The McCarthy Chronicles: Cowboys head coach enters his most important season yet

Mike McCarthy is entering a pretty big year.

“I would anticipate we will be all in at the end of this year.”

Just a little over seven months ago, Jerry Jones delivered the above quote, which immediately sent Cowboys fans into a frenzy. That frenzy has continued pretty much all offseason, as the Cowboys hardly made any moves that would be considered “going all in.”

In fact, the Cowboys’ offseason, following a disappointing and embarrassing loss to the Packers in the playoffs, has been marked by what they haven’t done. Dak Prescott remains unsigned beyond this year, and Mike McCarthy will also be coaching on the final year of his contract. So, too, will newly hired defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer. All of it screams dysfunction from the outside looking in.

Lost in the headline of “all in” were the other comments Jones made that day in late January, specifically regarding his head coach.

“And so, my point is, I look at that and I thought we made a pretty good move four years ago when we hired Mike McCarthy, and he’s had some great in-season success. Now he’s come up short three times and advanced us in the playoff. But I like that fact that’s he’s hanging around the rim, and I like what the team has done to hang around the rim.

So, I think, what the answer that I would have is, that I’m aware that we’re hanging around the rim. We’re not getting the ball in but when you hang around the rim – let’s don’t discount hanging around the rim – where we are right now with the players we’ve got, and I’m thinking about it from the whole look.”

Now, with less than a week to go before the Cowboys officially commence their season, the plan is to continue hanging around the rim and, ultimately, get the ball in the hoop. That’s what Jones is hoping for, and it’s what McCarthy – who has done this before, in Green Bay – has plans to do.

Of course, it’s impossible to ignore the outside noise leading into this season. The spotlight is always brighter in Dallas, and McCarthy has learned that by now. But this year is drastically different. McCarthy – who hired a new agent over the offseason – could very well be out of a job in five months if he can’t get the ball in the hoop. And the team he currently runs could also be hitting the reset button at quarterback, with or without McCarthy, after this year.

It’s a situation that could mirror the famed Last Dance of the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, at least in terms of the uncertain future of several key figures involved. But the Bulls had already reached the mountaintop. again and again, with that group, whereas this Cowboys team is still figuring out how to get there come playoff time.

McCarthy, of course, knows how to do it. He won a Super Bowl in Jerry World as the Packers head coach and has a street named after him outside of Lambeau Field. And the decision to move on from Jason Garrett – who himself had just coached on the final year of his contract – and hire McCarthy was largely predicated on getting a coach who had been there and done that.

The experience hasn’t produced the breakthrough that Jones was hoping for. Not yet, at least. But the Cowboys have enjoyed consistency under McCarthy that they haven’t had since the glory days of the 90’s. Three straight 12-win seasons is nothing to sneeze at. McCarthy’s Cowboys, if nothing else, are great at getting to the playoffs. And, of course, you can’t have a chance at the Super Bowl without making the playoffs.

Just days away from kicking off the season on the road in Cleveland, though, the Cowboys aren’t an overwhelming favorite to make the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Most sportsbooks, including FanDuel, have their win total line at 9.5 wins, though a few are a little more optimistic at 10.5 wins. Still, Vegas expects a step back for the Cowboys this year, when all signs point to them needing a huge leap forward.

McCarthy doesn’t care about any of that, though. Or, at least, he won’t admit that he cares. He insists a laser focus on winning the next game, which happens to be a very tough road game against last year’s best defense in the Cleveland Browns. It will also be a tough first challenge for the new-look run defense under Zimmer against a Browns team that’s been one of the best rushing attacks of the last few years.

Those are the details McCarthy prefers to focus on. Just win, and the rest will take care of itself. He knows he has what it takes to win the big one, and feels he has the talent to do it – especially going into his second year calling plays for Prescott, last year’s MVP runner-up – but Super Bowls aren’t won in September, and McCarthy knows this.

The pressure may be reaching unsustainable levels, but all he can do is put his head down and his best foot forward this Sunday in Cleveland. Anything else is just a distraction.