As head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Mike McCarthy is subject to a level of high expectations and media scrutiny that is unprecedented in professional sports. That is as true today as it would have been if he was hired 25 years ago despite the lack of playoff and championship success the team has endured over that time frame. That may not seem fair, but the reality of the situation is that despite posting back to back 12 win seasons and two straight playoff appearances, it is not absurd for Mike McCarthy’s future as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys to be in jeopardy. There are many that feel as though his job security is contingent on the result of Monday night’s playoff matchup against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If the Cowboys lose to the Buccaneers on Monday night, McCarthy would be 0-3 against that team during his tenure and Tom Brady will continue to be unbeaten against the franchise for this entire career. Jerry Jones hired Mike McCarthy as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in 2020. If his team is eliminated in the wild card round two years in a row, he will have amassed 0 playoff wins with an 0-2 record in the post season after two consecutive 12 win seasons. The Cowboys hired Mike McCarthy because of his long history of post season success including a Super Bowl championship in 2010. The Dallas Cowboys have not advanced past the divisional round under their previous head coach Jason Garrett and even before that since 1996, the last time they won a championship. The Dallas Cowboys expect Mike McCarthy to achieve that level of success. If McCarthy fails to even reach the divisional round of the playoffs, that cannot be considered a successful tenure. For that reason, it is feasible to consider that Mike McCarthy could be fired if the Cowboys do not prevail against the Bucs.
While McCarthy losing his job is feasible, it is also unreasonable. At least in my opinion it is. First of all, he was hired during the 2020 season where the world was turned upside down during the pandemic. He had to navigate through Zoom meetings and implementing a new defensive scheme under a new defensive coordinator and then he lost his starting quarterback 5 games into the season. Despite the poor overall record in 2020, the Cowboys were actually still in the mix for the division title until late in the season when the team could have dialed it in much sooner. That may not be a high level accomplishment in of itself but 2020 should be considered a write off at the very least. Mike McCarthy warranted an opportunity to redeem himself in 2021 and he did just that. He led the team to 12 wins and a division title. The loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the wild card round was disappointing and considered an upset at the time but looking back, that 49er team was seriously underrated. San Francisco bullied Dallas for four quarters but the team still had an opportunity to win the game in the final seconds.
That leads us to 2022. Mike McCarthy had an opportunity to build upon the success of the previous year. That is something no Cowboys coach has accomplished in 25+ years. He was asked to do this despite the Cowboys front office failing to be aggressive in making efforts to improve the team during the offseason. The Cowboys sat back while other teams such as their division rivals the Philadelphia Eagles made aggressive moves to improve their rosters. Then McCarthy and the Cowboys were dealt a severe blow before the season even began losing starting tackle Tyron Smith for most of the season. In week one, after a terrible performance against those very same Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dak Prescott suffered a broken thumb and was forced to miss several weeks. Most Cowboy fans and prognosticators wrote the team off then and there, but McCarthy and the Cowboys rallied behind backup QB Cooper Rush and went 4-1 with Prescott out of the lineup. The Cowboys finished the season 12-5 and in doing so, McCarthy became the first coach in almost 30 years to lead the team to back to back double digit win seasons and playoff appearances. That in itself is an accomplishment and that is why I believe Jerry Jones when he said that Mike McCarthy’s job is safe regardless of what happens in Tampa Bay on Monday night. Per quotation from a recent SB Nation article written by Jessie Haynie.
“No. I don’t even want to … No. That’s it,” he said. “I don’t need to go into all the pluses or minuses. I’ve got a lot more to evaluate Mike McCarthy on than this playoff game.”
“I can’t tell you how much confidence I’ve got in Mike and our coaching staff of being on top of where we are with this team right now,” Jones said. “They’ve got every nuance. They understand every frailty that we might have or we might have shown Sunday [in the loss to Washington]. They’ve got everything in their grasp and in their understanding, and I have complete confidence in this coaching staff. It’s outstanding. We’ve got a great chance to go down there and have success.”
Jerry Jones, Owner Dallas Cowboys
I understand if some may be skeptical of what Jerry Jones said. After all, even Jerry Jones has enough sense not to throw his coach under the bus right before a playoff game. Still, he makes a valid point when he says he has more to evaluate Mike McCarthy on than a single playoff game. The fact of the matter is, this franchise has set itself a lower standard of success based on the past quarter century. To expect Mike McCarthy to deliver a championship or long playoff run in two seasons (not counting 2020), is not a realistic expectation based on where the team was before he was brought on board. At the very least, Mike McCarthy has earned himself one more year before his job security should come under any scrutiny at all.
*Photo by Joe Glorioso All-Pro Reels https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/legalcode