ARLINGTON, Texas — With every loss late in this disappointing Dallas Cowboys season, more attention shifts to the future for the franchise. The team owner and general manager isn’t changing. The star players aren’t going anywhere. The biggest question remains the head coach.
Coaching can be blamed for the way things unfolded in the final minutes of Monday night’s 27-20 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. But coaching also deserves credit for having the Cowboys (5-8) in position to win their third consecutive game with a backup quarterback and revolving door along the offensive line. However, fans don’t want to hear that. Many are ready to make a change at the end of every season.
The final decision-maker in Dallas isn’t the fans, though.
How this particular team responds to Monday night’s late-game collapse could be what confirms Jerry Jones’ decision on who will be the coach of the 2025 Dallas Cowboys. Mike McCarthy is in the final year of his five-year deal. Don’t assume a losing record guarantees he won’t be back next season.
Key players have backed the head coach while Jones has repeatedly spoken highly of McCarthy during a five-game losing streak.
And then came Monday night. A little more than an hour before kickoff, Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman said that he expects McCarthy to get a new contract.
“Short of Bill Belichick, I don’t know who you’re going to bring in that has a better resume,” said Aikman, who was calling the “Monday Night Football” game on ESPN. He then added that he views Dallas as a team that isn’t that far away, referencing the 12-win seasons each of the previous three years.
“I like the way this team is playing right now, even without their franchise quarterback,” Aikman said. “I sense that it’s a team that really believes in Mike McCarthy. I feel the locker room wants him back. I think he’s a really good football coach. I believe Jerry Jones thinks he’s a really good football coach, too.”
Aikman made it clear that he was speaking about where the team was before Monday night’s game. Perhaps a blowout loss to the Bengals would have had an impact on his comments, but he ended his answer about McCarthy by saying: “As we stand and talk right now, I expect Mike McCarthy to be back in 2025.”
McCarthy was hired because Jason Garrett failed to produce more playoff success. In Garrett’s final five seasons as head coach, the Cowboys won one playoff game. Considering that this Cowboys team is extremely unlikely to make the playoffs, McCarthy’s five seasons will likely also have only one playoff win. And while that might seem to be a good indicator that Jones is ready to move in a different direction, don’t just assume that’s the case.
Jones was asked about Aikman’s comments after the loss Monday night.
“Mike is an outstanding coach,” he said. “He has an outstanding record. He’s got great experience. A lot of what he’s about, some of the benefits that we’re having out there we’re gaining from the type of coach he is. There’s an old adage that when you start thinking about any coaches, you better give it a good look because he is one of the most outstanding. I think he just passed (Bill) Parcells in his win-loss percentage. I’ve spoken to that about any consideration I’m having. This was a hard one for him tonight, I’m sure.”
The Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day win over the New York Giants gave McCarthy 172 career wins in the NFL, tying him with Parcells. Only 12 coaches have won more games in the history of the league. McCarthy has won 61 percent of the games he has coached. Parcells won 57 percent.
Jones has backed McCarthy every time he’s been asked about him this season, from saying in October that he’s not considering a coaching change to last month saying he’s not ruling out a contract extension.
While some might think it will be an easy decision, it actually could end up being quite difficult for Jones.
“I don’t weigh those things as far as tough or the degree of making them,” he said Monday night. “I always, in my role, make those decisions. They all have a lot of gravity to them, any of those kinds of decisions regarding coach, coaching staff, players, all of those things, I don’t want to call them tough. They are just very serious impactful decisions.”
Several times throughout the offseason, Jones made “all-in” comments about the team. Some interpreted it as there were going to be significant additions made to the roster through either free agency or trades. When that didn’t happen, the interpretation of “all-in” shifted with some to Jones meaning he was all-in on winning this season, and then making the big decisions on the coaching staff and key player contracts after seeing how the 2024 Cowboys performed. But then key franchise pieces like WR CeeDee Lamb and QB Dak Prescott signed new contracts before the season opener.
Prescott became the highest-paid player in NFL history and Lamb became the second-highest-paid non-quarterback in league history. That cracked the door to thinking that Jones could possibly give McCarthy a new deal before the start of the season. That didn’t happen and it appears now that the plan all along was to let the season play out and evaluate everything in January.
The thought entering the season was that the Cowboys would need to make their first deep playoff run, beyond the divisional round, since 1995 for McCarthy to get a new contract. Now it’s anyone’s guess. Jones could move in a completely different direction, he could keep McCarthy and his entire staff or he could keep McCarthy and force him to make staff changes.
The Jones who bought the team in his late 80s would move in another direction when the season is over. That Jones might even have made a move already. But an 82-year-old Jones is more conservative with his decision-making. If he was eager to make a change, he could’ve done it in January after the extremely disappointing wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers. All of the expected top candidates in the upcoming coaching cycle — Belichick, Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson — were available then.
But Jones stuck with McCarthy for a reason. And that’s why a return can’t be completely dismissed.
(Top photo of Mike McCarthy: Sam Hodde / Imagn Images)
