on former head coaches who have been in the league for a long time.

Others believe Zimmer brings a tenacity to Dallas that had been mising and still others chimed in with statistical evidence as to what they expect as the Cowboys look to turn the page from Quinn’s defense that was strong overall, but still had obvious weaknesses when it mattered most.

Here’s a collection of tweets discussing the hiring of Zimmer.

Report: Commanders expected to hire Joe Whitt Jr. away from Cowboys as defensive coordinator

Has Dan Quinn already found his defensive coordinator?

New Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn is already putting together his coaching staff.

After Quinn was announced as Washington’s head coach on Thursday, one name began to surface as his potential defensive coordinator for the Commanders: Cowboys passing game coordinator/secondary coach Joe Whitt Jr.

Multiple sources reported Whitt was expected to follow Quinn to Washington, including Aaron Wilson of KPRC TV in Houston.

For anyone who has followed Dallas over the past three seasons with Quinn as defensive coordinator, you’ve noticed all of those turnovers, specifically from cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland. It was Whitt who coached them.

A former walk-on receiver at Auburn, Whitt jumped immediately into coaching after his playing career ended. His first NFL opportunity came with the Falcons in 2007 as an assistant defensive backs coach. The Packers, under current Dallas coach Mike McCarthy, hired Whitt in 2008, and he spent the next 11 seasons in Green Bay.

He spent the 2020 season with Atlanta under Quinn. When Quinn was hired as the Dallas defensive coordinator, Whitt followed him and also reunited with McCarthy. During his time with the Packers, Whitt helped develop numerous cornerbacks, such as Tramon Williams, Davon House, Sam Shields and others.

Whitt has the option to remain in Dallas, potentially replacing Quinn, according to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News.

However, with McCarthy’s job status in question following 2024, Whitt may follow Quinn to Washington. Landing Whitt would be a big hire for Quinn’s new staff.

Commanders hire Cowboys DC Dan Quinn as new head coach

Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn has agreed to terms with the Washington Commanders to become their new head coach.

After three years at the helm of a top-five defense, Dan Quinn is leaving the Dallas Cowboys. From 2021 through 2023, the Cowboys defense ranked 7th, 6th and 5th in points allowed. They ranked 4th, 4th, 5th in DVOA, a metric that takes into account both opponent quality and game situation. And now, the unit will be looking for a new leader.

There was one opening remaining in the NFL, and one opportunity left for Dan Quinn to return to the head coaching ranks. On Thursday, that came to fruition as the Cowboys defensive coordinator was announced as the new leader of the NFC East rival Washington Commanders.

READ: 3 Internal Candidates to replace Dan Quinn as Cowboys DC

Quinn is known as a fiery leader who players adore, and that seems to be what the new regime in Washington was looking for.

It remains to be seen which assistants Quinn will take with him to Washington, and whether or not Dallas looks outside the organization or promotes someone internally to serve as the coordinator for Mike McCarthy.

McCarthy is entering his fifth season as the head coach in Dallas, without a contract extension that guarantees him anything beyond 2024. And now that job will be with a new voice leading his defense.

 

2 major lessons Cowboys should learn from NFL’s Final Four

If the Cowboys were paying attention to the NFC and AFC battles, they likely learned a couple key lessons about what it takes to win, says @ReidDHanson.

The Cowboys postseason came to an end in what seems like an eternity ago. The 48-32 beatdown by Green Bay was a shocking and painful conclusion to a season that showed true promise. The lessons to be learned from that fateful afternoon were entirely indigestible. At no point did Dallas appear to be in the game, making any kind of analysis a fool’s errand.

But while the postseason may be over for the Cowboys this year, there were still plenty of lessons to be gleaned from the conference finals that took place over the weekend.

Baltimore and Kansas City was a matchup of what many believed to be the best team in the AFC Ravens against the best QB on the planet. The game did not disappoint, with the 11-6 Chiefs winning the upset over the 13-4 Ravens, 17-10.

In the NFC, the top-seeded 49ers hosted the Cinderella Detroit Lions. Despite Detroit getting off to a hot start, the better team eventually prevailed with San Francisco punching their ticket to Super Bowl after their 34-31 win.

Both contests finished as one-possession games and both contests also taught, or better yet, reaffirmed, these lessons for the Cowboys to learn from over the brutally long offseason ahead of them.

Is Mike McCarthy’s contract situation motivation or lame-duck doom for Cowboys?

Will the Cowboys refusal to extend Mike McCarthy beyond 2024 result in extra motivation for their head coach or will it undermine him in? | From @ReidDHanson

Following the Cowboys’ upset loss to Green Bay in the opening round of the postseason, it’s safe to say some uncomfortable conversations were had behind closed doors at The Star in Frisco.

