McCarthy’s Uncertain Future as Cowboys CoachMcCarthy’s Uncertain Future as Cowboys Coach Despite three consecutive 12-5 seasons, three playoff appearances, and two division titles, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy remains without a contract extension beyond 2024. The uncertainty stems from the Cowboys’ disappointing playoff performances, particularly last season’s humiliating 46-32 loss to McCarthy’s former team, the Green Bay Packers. Owner Jerry Jones has openly praised McCarthy but has also expressed ambiguity, suggesting that the coach’s performance in 2024 will determine his future. The Cowboys have made no major roster additions and have lost several key players, increasing the pressure on McCarthy. Compounding the situation are the expiring contracts of numerous players, including quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver CeeDee Lamb. Jones has also praised Bill Belichick, raising speculation that the former Patriots coach could replace McCarthy in 2025. McCarthy, however, remains focused and sees his contract situation as a challenge. He has prepared his family for the possibility that this could be his last season. Despite the uncertainty, McCarthy is determined to help the Cowboys improve and make a playoff run in 2024. He believes that their success or failure will determine the outcome of his contract negotiations. As the season enters its final year, McCarthy’s future with the Cowboys hangs in the balance. His performance will determine whether he secures a long-term extension or faces an uncertain future.
Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy needn’t say he’s unhappy with his current contract situation.
What is understood does not need to be explained.
Who wouldn’t want a new deal and job security after 2024?
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Who wouldn’t want the uncertainty of the future to be removed to ease the peace of mind of their family and young daughters who are enjoying life in North Texas?
And who wouldn’t want their work to pay off, considering three straight 12-5 seasons, three consecutive trips to the playoffs and two division titles in the past three seasons — the franchise’s best run since the Cowboys recorded four straight seasons of at least 12 wins from 1992-95 and three Super Bowl titles.
And therein lies the rub.
McCarthy’s Cowboys have won just one playoff game in this series, capped by an astonishing 46-32 loss to the Green Packers last January that ended the team’s best chance of reaching the NFC title game and the Super Bowl since Tony Romo went to Cabo and allowed the top-seeded Cowboys to steal their destiny in 2007.
The second-seeded Cowboys were the only home team to lose in the wild-card round last season, falling to McCarthy’s former team and a quarterback in his first playoff game in a blowout victory.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones initially needed only two words when asked why McCarthy was not given a contract extension.
“Green Bay,” Jones said.
He went on to say how much he likes McCarthy
“Mike has shown me that I want him, and he’s qualified and he’s excellent and the players are excellent and he’s shown me that he can be our coach for years to come,” Jones said. “He’s sitting next to me in the draft. I call on him a lot. If you don’t get along with Mike McCarthy, you don’t get along.”
Jones even bristled when it was suggested that McCarthy would be a “no-commitment” coach in 2024.
“I disagree with you,” Jones said. “I understand the term and I understand how it fits. I don’t see it that way. I know that’s the sentiment of the fans. I know you’re not a domino if you don’t (win the Super Bowl). But if you do, it’s a glory hole. Oil and gas term for hitting the big one.”
But that’s precisely McCarthy’s job this season, to keep his job.
He has to find the glory hole, hit the big one by at least making it to the NFL Finals, if not the Super Bowl, to get a contract extension.
What makes matters worse is that the Cowboys expect McCarthy to do better and go further than he has the past three years with a seemingly inferior roster. They have made no significant additions to a team that lost to Green Bay, while losing four or five starters to free agency, and doing so in an environment of ambiguity.
McCarthy and the entire coaching staff are in the final years of their contracts, including All-Pro quarterback Dak Prescott, All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb, who is skipping training camp, and about 30 players.
Jones has openly praised six-time Super Bowl champion coach Bill Belichick, who was fired by the New England Patriots last season and remains a free agent coach.
“I think he’s the best coach, certainly of my time in the NFL, and I happen to be on a team with the great Tom Landry, and I would put him up there in a heartbeat,” Jones said. “Bill’s a friend and a great coach.”
There are already people trying to link Belichick to the Cowboys in 2025.
All of this puts McCarthy and his family in a situation that seems untenable.
McCarthy, however, sees it differently.
He sees it as a challenge and as the life of a football coach who knows that at any moment he will be entering his last season or match, regardless of the number of years left on his contract.
Coaches are hired to be fired, or so the old saying goes.
He has been dealing with the disappointment of the lack of a new deal and is preparing his family for what may lie ahead.
But now that he’s in training camp, his focus is solely on helping the Cowboys get better and hopefully advance in 2024.
He has no desire to talk about the uncertainty of the coming season.
“We’re excited and energized about this opportunity that’s in front of us, and it starts with this training camp,” McCarthy said. “Gosh, just to be here in Oxnard and excited about this next opportunity. And that’s the reality of competing in the National Football League. The contract talks, we talked about that in the spring, and that’s really where I come in, I don’t know if I’ve said the word ‘contract’ before. That’s not who we’re built, and that’s not how we can be built.
“I understand what happened in the past and the frustrations of the past, but we’re past that. We’re energized by what’s ahead of us and the reality of the work we have to do to put ourselves in a position to answer those questions next year. The only thing we’re guaranteed is 17 games.”
Now that the season is in the final year of his contract, that’s all McCarthy gets.
It doesn’t matter if he is prepared for failure.
It’s either a glory hole or a bust.
Clarence E. Hill Jr. has covered the Dallas Cowboys as a reporter/columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram since 1997. That includes just two playoff wins, six coaches and countless controversies, from the demise of the dynasty teams of the 1990s to the rollercoaster years of the Tony Romo era and the Jason Garrett Cowboys trial.
