He’s gone from hot seat to lame duck.
As expected, the Cowboys reportedly won’t extend the contract of head coach Mike McCarthy, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. This means that McCarthy will enter the final year of his contract in 2024.
Plenty of teams aren’t comfortable with a lame-duck coach. At some point, he loses authority over the locker room. If things aren’t going well, they’ll eventually conclude they don’t need to listen to a guy who won’t be back the next year.
“Jones said he believes that a person in the last year of a contract is challenged in a different way, and it often can bring out the best in people,” per the report. The truth could be that Jones simply doesn’t want to pay coaches to not work.
And so, while the Cowboys believe McCarthy is good enough to continue in the job, they’re not interested in making a commitment to him beyond 2024. That sets him up to be a free agent in 2025. If he does better than expected, McCarthy could (in theory) take another job with another team.
Jones apparently is willing to bet the under on that possibility. Jones likely believes that, after 2024, he’ll be able to decide whether to bring McCarthy back or to move on, without fear of him walking away.
