Jerry Jones apparently doesn’t want him some gloryhole, after all.
The Cowboys owner won’t be making a coaching change. Instead, the team has announced that Mike McCarthy will return for a fifth year on the job.
McCarthy has won 12 regular-season games in 2021, 2022, and 2023. However, he hasn’t made it past the divisional round once.
This year, the Cowboys were embarrassed at home by McCarthy’s former team, the Packers. Dallas became the first No. 2 seed to lose to a No. 7 seed since the playoffs expanded in 2020. And the game wasn’t close.
It’s a surprising development. The Cowboys fell as flat as any playoff team has. McCarthy didn’t have the team ready to play, and to win. Jones was completely stunned by the outcome of the game. But apparently not stunned enough to fire McCarthy and hire someone like Bill Belichick.
Did Jones explore hiring Belichick quietly and discreetly, with the talks reaching an impasse? We’ll never know, unless someone blabs.
McCarthy has only one year left on his contract. It will be interesting to see whether he gets an extension.
It will also be interesting to see how Cowboys fans react to the development. There’s a good chance many won’t like it.
Especially if the Eagles end up firing Nick Sirianni and hiring Belichick.
For now, only one team — the Falcons — has interviewed Belichick for a head-coaching vacancy.