Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has endured fairly a singular season. It concerned working within the last yr of a contract, coping with an injury crisis and understanding forward of Sunday’s primetime house sport 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 reward. After the Cowboys improved to 7-8, McCarthy spoke with NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports activities Illustrated concerning the assist he is obtained from his gamers over the previous 5 weeks of motion.
“To be frank with you, if I didn’t really feel that approach, then I would depart,” McCarthy mentioned 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 selection. However yeah, if I didn’t really feel that I used to be linked [with the players] and placing us in the very best place to win, then I’d step apart.”
Whispers surfaced when the Cowboys had been 3-7, claiming that group proprietor and basic 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 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 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 locker room, good leaders,” McCarthy informed Breer. “And so much of our leaders are actually on [injured reserve]. They had been good examples, when younger guys received 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 sport too late. It’s a hell of a bunch. I like their consistency. They simply keep after it.”
Whereas some beforehand steered Jones may finally goal former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel as McCarthy’s substitute, Vrabel has extra lately been linked with the Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets, and New England Patriots. Nonetheless, it is unclear if McCarthy will wish to proceed working for a boss who stored him in a contract yr by 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 mentioned, it stays to be seen how Jones would react if his membership ends the season with back-to-back losses.