Players, coaches and team philosophy were all likely questioned. Fan outrage demanded a pound of flesh, but after moderate deliberation, it was determined there would be no flash and the Cowboys were going to run it back in 2024.

Head coach Mike McCarthy would remain at the helm. And most of his staff is likely to stay in place as well. But just because Jerry Jones was honoring the terms of his original contract did not mean he was recommitting with a shiny new deal. It seems as if the Magic 8 Ball in Jones’ top drawer gave him the old, “ask again later” response.

McCarthy will coach on an expiring deal in 2024. If he meets expectations, he could get a new contract in Dallas or even somewhere else. If he falls short again, he rides off into the sunset, having fulfilled the entire length of his contract and receiving neither extension nor pink slip from Jones.

The carrot or stick approach is nothing new for Jones. He made Jason Garrett coach twice on an expiring deal as head coach. One time it worked and the other time it didn’t. Some coaches respond well to uncomfortable situations such as this; others do not. Which way McCarthy responds is anyone’s guess. It’s not like he has a choice in the matter.

Schefter: Cowboys will not extend Mike McCarthy beyond 2024

From @ToddBrock24f7: Mike McCarthy is expected to coach 2024 on an expiring contract, something Jason Garrett did twice before (but only once successfully).

Jerry Jones and the Cowboys front office have plenty of business to tackle this offseason, with several high-profile individuals expected to enter into contract negotiations with the front office in order to firm up their long-term status with the team.

Head coach Mike McCarthy doesn’t look to be one of them.

According to a Saturday report from ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, it is not believed the Cowboys will offer McCarthy any sort of extension as he enters the fifth and final year of the deal he signed in 2020.

The 60-year-old coach would ostensibly, then, helm the team as a “lame duck,” essentially coaching for his job just as his predecessor Jason Garrett did in Dallas twice during his Cowboys tenure.

On the final year of his first contract as Cowboys head coach, Garrett coached Dallas to a 12-4 record in 2014, promptly earning himself a five-year extension. On the expiring year of that deal, the team finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs; Garrett and the team parted ways just days later.

McCarthy has a 42-25 regular-season mark since coming to Dallas and has led the team to three straight 12-win campaigns. But his 1-3 postseason mark has been a massive disappointment, with last week’s 48-32 collapse- at home- to the 7th-seeded Packers leaving many fans clamoring for a change to be made.

In a statement earlier this week, Jones cited McCarthy’s regular-season winning percentage as a reason to stay the course. During his end-of-season press conference the next day, McCarthy told reporters, “I didn’t come here to get another contract or anything other than that. I came to Dallas to win a world championship.”

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If Schefter’s report holds true, the first part of that equation has come to fruition. Now it’s up to McCarthy and the Cowboys to make good on the second part.

If he doesn’t, the Cowboys could be on a search for the 10th head coach in franchise history by this time next year.

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McCarthy: Cowboys have ‘established a championship program. It’s just not the world championship yet.’

From @ToddBrock24f7: The embattled coach spoke of “hard, direct questions” from Jerry Jones that will nevertheless give him a 5th season to try to win in Dallas.

Mike McCarthy hosted his annual end-of-season press conference on Thursday, secure in the knowledge that he would remain the Cowboys head coach for 2024.

That in and of itself is enough to have a significant faction of Cowboys Nation expecting his fifth season with the club to bring more of the same: regular-season fireworks followed by a big fat postseason dud. While the 60-year-old coach repeatedly used words like “raw” and “numb” and “emotional” to describe his feelings about how the team’s latest promising season went up in flames in the early rounds of the playoffs, McCarthy was clear about one thing.

“The reality of it is, this team’s going to change,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to have changes.”

As for what exactly those changes might look like, though, it’s too early in the offseason evaluation process for McCarthy to say.

“We’re just getting started,” he vowed.

Many — and perhaps most –– observers believed Sunday’s embarrassing blowout at the hands of the Packers in the wild-card round would instead be the ending to McCarthy’s tenure in Dallas. The 48-32 home loss marked the third January in a row that saw the Cowboys fail to reach the conference championship and extended the franchise’s Super Bowl drought to 28 years.

And while McCarthy asserted that he and his players “take no responsibility” for the shortcomings of Cowboys squads from past eras, he had a message for supporters who will now have no choice but to continue to look to his group to end a wait that’s closing in on three decades.

“We have an unbelievable fan base, and they should be frustrated. We’re extremely disappointed. Disappointed for them, disappointed in our performance,” McCarthy said.

