Six weeks into the NFL season, we have already seen 1/32nd of the NFL’s coaches lose their jobs. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was not the one, however. And despite the rocky 3-3 start to this season, which includes two blowout losses at home and another near-blowout at home, it does not appear that McCarthy is next in line.
Doug Pederson in Jacksonville? Probably. Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia? He’s almost making it easy for Eagles brass to fire him.
But the Cowboys have McCarthy as their man. And that’s not going to change.
After Sunday’s drubbing at the hands of the Lions—a 47-9 eyesore—owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked about McCarthy’s status, and quickly shot down the idea of saving this season with a coaching change. He was asked about it again during his weekly radio appearance on 105.7 The Fan in Dallas.
He was blunt in his approach to McCarthy: “I won’t be making any others [coaching changes] during the season.”
Cowboys Made 1 In-Season Coaching Change Under Jerry Jones
While in-season coaching changes have helped other struggling organizations in the past, Jones has one experience of having changed coaches in his time as Cowboys owner, and he did not like how things turned out much.
The change came in 2010, after the Cowboys had gone 11-5 the previous year under Wade Phillips. But they started 1-7 that year, as Tony Romo struggled with injury and was not very effective when he was healthy. After firing Phillips and bringing on Jason Garrett, the Cowboys went 5-3.
That does not matter as much to Jones, though, as the fact that Phillips went on, five years later, to be the defensive coordinator in Denver, helping the Broncos to a Super Bowl championship.
“They usually are ineffective,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “At that particular time [with Phillips], I did think it was the thing to do. I think it did produce a positive effect, but we’ll never know. All Wade did was move over to Denver — he didn’t become the head coach, he became the defensive coordinator — and that was one of the few times in my 35 years in the NFL that I heard throughout the league that the one coach was responsible for them having the team, and that was Wade Phillips running the defense for Denver when they won the Super Bowl.
“Now that was the coach I’d let go out of here just a few years earlier. So, so much for knee jerking on 1-7.”
Mike McCarthy a Lame-Duck Coach
All that might make sense, of course, if Jones had confidence in McCarthy. If the sentiment is that the Cowboys should not have let Phillips go after the 1-7 start, because he helped a team to a championship five years later, then being unwilling to make a move on McCarthy now much mean that the Cowboys are committed to McCarthy, long-term.
And yet, he is in the final year of his contract, and the Cowboys have made no move to extend him. Jones is letting McCarthy twist in the wind, effectively a lame duck without a new deal.
McCarthy addressed his contract status on Monday.
“I think it’s just part of the business,” McCarthy said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “When people ask me about really anything with the team, part of working here, it’s part of the business.”
