Jerry Jonesβ latest recent review of it all? After yet another Cowboys debacle, this time at home against the Eagles, he issued yet another pledge to not fire coach Mike McCarthy in-season.
ARLINGTON β The Dallas Cowboys didnβt extend head coach Mike McCarthy for 2024 for an understandable reason: It wouldβve been an unmerited reward for having gotten blown out by the Packers in the playoffs.
More recently, as the lame-duck coach and an owner who is supervising a βBlow It Upβ plan for this season in preparation to load up in 2025 have discussed the situation, McCarthy is making a case for trying to keep his cool. β¦
And owner Jerry Jones is making a case for trying to keep his coach through the year.
It’s widely expected that McCarthy will be made the scapegoat for this letdown of a season. While McCarthy’s fate won’t be revealed until January, Jones made oddly familiar comments this week that seems to foreshadow bad news for the Cowboys’ head coach.
Jerry Jones’ quote proves Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is dead-man walking
“Iβm good with Mike. I know how hard he works. I like his football mind. I know how good he works. Heβs got, in my mind, an outstanding coaching record. Heβs really good with the players. They think highly of him. Heβs got a lot of fire in his belly. So, Iβm just giving you this, I like the positives I see. And by the way, frankly, some of the best coaches Iβve been around, I got to see them when times were bad.”
– Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
You’re probably thinking how praise bodes well for McCarthy. Well, William Steele of AtoZ Sports Dallas dug up an old quote Jones made about Jason Garrett about one month before Garrett was handed his walking papers.Watch live sports online
Yeah … McCarthy might be screwed.
In the final year of his contract, McCarthy is carrying the dreaded lame-duck label. Despite leading Dallas to three consecutive 12-win seasons, McCarthy likely needed a deep playoff run to retain his job.
With a 3-5 record and having to navigate a difficult upcoming schedule without Dak Prescott, the Cowboys are closer to securing a top-10 pick than making the playoffs. While backup Cooper Rush has kept the ship afloat in the past, the current iteration of Dallas is nowhere close to those teams in terms of talent, health and execution.
The bottom line is take Jones’ comments with a grain of salt. He showered Garrett with similar praise back in 2019 and everyone knew Garrett’s fate as the Cowboys missed the playoffs with an 8-8 record.
There are a lot of parallels between Garrett’s final season and the current campaign. Dallas made headlines on a weekly basis and, despite an abundance of talent, struggled to beat adequate competition while looking like a world-beater against bottom-feeders.
The sad part is there are nine games left on the schedule. The outcome feels inevitable, so we’re really just going through the motions for the next two months.
