Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was convinced Dan Quinn was leaving after one season as the team’s defensive coordinator. So Jones did what he had to do to assure Quinn would return, giving Quinn a multi-year contract extension.
Jones called it “a major coup” that the Cowboys will keep Quinn.
“All of us wanted Dan to stay, that was a key to our continuity here,” Jones said Thursday, via the team website.
Quinn will get another shot at being a head coach. The questions are: When and where?
Sean Payton turned down a chance to coach the Raiders in 2004 before leaving the Cowboys for the Saints in 2006, a year before Bill Parcells retired. Jason Garrett turned down the Ravens and Falcons in 2007 and became the Cowboys full-time head coach in 2011.
The Cowboys could end up being the team with which Quinn gets his second chance.
“He stays here because there always has been, with every coach, every one of those three coaches, have said they’d love to be the head coach of the Cowboys. Every one. Every one,” Jones said. “So my point is that has, in my mind, a lot of logic as to why they might not take a job now rather than one or wait and see how the cards go in the future.”
Jones then was asked whether he considered Quinn a potential head coaching candidate.
“He’s certainly qualified. He’s very qualified,” Jones said. “Yes, I would consider. If I didn’t have a coach, I would have been interviewing him for coach.”
Jones said the quiet part out loud: No coach will go into 2022 on a hotter hot seat than Mike McCarthy. He has an 18-15 record in two seasons, and the Cowboys were the only home team to lose in the wild card round of the postseason last month.
With Payton having stepped away from the Saints, and Quinn returning to the Cowboys, Jones would have his pick of a replacement. (Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore also could be an option if he doesn’t leave for Miami, where he remains a candidate for the Dolphins’ head coaching job.)
Jones was pressed about whether his quotes might bother his head coach.
“Mike knows that someday somebody other than him will be coach of the Cowboys,” Jones said candidly.
Jones said his public comments that created uncertainty about McCarthy’s future after the season was all part of his plan to keep Quinn.
“I wanted them to be thinking that they were talking to a guy who could be head coach of the Cowboys,” Jones said.
Maybe Quinn will be, and maybe as early as 2023. McCarthy is unlikely to be retained past the 2022 season if he misses the playoffs or goes one-and-done again. It’s just win, baby, in Dallas.