“But my message would be this: We’ve established a championship program. It’s just not the world championship yet. We know how to win, we know how to train to win, we have the right people, but we have not crossed the threshold [of] winning playoff games. It’s extremely disappointing to sit here talking about it. But I know how to win, and we will get over that threshold. I have total confidence, and that’s why I’m standing here today.”

Jerry Jones had commented that Sunday’s wild-card loss was as shocking a setback as he can remember in his ownership, prompting widespread rumors that McCarthy would be relieved of his duties – even with a year remaining on his contract — in favor of one of the high-profile coaching candidates currently on the open market.

In a statement delivered Wednesday evening that followed reports McCarthy would remain in place, Jones said he had “great confidence” in McCarthy, citing his regular-season winning percentage (higher than any of his eight predecessors, by .002 of a point) as the reason why “the best step forward” for the organization is to continue “the team’s progress under Mike’s leadership.”

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The coach characterized his three-hour meeting with Jones on Wednesday as productive and wide-ranging. And while he conceded there were “hard, direct questions” from his 81-year-old billionaire boss, McCarthy suggested that he never felt he had to go into that conversation fighting to keep his job.

“We talked about everything: the right, the wrong, the indifferent, what we need to build off of. I don’t know if there’s much we didn’t talk about, as far as topics that apply to the football operation. Hard conversation, definitely, throughout a number of points here, but they’re conversations that I personally always look forward to. I’ve never walked out of a one-on-one with Jerry where I didn’t think I was better, one way or the other.”

McCarthy may feel better about his standing with the Cowboys now that his fifth season on the job is secure, but Cowboys fans will likely need a bit more convincing that the team can be better with him still at the helm.

McCarthy talked about having established “a championship program … just not the world championship yet.”

Problem is, that second kind is the only one that anybody really cares about.

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Jerry Jones says Cowboys will retain head coach Mike McCarthy

The Cowboys won’t pursue Bill Belichick and will instead retain head coach Mike McCarthy, Jerry Jones stated on Wednesday night

The Dallas Cowboys have underachieved in the postseason for three straight years under head coach Mike McCarthy. On Sunday, they suffered an embarrassing 48-32 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

With former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick available, many assumed that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would look to make a coaching change. Instead, Jones released a statement on Wednesday evening saying Dallas would retain McCarthy.

The Atlanta Falcons are the only team to meet with Belichick thus far but they’ve conducted six other interviews, including one with Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. With several other interviews likely to happen over the next week, it’s hard to know which direction the Falcons will go at this point.

The Philadelphia Eagles are also a potential option for Belichick if they fire head coach Nick Sirianni. The third-year coach has gone to the playoffs in each of his three seasons in Philadelphia, including a Super Bowl appearance in 2022.

Sirianni is expected to lay out his plan to owner Jeffrey Lurie, NFL Network reported on Wednesday.

Stay up to date with every Falcons interview and interview request using our head coach tracker!

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‘We have great confidence’: Jerry Jones makes statement regarding McCarthy’s 5th season as Cowboys HC

From @ToddBrock24f7: Jones promised a “deep review” after the Cowboys’ latest playoff loss but maintains that retaining McCarthy is “the best step forward.”

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones issued a statement Wednesday night shortly after news broke that Mike McCarthy would return for a fifth season as the team’s head coach.

Here is the full body of the statement:

“I believe this team is very close and capable of achieving our ultimate goals, and the best step forward for us will be with Mike McCarthy as our head coach. There is great benefit to continuing the team’s progress under Mike’s leadership as our head coach. Specifically, there are many layers of success that have occurred this season as a result of Mike’s approach to leading the team, both with individual players and with our team collectively. Mike has the highest regular-season winning percentage of any head coach in Cowboys history, and we will dedicate ourselves, in partnership with him, to translating that into reaching our postseason goals. Certainly, Mike’s career has demonstrated postseason success at a high level, and we have great confidence that can continue.

Further, our loss on Sunday is shared by everyone here, not just Coach McCarthy. Our players. Our coaches. Our front office. Myself. There is accountability for our results. I am accountable for our results. The lens we use to view and evaluate Coach McCarthy is holistic. While we’re all disappointed with the result on Sunday and with our playoff record, I am 100 percent supportive of him as our head coach and ability to reach our goals.

We will start our process of review and decision-making regarding everything that impacts our team and roster and, while we’re not going to address specific players and extensions or free agents at this point, it deserves our deepest review and consideration, and it will get it.”

McCarthy, the ninth head coach in franchise history, does have the best winning percentage of all of them… by the slimmest of margins. His .627 mark is just two-thousandths of a percentage point better than Barry Switzer’s .625, compiled from 1994 to 1997.

