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For the past five seasons, Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has done his best to lead the team back to the top of the NFC and, finally, back into the Super Bowl.
Just like departed coaches like Jason Garrett (and Wade Phillips and Bill Parcells and Dave Campo and “Charlie” Chan Gailey) before him, it simply didn’t happen.
For Dallas Cowboys fans, the January 28, 1996 Super Bowl XXX remains a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away!
Cowboys Emperor Jerry Jones’ Death Star functions more like a Yugo
One year ago, McCarthy’s former team, the Green Bay Packers, blew-out the Cowboys in a first round playoff game.
The wild-card Packers jumped out to a 27-0 second quarter advantage. Early in the fourth quarter, Green Bay led 48-16 and cruised to a 48-32 demolition of the heavily-favored 12-5 Dallas Cowboys.
The DFW metroplex fully expected that Cowboys’ 82-year old team owner Jerry Jones would fire head coach Mike McCarthy after that embarrassing loss.
Instead, ol’ Jerry kept McCarthy tethered in Dallas to complete the final year of his $5 million per year contract as the team’s head coach.
Ironically, the Cowboys unloaded a Brinks truck to keep their star QB and wide receiver in Big D
Even after last January’s surprising first round playoff loss, Cowboys’ skeptics (like me) expected this year’s team to compete for another playoff spot. The 2024 schedule looked a little bit harder, but Cowboys fans expected the team to win ten or more games again this season.
Just days before the first game of the regular season, team owner Jerry Jones opened his wallet to give veteran quarterback Dak Prescott a new contract.
The Dallas quarterback (who has a 2-5 record in post season games) became the NFL’s first $60 million/year player.
In late August, the team’s owner signed-off on a new big money deal to retain wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. His new contract is for $136 million over four seasons (about $34 million per year).
In making those two very expensive moves, the Dallas Cowboys committed nearly $100 million annually (about 40% of the team’s 53-man salary budget) to retain just two of their players.
Unfortunately, quarterback Dak Prescott went down in Week #9 this year with a season-ending hamstring injury.
It’s not as if Dallas was playing well before that injury. The Cowboys were only 3-5 entering that game.
Without Prescott at quarterback for the second half of the season, the Cowboys’ golden wide receiver CeeDee Lamb’s production tanked, too. He scored half as many touchdowns (6) this year compared to the dozen TD’s he tallied in 2023.
The Cowboys finished with a 7-10 record and now have the 12th pick in this spring’s NFL draft
Dallas finished a distant third in the NFC East this year.
The Cowboys can thank the NFC East perpetual cellar dweller New York Giants (3-14) for two of their seven wins this season.
Dallas beat just three teams with winning records – Pittsburgh (by 3 points), Washington (by 8), and Tampa Bay (by 2 points).
In the past week, we learned that Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy (whose 5-year contract expired yesterday on January 14) had been prohibited from talking to future employers.
In the ensuing nine days after Dallas’ final game on January 5, Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones refused all requests from other NFL teams to speak with McCarthy about their coaching vacancies.
Emperor Jones claimed that he wanted to have a deeper discussion with his coach about last season and the team’s future prior to determining whether he would make a new contract offer to McCarthy.
He didn’t. I doubt that Mike McCarthy would have signed a new one, anyway.
Wasn’t “The power of the Dark Side” supposed to be strong? Yeah, right.
Good news, everyone!
On Tuesday, the 61-year old Mike McCarthy’s contract with Emperor Jones expired. He has escaped the Dallas Death Star and has become a free agent once again!
After posting a 49-35 regular season record with the Cowboys and going 0-3 in the playoffs over the past five years, Coach Mike McCarthy is now free to explore new options to continue his career.
Today (Wednesday), the Chicago Bears are interviewing Mike McCarthy for their open head coaching position.
Da Bears are the arch enemies of McCarthy’s long-time NFL employer, the Green Bay Packers. Perhaps hiring Green Bay’s former coach might inspire both the Bears’ fans and serve to rejuvenate coach McCarthy.
Then again, probably not. Chicago hasn’t fielded a winning team in seven years (2018).
As we have covered recently, a head coach can only do so much with players being drafted and signed by the team’s General Manager and team owner.
Another report this week indicated that Mike McCarthy plans to discuss the open head coaching job for the New Orleans Saints in the coming days.
There is little doubt that McCarthy will land on his feet again soon as either a head coach or an offensive coordinator.
