The Dallas Cowboys are sticking with head coach Mike McCarthy for 2024, ESPN reported Wednesday.
The Cowboys’ disastrous loss at home to the Green Bay Packers last weekend — a 48-32 stunner — had many questioning McCarthy’s future as the team’s head coach.
ESPN previously reported McCarthy was always going to be judged on how the final game of the year went.
Despite a third straight 12-5 regular season, this one ending with an NFC East title, Dallas fell short of its Super Bowl aspirations again.
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Mike McCarthy of the Dallas Cowboys before kickoff against the Green Bay Packers during an NFC wild-card playoff game at AT&T Stadium Jan. 14, 2024, in Dallas. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
However, owner Jerry Jones seems content to give McCarthy another chance next season.
The Cowboys have been a fantastic regular season team under McCarthy, but they have just one playoff win to show for it during his four-year tenure (he went 6-10 in his first season in 2020). For a team that hasn’t been to a Super Bowl since 1995, with an owner who demands success and nothing less than a Vince Lombardi Trophy every season, that’s not good enough.
Jones said after Sunday’s game he was “floored” by the loss to Jordan Love and the Packers, who came out firing in the first half. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott looked the exact opposite of his regular-season self.
“This is beyond my comprehension,” Jones told reporters.
He also had no comment on McCarthy’s future, which generated speculation. Coaching candidates like Mike Vrabel, Bill Belichick and Jim Harbaugh are pursuing head coach vacancies in the NFL right now, and some believed Dallas would hire one of them.
But McCarthy, a Super Bowl champion with the Packers in 2010 with a career record of 167-102-2 in 17 years as a head coach, gets another shot.
Jones, who initially said, “We’ll see how each game goes in the playoffs,” when discussing McCarthy’s future, changed his tune prior to the matchup with the Packers.
Head coach Mike McCarthy of the Dallas Cowboys during the second quarter against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium Dec. 17, 2023, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (Rich Barnes/Getty Images)
“I couldn’t be more pleased with what he’s done, and I really mean it,” he said on 105.3 The Fan.
“He’s the big difference this year. … So, the last thing that I want to do is spend any time talking with him about these kinds of things — agreements, extension of agreements — especially when I’ve got one. So, that’s it.”
McCarthy’s contract with the Cowboys expires after the 2024 campaign, adding more pressure to win when next season kicks off.
Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy speaks at a news conference after an NFL divisional round game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Jan. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
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The Cowboys looked like a well-oiled machine in 2023 to earn the NFC’s No. 2 seed in the playoffs, which guaranteed two home games. Snapping the Super Bowl drought, one Cowboys fans have lamented for some time, is the main priority moving forward.
