Getty Image / Tom Pennington
After Sunday’s humiliating 48-32 home playoff defeat to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card Round, the common wisdom was that Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones would fire head coach Mike McCarthy after yet another early playoff exit.
But, that’s not the decision that the controversial owner made, as he has decided to retain Mike McCarthy for the 2024 NFL season.
Jerry Jones was never going to judge Mike McCarthy off the final game. The #Cowboys have gone 12-5 each of the past three seasons and had the NFL’s No. 1 scoring offense in 2023 with McCarthy calling plays.
A brutal ending, no doubt, but high expectations for 2024.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 18, 2024
I am absolutely stunned by this news, because there is no reason to bring Mike McCarthy back. This is the Cowboys’ third straight embarrassing playoff exit before the NFC Championship Game.
Sunday was a complete collapse. The Cowboys, despite coming in as heavy favorites, fell behind 27-0 in the first half following an embarrassing pick-six by quarterback Dak Prescott. The team was completely outmatched in all facets, and the coaching discrepancy between Packers Coach Mike LaFleur and his staff compared to Mike McCarthy and his staff was huge.
It’s not like this is a one-off for McCarthy, either. This is now three straight 12–5 seasons that have ended too early in the playoffs, despite having loaded rosters in all three.
And, it’s not like early playoff exits and underachieving with great rosters is something new to Mike McCarthy. After he won Super Bowl XLV with the Green Bay Packers, the team made the playoffs in each of the next six years but failed to get back to the Super Bowl, despite having Aaron Rodgers.
There’s nothing that Mike McCarthy does particularly well as a coach, either. He’s not some elite play caller, despite the fact that he thinks he is. He’s clearly not some great game planner or culture guy.
Did Jerry Jones look at the coaches available like Bill Belichick, Jim Harbaugh, and Mike Vrabel and really think there wasn’t an upgrade to be had here? That seems crazy.
Right now, it looks like the Super Bowl window with Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb on manageable contracts is going to slip through their fingers.