Has Mike McCarthy done enough over the last few weeks to secure his future at the helm of the Dallas Cowboys?
Based on what team owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Sunday, it’s possible.
Following a 26-24 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jones praised his head coach for guiding the team to a win, even though the Cowboys had already been eliminated from playoff contention.
Dallas learned of its postseason fate ahead of the Sunday matchup, but it found a way to get the job done against the Bucs, and Jones credits McCarthy for lighting that fire.
“Proud of those guys. They wouldn’t give it up out there. So I’m real, real proud of them,” Jones said. “And Mike McCarthy, he just won’t let them not think they’re playing for the Super Bowl out there. He won’t let them do it. So proud of that.”
The (7-8) Cowboys have had a rocky season overall, going on a five-game losing streak earlier this year. They also lost veteran quarterback Dak Prescott to a season-ending hamstring tear, among a litany of injuries. But the team has rallied to collect four wins in its last five games with backup Cooper Rush under center.
With all the up and downs in Dallas this season, McCarthy’s job security has been an obvious topic of debate, as the fourth-year head coach’s contract expires at the end of the season. However, Jones has stayed firm in not discussing McCarthy’s fate in public, even during the team’s darkest moments this season.
“All I can say is what a good job, how good a job he’s doing,” Jones said on Sunday. “Don’t have thoughts that I would share as to anything about what we do … after we’re through playing this year.”
FS1’s “The Facility” co-host James Jones, who played under McCarthy while in Green Bay, strongly believes the 61-year-old coach is not going anywhere after this season and credits the last three weeks as evidence.
“Coach Mike ain’t going nowhere. And to be honest with you, the last three weeks have let me know that,” Jones said on Monday’s episode.
McCarthy and the Cowboys have gone 2-1 in that span, with wins against the Panthers and the Bucs and a heartbreaking loss to the Bengals, which came after a special teams error.
“Jerry Jones, the last three weeks, has been praising Mike McCarthy like he is 13- and 14-1 like Andy Reid,” James Jones added. “It started off being a lame duck coach, all this stuff … In the last three weeks, you got the quarterback, you got the star defensive player, and then you got the owner talking the way he’s been talking. Coach Mike is not going nowhere,” Jones continued.
The star defensive player James Jones was referring to was Micah Parsons. The three-time Pro Bowler recently came to the defense of his head coach, telling ESPN that he thinks the Cowboys’ injuries derailed their season and how he’d like everyone back next year.
“Coach Mike, me and his relationship has always been really good. He always took real good care of me,” Parsons said.
Although they will not make a playoff appearance, James Jones says the team still has something to fight for.
“And they did have something to play for, and it was the coach. They know if you go out there, and you drop games and drop games and drop games, even though you are out of the playoffs, the coach could possibly [be] fired,” he said.
McCarthy is 49-33 in regular-season games with the Cowboys, and 1-3 in the playoffs. The team’s next couple of games will be against two tough divisional rivals as they face the NFC East-leading Philadelphia Eagles on Dec. 29 at 1 p.m. ET on FOX, and the 10-5 Washington Commanders in the season finale on Jan. 5.
If the Cowboys come away with a win against either, McCarthy can likely breathe a sigh of relief for the time being, but James Jones thinks the head coach is already in the clear.
“Coach Mike McCarthy has these boys playing really good football with the backup quarterback in the game. Coach Mike is going to be the coach of the Dallas Cowboys next year. You can hear it in Jerry’s voice. You can hear it in the players’ voice. And, you can see how the players is playing,” he concluded.
On the other hand, FS1’s “Speak” co-host and Cowboys legend Michael Irvin believes the emotions associated with a couple of late-season wins are getting in the way of reality in Dallas.
“Let’s remember winning a few games in a row was not the criteria in the genesis of this season — it was getting to the playoffs,” Irvin said. “So the team is giving up great effort. All of that is true, and congratulations to that for Mike McCarthy. But we also got to say, you’re done … with three weeks left to go in the season, you’re out of the [postseason]. So I want us to be mindful, because we get emotional, and … we shouldn’t be making decisions in emotional times.”
Should the Dallas Cowboys give Mike McCarthy an extension? | Speak
The Pro Football Hall of Famer and three-time Super Bowl champion cautioned that the overall season is what the front office needs to look at before making a decision about a contract extension.
“He [Jerry Jones] comes up and said things like, ‘got them guys thinking like … they playing for the Super Bowl.’ That’s not logic, because before the game, you heard they went out of the playoffs, right? That’s it. So, they ain’t playing like they playing for the Super Bowl, because they’re not even going to the playoffs. So that’s just emotional talk,” Irvin continued.
“At the end of the season, you got to evaluate everything, not just this emotional moment that we’ve had in this few blocks … these three blocks here. You got to evaluate everything, and everything says, we got to think about an extension.”
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