It appears that the Mike McCarthy divorce was a difference in opinion at the highest levels.
The Dallas Cowboys have begun looking for a new head coach after not agreeing to a new contract with Mike McCarthy. Both camps appeared motivated to reach a deal as of last week, but neither budged on their opinion of what McCarthy’s accomplished in Dallas and what he deserved going forward. And in this case, neither side may be wrong.
The latest reports say that after a long review of the Cowboys’ performance last season and the state of the franchise after five years of McCarthy’s coaching, there was a mutual agreement for them to go separate ways. The news is still pretty fresh at the time of this being written, so more substance and perhaps comments from Jerry Jones or McCarthy may come in the near future. But with the team and coach now moving on to trying to figure out what’s next, we may not hear much more about their parting.
So let’s look at it from a few angles. First, why would the Cowboys not want to re-up with McCarthy? While his first and last years were rough, he also had a stretch of three straight 12-5 years and two division crowns from 2021-2023. It’s arguably the best three-season run the team’s had since the 90s.
But that run also meant three consecutive times that Jones watched his team lose in playoff games, two of which came at home. McCarthy’s record overall against winning teams was weak, essentially showing that he could bully bad teams with the talent that the front office had provided, but was rarely perceived to have coached them above the sum of their parts.
Then again, especially last year, the roster was left weakened at times by the team’s increasingly quiet offseasons. Why would McCarthy want to come back after not only being left in lame-duck status for 2024, but not even given a fair shot by the front office’s lack of free agent activity and a future-minded draft class?
One might have thought this parting was already decided before last week, or even as last season began. But instead of jumping onto the Black Monday fray last week with all the other teams needing new head coaches, Dallas spent last week and the early part of this one in talks with McCarthy. There seemed to be a mutual desire to keep doing business together, but clearly everyone had their own ideas about what that relationship should look like going forward.
We can only speculate. Did Jones want McCarthy to give up offensive control and focus on being the head coach, as he did with Jason Garrett in 2013? Perhaps McCarthy balked at the idea of offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer being replaced. Or maybe McCarthy wanted more say in front office activity and was looking for more of a commitment.
While reports say that the two sides never talked about his contract, a general idea of how long a new deal would be may have still trickled into conversations. If the Cowboys only wanted to give McCarthy a couple more years and he wanted more security, that would’ve naturally come up in discussions about their visions for the team going forward.
Again, we probably won’t know what the true sticking points were. But it’s no bold guess that McCarthy saw more value in his regular-season accomplishments than the front office did. When it came to his true mandate upon joining the Cowboys, to take the team further than Jason Garrett had, McCarthy had nothing to show.
How you feel about this change is no different than the parties involved; where do you assign value? If you found those three straight playoff appearances to be a badge of honor, you may be disappointed in McCarthy’s departure. If you saw them as more arbitrary, and especially given how Dallas performed in those playoff exits, you’re probably ready for change.
Nobody’s wrong here. Mike McCarthy’s not wrong to think he deserves another chance in Dallas. The Cowboys aren’t wrong for thinking they can do better at head coach. You’re not wrong for how you feel about it. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but the facts are that the Cowboys will have a new head coach in 2025 and this offseason is about to get a lot more interesting.
