Don’t dismiss the idea of ​​Mike McCarthy staying on as the Cowboys’ coach beyond this season

ARLINGTON, Texas – With each loss toward the end of this disappointing season for the Dallas Cowboys, more attention turns to the future of the franchise. The team owner and general manager are not changing. The star players aren’t going anywhere. The biggest question remains the head coach.

The way things unfolded in the final minutes of Monday night’s 27-20 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals can be blamed on the coach. But coaching also deserves credit for enabling the Cowboys (5-8) to win their third straight game with a backup quarterback and a revolving door along the offensive line. But that’s not what the fans want to hear. Many are ready to make a change at the end of each season.

However, the final decision-maker in Dallas isn’t the fans.

The way this particular team responds to Monday night’s late-game collapse could vindicate Jerry Jones’ decision on who will coach the Dallas Cowboys in 2025. Mike McCarthy is in the final year of his five-year contract. Don’t assume that a losing record is a guarantee that he won’t be back next season.

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Key players have supported the head coach, while Jones has consistently spoken highly of McCarthy during a five-game losing streak.

And then Monday evening came. A little more than an hour before kickoff, Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman said he expected McCarthy to get a new contract.

“Other than Bill Belichick, I don’t know who you’re going to bring in that has a better resume,” said Aikman, who called the “Monday Night Football” game on ESPN. He then added that he sees Dallas as a team that isn’t that far off, citing their 12-win seasons in each of the past three years.

“I like the way this team is playing right now, even without their franchise quarterback,” Aikman said. “I feel like it’s a team that really believes in Mike McCarthy. I feel like the locker room wants him back. I think he’s a really good football coach. I think Jerry Jones also thinks he’s a really good football coach.”

Aikman made it clear he was talking about where the team was heading into Monday night’s game. Perhaps a crushing loss to the Bengals would have had an impact on his comments, but he ended his answer about McCarthy by saying, “As we stand here and talk now, I’m assuming Mike McCarthy will be back in 2025.” “

Cooper Rush has been the Cowboys’ starting quarterback since Week 10 after Dak Prescott was sidelined due to injury. (Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images)

McCarthy was hired because Jason Garrett failed to achieve further playoff success. In Garrett’s final five seasons as head coach, the Cowboys won one playoff game. Considering that it is extremely unlikely that this Cowboys team will make the playoffs, it is likely that there will only be one playoff win in McCarthy’s five seasons. While that seems like a good indicator that Jones is ready to move in a different direction, don’t just assume that’s the case.

Jones was asked about Aikman’s comments after Monday night’s loss.

“Mike is an outstanding coach,” he said. “He has an outstanding record. He has great experience. A lot of what he’s about and some of the benefits we have out there come from the type of coach he is. There’s an old saying: When you’re thinking about a coach, you should take a good look at him because he’s one of the most outstanding. I think he just passed (Bill) Parcells in win-loss percentage. I talked to him about all the considerations I have. I’m sure it was hard for him tonight.”

The Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day win over the New York Giants gave McCarthy 172 career wins in the NFL, tying Parcells. Only 12 coaches have won more games in league history. McCarthy has won 61 percent of the games he has coached. Packages won 57 percent.

Jones has supported McCarthy every time he’s been asked about him this season, from saying in October that he wasn’t considering a coaching change to saying last month that he wasn’t ruling out a contract extension.

While some may think it will be an easy decision, it could actually be quite difficult for Jones.

“I don’t value these things so much in terms of how difficult they are or how well they’re made,” he said Monday night. “I always make these decisions in my role. All decisions of this kind regarding coaches, coaching staff, players, etc. are of great importance, I don’t want to call them tough. These are just very serious and impactful decisions.”

During the offseason, Jones made “all-in” comments about the team several times. Some interpreted this to mean the roster would be significantly expanded either through free agency or a trade. When that didn’t happen, the interpretation of “all in” changed, with some saying Jones was all in to win this season and then made the big decisions about the coaching staff and contracts with key players, after seeing what 2024 looked like, the Cowboys performed. But then key franchise members like WR CeeDee Lamb and QB Dak Prescott signed new contracts before the season opener.

Prescott became the highest-paid player in NFL history and Lamb became the second-highest paid non-quarterback in league history. This suggested that Jones might give McCarthy a new contract before the start of the season. That didn’t happen, and now it looks like the plan all along was to finish out the season and evaluate everything in January.

The thinking going into the season was that the Cowboys would have to make their first deep playoff run beyond the divisional round since 1995 for McCarthy to get a new contract. Now it’s up to everyone to guess. Jones could go in a completely different direction, he could keep McCarthy and his entire staff or he could keep McCarthy and force him to make personnel changes.

The Jones who bought the team in his late 80s would go in a different direction after the season. That Jones may have already made a move. But Jones, 82, is more conservative in his decisions. If he really wanted to make a change, he could have done it in January, after the extremely disappointing wild card loss to the Green Bay Packers. All of the expected top candidates in the coming coaching cycle – Belichick, Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson – were available at the time.

But Jones stuck with McCarthy for a reason. And that’s why a return shouldn’t be completely dismissed.

(Top photo by Mike McCarthy: Sam Hodde / Imagn Images)