Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has endured fairly a singular season. It concerned working within the last 12 months of a contract, coping with an injury crisis and realizing 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 help 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 means, then I would go away,” 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 selection. However yeah, if I didn’t really feel that I used to be linked [with the players] and placing us in the perfect place to win, then I might step apart.”
Whispers surfaced when the Cowboys have been 3-7, claiming that group proprietor and common supervisor Jerry Jones might 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 via 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 locker room, good leaders,” McCarthy informed Breer. “And quite a bit of our leaders are actually on [injured reserve]. They have been good examples, when younger guys obtained to play much more soccer than, frankly, I’d have most well-liked them to play early. Nevertheless it’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 prompt Jones might ultimately goal former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel as McCarthy’s alternative, 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 wish to proceed working for a boss who stored him in a contract 12 months via 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.
