In most years, they left the Dallas Cowboys richer — but also less worn down when it came to the NFL’s appetite for their next head coaching job.
Chan Gailey. Dave Campo. Wade Phillips. Even Jason Garrett. All capable. Perhaps capable of competing for a second chance at head coaching in a less than ideal situation. Most ended their careers stranded on the same island of rejection, considered better supporting actors than the leading men. Tom Landry and Barry Switzer never coached in the NFL again after being fired by Jerry Jones; Landry because he was too old, Switzer because he was too unpredictable.
Two of them left with their coaching stars intact, or even slightly improved. Jimmy Johnson for being the architect and driver of the last Cowboys mini-dynasty. And Bill Parcells for retiring with a winning record, while leaving behind a masterfully developed Tony Romo at quarterback.
Mike McCarthy, despite his flaws, leaves Dallas in this latter class – leaving the Cowboys in a better situation than he arrived.
That’s what I heard after making calls around the league about McCarthy. Largely only positive opinions that credit a head coach who has reeled off three straight 12-win seasons, sandwiched between two years where his center quarterback suffered back-to-back season-ending injuries in 2020 and 2024 All this while the Cowboys were often bargain buyers in free agency, with his team’s owner-general manager regularly talking about the deal – sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, and sometimes for what is. obviously strange or puzzling anecdotally.
On the contrary, McCarthy leaves Dallas a good soldier. The guy who attended seemingly every season-opening press conference in Oxnard under a subtle — or sometimes not so subtle — cloud wondering what might happen if this was another season where the Cowboys didn’t take over . big step forward. The guy who had to find ways to reinvigorate Ezekiel Elliott as a short-yardage running back, elevate Dak Prescott from mid-level starter to MVP candidate in 2023, and squeeze every last ounce out of a accomplished offensive line that was fading faster. than anyone thought.
None of this is to say that McCarthy was a great coach in Dallas. He almost always had rosters full of good players, including the 2022 and 2023 teams, which should be counted among the best since the franchise’s heyday under Jerry in the 1990s. McCarthy has done good things and bad things .
He went 1-3 in the playoffs and never balanced the offense with a running game when it mattered most. He would surely like to salvage some play calls and sloppy moments in game management. Perhaps the clock will expire in regulation without a game against the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round of the 2022 season playoffs. . Certainly the crushing loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round of the 2023 seasonwhich could haunt him forever.
While it could be argued that some have done more with less over the past five years, few have struggled like he did with extended departures of backup quarterbacks Andy Dalton and Cooper Rush. They went a combined 13-10 under McCarthy in situations where the Cowboys easily could have fared much worse. And no one in the league has operated with such regularity in the middle of a circus run by team owners, in which Jerry did things, said things, or got caught in the middle of head-shaking things other organizations with disbelief. To the point where “I feel for Mike” was a regular part of the league’s talk about McCarthy’s time in Dallas.
Overall, this is what allowed McCarthy to leave Dallas as a winner. He came in as a recycled head coach who was almost universally criticized in 2020, then put the Cowboys back on a winning track that made a Super Bowl window at least feasible…even if it was never seized during his mandate. He now leaves Dallas as a truly coveted high-end asset on the head coaching market. Under Jerry’s ownership, only Jimmy Johnson achieved this kind of release.
Impressively, McCarthy achieved this without public acrimony, despite Jones refuses to let McCarthy talk to Chicago Bears until his contract officially expired – which now seems borderline petty and could have been used as a tool by Jerry to make players like Prescott and Micah Parsons believe that Jones was interested in retaining his head coach until the end. This would obviously be a dubious suggestion today. If Jones truly had an interest in keeping McCarthy, he could have done so before leading him into a lame duck season, or at least moved quickly to secure McCarthy after the Cowboys’ season ended. Instead, Jones put on a song and dance about how impressed he was that the locker room continued to fight for McCarthy even though there was nothing left to play for but pride . All of this made Jerry’s life even more complicated when Prescott and Parsons supported a McCarthy comeback that, unbeknownst to them, was not planned.
So McCarthy leaves looking like the taller man between himself and Jerry. Partly a victim of his inability to break through, partly because of the malaise that began to overwhelm the Cowboys fan base and manifest itself in uneven attendance at AT&T Stadium, and partly because Jerry seems to be operating on his gut again as he moves. forward with his frankness. It’s a compass that becomes more and more questionable with each passing year – this time, he somehow opens up his head coaching job after Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel had already chosen to other avenues, and also too late to interview the candidates for the remaining playoff teams. It was a mistake that left Jones with just another round of carnival barking that did exactly what he wanted: to bring attention back to himself and his franchise by Call Deion Sanders and Launch a Completely Ambiguous Narrative About an “Intriguing” Conversation. The details of this conversation are about as well-defined as one of Jerry’s stray missives about the good old days when Deion played in Dallas.
When you see this unfold, you have to look at McCarthy’s departure and think he’s better off for it. His success with Prescott – and also Rush – can now be added to a fairly prolific run of positive results with an array of different quarterbacks and skill levels over the course of his career. It includes Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre as head coach, Aaron Brooks and Jeff Blake as offensive coordinator, and Joe Montana, Elvis Grbac, Steve Bono and Rich Gannon as offensive quality control and quarterbacks coach with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Historically, when McCarthy spent time with a group of quarterbacks, the starters and backups improved. Often significantly. The only negative on that resume was his one-season stint as offensive coordinator with the 49ers during Alex Smith’s rookie season in 2005. But it was an unqualified disaster for the entire staff, even Smith doesn’t hold this tough season against him now.
That’s what should excite the Bears about McCarthy when it comes to Caleb Williams. This is what the New Orleans Saints should be thinking about when it comes to possibly developing the raw talent and considerable arm of Spencer Rattler. And that’s what other teams should be thinking about when looking for a head coach who has managed to bring order to teams and offenses…even if he still has a few blind spots.
What he leaves behind in Dallas is nothing short of a huge blueprint for the next head coach. From the significant salary cap squeeze that’s going to get worse with Parsons’ next deal, to the offensive line that appears to be a multi-year rebuild, to a skill position group around Dak Prescott that seems uninspiring when you pass CeeDee Lamb. And let’s not forget that Prescott just suffered another season-ending lower-body injury — without really understanding how it might impact his mobility moving forward.
Dallas has roster issues. There are team ownership issues. And for decades, he faced problems with expectations that often failed to distinguish fantasy from reality. Now McCarthy is gone, paving the way for who knows what. The circus continues, attracting attention and buzz and so many things that have nothing to do with finally achieving the ultimate goal.
With his reputation and his resume in good shape, Mike McCarthy freed himself from the circus by losing his job. And that’s just enough to call it his final victory in Dallas.