Signs seemed to point to the Dallas Cowboys retaining Mike McCarthy as their head coach through 2025 after owner and general manager Jerry Jones praised him profusely after their Week 18 finale against the Washington Commanders.
However, McCarthy and Jones’ talks about the head coach’s future in Dallas collapsed on Monday when the two parties decided to separate. That surprised Cowboys Football Hall of Fame quarterback and ESPN NFL analyst Troy Aikman, leading him to believe there is no real plan in Dallas. You are right. If the Cowboys were always going to part ways with McCarthy, why wait an entire week after their season ended and delay interviewing potential candidates? Jones’ stewardship of the franchise in recent years has taken some of the shine off the appeal of being the Cowboys’ head coach in Aikman’s eyes.
“Well, I thought Mike McCarthy was going to be the head coach, so today it’s a surprise to me that he’s not,” Aikman said in the pregame of “Monday Night Countdown” on ESPN, via Awful Anusing. “It suggests there’s no real plan. The fact that they haven’t had a chance to interview Ben Johnson and some of these others, Aaron Glenn… Kellen Moore being a candidate seems logical to me: a guy who’s familiar with the building. He obviously worked with the Cowboys and with Jerry Jones. In fact, when Mike McCarthy got the job, they told Mike that Kellen would be the offensive coordinator, so that’s what the Jones family thinks of him Beyond that. , it’s hard to imagine. As a coveted job, no. I know if that’s accurate.”
Of course, no team in the entire league is as covered as Dallas, but Aikman no longer sees Dallas as a place where a head coach can run the show on his own terms. That’s why he doesn’t believe Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell, who led his team out of the NFL cellar to an appearance in the NFC title game in 2023, in addition to the first place finish in the NFC in 2024, he would have had success with the Cowboys.
“I think the Cowboys are a high-profile team, and whoever the head coach of that team is will certainly get a lot of attention. I think most football people who take over as head coach want to do it in their terms. That’s hard to do,” Aikman continued. If we take Dan Campbell, for example, is he with the Dallas Cowboys? It’s hard to imagine that he is, and it’s hard to imagine that many coaches can be. I love the Dallas Cowboys. I played there for 12 years. “I wish them the best, but to say it’s a coveted job, I’m not sure I necessarily agree with that.”
The Cowboys have spent an NFL-low $20.47 million in free agency since the end of last year’s Super Bowl, according to OverTheCap.com, and that lack of investment in their roster outside of the draft greatly hampered Dallas once it showed up. the injury virus. The team’s depth was severely lacking as the Cowboys stumbled to a 7-10 record in 2024 in an injury-plagued campaign. Between Aikman believing Jones refused to invest in McCarthy with a contract longer than two years and that lack of spending in free agency, he doesn’t see Dallas empowering its head coaches. In fact, Aikman hasn’t seen Jones truly empower a head coach to have a say in personnel decisions since his Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson’s time ended with the team after consecutive Super Bowl victories in 1992 and 1993. .
“I don’t think the four days would have passed if they hadn’t thought that [McCarthy] He was going to continue as head coach. “There was something in those conversations that made me believe it could have been the length of a contract,” Aikman said. “I never got into the actual terms of how much the money was going to be, but if the contract was going to be a two-year deal versus a five-year deal, was that a failure for Mike McCarthy? Or where does he start? In At some point, what looked like it was going to be a conversation that would secure Mike a deal, didn’t happen… I think coaching is important in the NFL. I think we would all agree that the coach matters and the players matter. .You have to have both, but just bring someone, without No matter how qualified he is, I will reiterate that I think Mike McCarthy is an excellent football coach. He has shown it in this league… That head coach has to be empowered as well. That’s been what’s been missing in Dallas since Jimmy. Johnson walked out the door.”
So who might consider being McCarthy’s successor in Dallas? here it is CBS Sports’ look at head coaching candidates for the Cowboys’ late pursuit.
