Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has endured fairly a novel season. It concerned working within the remaining 12 months of a contract, coping with an injury crisis and realizing forward of Sunday’s primetime house recreation towards the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that Dallas had already been eradicated from the playoffs.
Regardless of that, McCarthy’s squad gave him a 26-24 upset win over Tampa Bay as an early Christmas present. After the Cowboys improved to 7-8, McCarthy spoke with NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports activities Illustrated concerning the help he is acquired from his gamers over the previous 5 weeks of motion.
“To be frank with you, if I didn’t really feel that method, then I would depart,” McCarthy stated about his group having his again all through the marketing campaign. “The place I’m in my profession, I’m lucky sufficient to be in a spot, and an area mentally and emotionally, the place I could make that alternative. However yeah, if I didn’t really feel that I used to be linked [with the players] and placing us in the most effective place to win, then I’d step apart.”
Whispers surfaced when the Cowboys have been 3-7, claiming that group proprietor and normal supervisor Jerry Jones may half methods with McCarthy earlier than Week 18 rolled round. Dallas responded to such chatter by incomes 4 wins over 5 video games, even with injured quarterback Dak Prescott sidelined by way of January.
Prescott, star pass-rusher Micah Parsons
and present beginning signal-caller Cooper Rush are among the many noteworthy Cowboys gamers who publicly backed McCarthy in the course of the marketing campaign’s second half. Whereas Jones offered high praise for McCarthy just lately after Dallas’ win over Tampa Bay, Jones hasn’t but locked the coach down by way of an extension or a brand new deal.
“…It’s a great locker room, good leaders,” McCarthy informed Breer. “And quite a bit of our leaders at the moment are on [injured reserve]. They have been good examples, when younger guys acquired to play much more soccer than, frankly, I’d have most well-liked them to play early. But it surely’s a group that was coming collectively, sadly, only one recreation too late. It’s a hell of a bunch. I love their consistency. They simply keep after it.”
Whereas some beforehand advised Jones may finally goal former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel as McCarthy’s substitute, Vrabel has extra just lately been linked with the Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets, and New England Patriots. Nonetheless, it is unclear if McCarthy will need to proceed working for a boss who stored him in a contract 12 months by way of all of 2024.
Breer famous that Cowboys gamers “have proven everybody, with their actions, what they need,” no matter what occurs when Dallas performs the 12-3 Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday. That stated, it stays to be seen how Jones would react if his membership ends the season with back-to-back losses.
