The Dallas Cowboys are 4-7, on track for their second losing season under head coach Mike McCarthy, who entered 2024 under pressure to make up for an early postseason exit the year prior. Team owner Jerry Jones doesn't seem too concerned about the direction of the franchise, however, teasing a potential contract extension for McCarthy while appearing on 105.3 The Fan Tuesday.
"I don't think that's crazy at all," Jones said of possibly retaining McCarthy for 2025 and beyond, via The Athletic. "This is a Super Bowl-winning coach. Mike McCarthy has been there and done that. He has great ideas. We got a lot of football left."
McCarthy and Co. are coming off a surprise 34-26 win over the rival Washington Commanders, snapping a five-game skid that included the loss of starting quarterback Dak Prescott to a season-ending hamstring injury. Jones' bigger-picture endorsement of McCarthy suggests simply staying competitive down the stretch could be enough to earn the much-maligned coach another shot at righting the ship.
Jones struck a slightly different chord prior to the start of this season, telling reporters he deliberately allowed McCarthy to enter a contract year in 2024, hoping the "angst" of trying to overcome the "bad taste" of recent playoff failures would bring out the best in the former Green Bay Packers coach.
McCarthy led three straight 12-5 seasons from 2021-2023, but went 6-10 in his first year on the job, when Prescott also missed extensive time due to injury, and has gone just 1-3 in the postseason. He went 125-77-2 in 13 seasons as the Packers' coach, guiding nine playoff appearances and one Super Bowl victory, in 2010.
