It appears that we are approaching gut-check time in Mike McCarthy’s time with the Dallas Cowboys. The head coach only has a few days left before his contract expires (January 14th), and he becomes a free agent.

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero stated that Jerry Jones and McCarthy are “open” to moving forward together and that talks have opened regarding a new contract. … and even that is something that everyone can’t agree on, as our Mike Fisher has suggested that in Jerry Jones’ mind, discussions on that subject occurred this week before Friday. Nevertheless …

Yes, we can hear sections of Cowboys Nation losing their collective minds at the thought of McCarthy returning as head coach in 2025. And we can hear sections of Cowboys Nation concerned that Jerry is going to screw this all up. But now, let’s get to a few important details about McCarthy’s proposed new contract.

We ask two questions: How long should it be, how much money should be involved, and how much control should McCarthy have? Those are the big three, right? The major negotiation issues at stake?

1 – MONEY

Let’s get rid of the money issue. Details on NFL coach contracts are blurry. We can only hope that both sides are reasonable here. (Jones has been wildly generous before with Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells; being fair is not out of the realm of possibility here.)

We will say that: Jerry’s hint that he wishes a head coach could be on an incentive-driven deal is preposterous.

No quality coach is going to be the first-ever guy to go for that. … and the natural comeback is, “Why doesn’t Jerry put the GM on that sort of contract?” (Jerry, of course, serves as his own GM.)

2 – YEARS

It won’t be a one-year deal again (we’ve heard that suggested and there is simply no precedent for it), and we can’t imagine that second five-year contract for “Big Mike,” so maybe somewhere in between? How long would you give McCarthy – who says he “absolutely” wants to stay – to finally deliver success to Dallas? He’s already had five years.

3 – POWER

A big part of this is also what the Cowboys front office will want to do in terms of helping McCarthy build a Super Bowl-caliber team, and despite COO Stephen Jones stating that 2025 could be slim pickings as it was in 2024, even though every person on the planet knows that’s not the case.

McCarthy needs to be helped, not have one hand tied behind his back, which was the case in this “Blow It Up” year but was not a problem previously.

We imagine that if McCarthy were to agree to terms on a new contract, he would want to return so some level of control over what the club does. … and would certainly want to win any argument over moving on from his coaches. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s name comes up a lot here in Cowboys Nation. Know this: McCarthy is a disciple of the late Marty Schottenheimer, Brian’s dad.

Brian – who has his own track record as a coach pre-dating Dallas – is almost like a nephew to McCarthy. He’ll fight to keep his guys. It feels like we are at a crossroads with McCarthy and the Cowboys.

Can Mike put that delicately to the Dallas owner? One argument: This feels like the last chance for McCarthy with the Cowboys, so give him the keys to the car, get out of the way, Jerry, and let him do it his way because yours hasn’t gotten you an NFC Championship appearance in nearly 30 years. Will that happen? I think we all know the answer to that.