The Dallas Cowboys fell short yet again this past season, losing in the NFC Wild Card round of the playoffs to the San Francisco 49ers. That led to rumors about the job security of Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy.
Many thought that former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton may want to return to coaching in Dallas. But, at least for the time being, McCarthy will be continuing as the head coach for the Cowboys.
Dallas has been synonymous with high expectations given their history as a franchise in the early 1980s and 1990s, and anything other than a Super Bowl is often seen as a failure.
Despite their lack of postseason success, there was some clear promise shown from the Cowboys during the regular season last year. It appears that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones believes this may be a sign that McCarthy is the coach to lead them to postseason success in the future.
Jones discussed McCarthy during a press conference on Tuesday, stating that he has full belief in him as the team’s head coach moving forward. He said (as per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport) “I want to be clear: He wouldn’t be sitting here today if I didn’t believe he was the man to lead this team to a Super Bowl. And I have choices.”
While this is a vote of confidence for McCarthy (seen at left above with Jones in a January 2020 press conference), many around the NFL world aren’t buying Jones’s comments on the matter.
oh? https://t.co/D9hwE1UwVb pic.twitter.com/LlmhNhthtY
— Lindsay Jones (@bylindsayhjones) July 26, 2022
Yup…I'm choosing to do this again for another year *sigh* https://t.co/3mM0Xzu9Ss
— Jonathan Thomas (@JonThomasTV) July 26, 2022
Mike's inner monologue: https://t.co/Gy4DdSGiab pic.twitter.com/JAs0TX11cm
— Kris Burke (@KrisBurke) July 26, 2022
You can't mention alternatives when you're trying to give your current head coach a vote of confidence, Jerry.
Also, this means precisely jack squat. Jerry could easily fire McCarthy and hire Sean Payton any time he wants. https://t.co/92Ha5jFcpQ
— Rob “Stats” Guerrera (@statsonfire on threads) (@StatsOnFire) July 26, 2022
McCarthy’s job security with the Cowboys simply depends on the team’s success, and he will need to have another impressive year to stick around in the future.
It’s easy to say now that you have full confidence in a coach before the season. It will be interesting to monitor if that sentiment around McCarthy changes if the Cowboys start to struggle at some point next year.
[Ian Rapoport; photo from Matthew Emmons/USA Today Sports]