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Of course, it’s worth pointing out that Switzer’s Cowboys went 5-2 in the postseason over his four-season tenure and won a Super Bowl; McCarthy’s Dallas teams now have a 1-3 playoff record over an equivalent three postseason berths.

McCarthy’s 42 regular-season wins are just two behind the 44 put up by Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson over his five years with the club. He’ll presumably pass Johnson for third place in both wins and games coached for the Cowboys during the 2024 season.

McCarthy is expected to hold a press conference on Thursday, his annual end-of-season media address.

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Retaining Mike McCarthy means another big regular season for the Cowboys. Please don’t ask about the rest

Mike McCarthy will return to the Cowboys in 2024. That’s great news for Dallas… until the playoffs.

Mike McCarthy won 12 games in each of his first three seasons as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. You don’t fire a head coach who’ll give you a dozen wins each year.

Mike McCarthy is also 1-3 in the playoffs in three seasons as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, a team that hasn’t been to the NFC conference championship in nearly 30 years. Those guys *do* get fired.

That’s why, days after suffering a 48-32 thrashing at the hands of his former team, the Green Bay Packers, it was an actual news item that a guy who is 36-15 at the helm of the Cowboys is returning for a contractually obligated fourth season.

There are two ways to look at this.

The first is that it may produce the NFC East’s first repeat champion since 2004. McCarthy gets back an MVP candidate quarterback in Dak Prescott, one of the league’s most prolific wide receivers in CeeDee Lamb, an offensive line with up to three different 2023 All-Pros (if Tyron Smith re-signs with the club) and a defense loaded with stars like Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland, Micah Parsons and whatever a 32-year-old DeMarcus Lawrence can still contribute. To blow it all up at head coach and start over would be a tough sell, and a few tweaks could be all the team needs to find glory.

The other, more pessimistic view, would be to say McCarthy has been a disaster when his team needs him the most. His one playoff win with the Cowboys was over an 8-9 Tampa Bay Buccaneers team with blocking so bad it finally forced Tom Brady into retirement. While he’s had eight teams win 10 or more games over the last 11 years, only two have made it as far as the NFC title game. Two of his three season-ending losses in Dallas have come as a betting favorite.

In short, here’s where Mike McCarthy brings the Cowboys in the regular season:

via rbsdm.com and the author

And here’s where he ends up in the playoffs:

via rbsdm.com and the author

Everyone’s bound to backslide in the postseason thanks to a more robust level of competition. But McCarthy goes from one of the NFL’s best teams to being roughly as good as the Derek Carr Las Vegas Raiders. The other two teams on their regular season tier from 2021-2023 are the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills, who have each won at least three games in the postseason in that stretch and been to at least one conference title game, with more potentially on the way.

The Cowboys? They’re 1-3 with a newfound tradition of waving goodbye to their offense at the first sign of adversity. Dak Prescott is a top five regular season quarterback in that span, tossing 96 touchdowns in 45 games while recording a 101.8 passer rating and 0.190 expected points added (EPA) per play, fourth-best in the NFL. In the playoffs he’s got nine touchdowns in four games (good!), an 89.5 rating (decent) and 0.100 EPA per play (17th best out of 32 playoff quarterbacks).

This is the McCarthy curse. It’s a lot of things — clock management, a questionable use of challenges (only three in the last two seasons, winning one), an occasionally baffling viewpoint on player usage (see Ezekiel Elliott’s carries vs. the Niners in last year’s playoffs) — but the biggest issue is his inability to make anyone better in the biggest games of the season. While other teams climb, McCarthy’s teams search for the path of least resistance. When they can’t find one, they collapse. Sometimes with a whimper and sometimes with the bang of a 48-16 fourth quarter deficit against the Packers.

Team owner Jerry Jones clearly expects more, but why? Retaining McCarthy is a less expensive, higher floor, risk averse move than trying to bring in Bill Belichick, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Vrabel or a hot young coordinator like Ben Johnson or Bobby Slowik. Unfortunately, history suggests it has no meaningful upside.

Since his 2010 Super Bowl run McCarthy has won exactly one playoff game as an underdog of more than a single point (two games as an underdog total). And it came in Dallas, against the Cowboys, because Aaron Rodgers was effectively a super hero that winter.

But, sure, maybe this is just a war of attrition. Maybe this is a battle between Zapp Branigan and the Killbots and all McCarthy has to do is keep sending talented teams into the thresher until the rest of the NFC shuts down from the fatigue of beating them. Perhaps time is not linear like we thought and everything that worked in 2010 will once again be relevant in 2024.

Or maybe the Cowboys will blast off in the regular season, earn the buy-in of fans across Texas once more, then fly their spaceship directly into the sun in a futile effort to teach us something. Armed with the last three years of McCarthy data, it’s probably gonna be the latter.