Does anyone remember Dan Quinn?
Leaving the Dallas Cowboys’ coaching staff sometimes works in your favor.
One of Mike McCarthy’s former assistant coaches in Dallas has flourished elsewhere after being released by the Cowboys a year ago.
You might remember that Dallas owner Jerry Jones fired the defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, last January after the Cowboys’ embarrassing home loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Released from the clutches of Emperor Jones, Dan Quinn interviewed for and won the top job in Washington beginning this season. His team is now 13-5 and will play in Detroit Saturday night (7PM CST on Fox) in the NFC’s divisional playoff round.
Take that, Jerry Jones!
Deion Sanders & family are now flirting with the Emperor in Dallas
As predicted here several weeks ago, the Dallas Cowboys and their former defensive back-turned-college coach Deion Sanders are making today’s sports headlines.
The current Colorado Buffaloes head football coach indicated that he and Jerry Jones had a nice discussion on Monday. Coach Prime is two years into a $30 million 4-year contract in Boulder to coach the University of Colorado’s football team.
Deion Sanders has hinted that he and his two sons (highly-touted quarterback Shedeur and his not-so-highly touted brother, defensive back Shilo Sanders) might take the job if all three of them were to come as a package deal.
The only way Dallas could assure Deion Sanders of being able to coach his quarterback son (Shedeur) would be for the Cowboys to trade starting quarterback Dak Prescott to the NFL team which holds the #1 pick in the upcoming draft.
That would be the Tennessee Titans. Would the former Houston Oilers franchise be willing to pay $60 million/year for veteran Dak Prescott instead of selecting a talented rookie quarterback at less than half of the price?
Others speculate that Deion Sanders may be utilizing this discussion with Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys to spark his current employer (the University of Colorado) into renegotiating his contract to pay him more money to stay put.
The Colorado Buffaloes finished 9-3 this season and have seen a huge surge in attendance and merchandising revenues since hiring Deion Sanders as their coach two years ago.
Deion Sanders has coached his two sons in high school and college (Jackson State and Colorado). Although that is very unusual, it should not come as a surprise that he might want to do the same thing in the NFL.
Note to Deion Sanders – Troy Aikman believes the Dallas job isn’t very attractive
NFL Hall-of-Fame quarterback Troy Aikman spent 12 years in Dallas as the team’s first marquis draft pick after Jerry Jones bought the team in early 1989.
A winner of three Super Bowl rings during the early 1990’s in Dallas, Aikman became a broadcaster with Fox Sports after retirement. He has watched the Cowboys struggle for almost 29 years without returning to play in a Super Bowl since 1996.
This week, Troy Aikman was asked about the Cowboys’ open job. In doing so, he took an indirect shot at meddling team owner Jerry Jones being his own worst enemy by interfering with the team’s head coach.
“As far as a coveted job, I don’t think that’s accurate,” said Aikman. “I think most football people that take over as a head coach, they want to do it on their terms. That’s hard to do (in Dallas).”
Bingo! Troy Aikman remembers how Jerry Jones’ meddling caused legendary football coach Jimmy Johnson to quit after just five years (and two Super Bowl rings) in Dallas.
The Emperor is on the march again to find another apprentice in Dallas
Sure, Mike McCarthy probably should have been fired after last year’s playoff debacle in Dallas. Today, most Cowboys fans are cheering his departure from Big D.
Perhaps billionaire Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was biding his time in 2024 (and saving $5 million by making McCarthy finish his 5-year contract) in hopes that another “big name” head coach might show interest in his coaching job.
What happened to Bill Belichick? The long-time Patriots leader recently accepted the head coaching job with college football’s North Carolina Tar Heels.
Perhaps Nick Saban might be interesting in coming to Dallas? Alas, the former Alabama coach seems relatively happy with his new gig at ESPN (other than having to sit next to goofball Pat McAfee every Saturday morning during the fall).
This week, the hot Dallas Cowboys coaching rumor has featured Deion Sanders.
Tomorrow, it will probably be someone else. As long as NFL fans keep talking about his team, Jerry Jones is happy to take the microphone and opine about it.
One thing is certain. BlueStar Emperor Jones is busy setting the traps to lure yet another new coaching apprentice (or should we say “minion”?) to guide his Cowboys.
A long, long time ago (29 years to be exact), NFC East teams used to “Beware the power of the dark side – in Dallas!”
Today? Not so much!