Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy addresses support he’s received from players amid uncertainty

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has endured quite a unique season. It involved working in the final year of a contract, dealing with an injury crisis and knowing ahead of Sunday’s primetime home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that Dallas had already been eliminated from the playoffs. 

Despite that, McCarthy’s squad gave him a 26-24 upset win over Tampa Bay as an early Christmas gift. After the Cowboys improved to 7-8, McCarthy spoke with NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated about the support he’s received from his players over the past five weeks of action. 

“To be frank with you, if I didn’t feel that way, then I would leave,” McCarthy said about his team having his back throughout the campaign. “Where I am in my career, I’m fortunate enough to be in a place, and a space mentally and emotionally, where I can make that choice. But yeah, if I didn’t feel that I was connected [with the players] and putting us in the best position to win, then I would step aside.”

Whispers surfaced when the Cowboys were 3-7, claiming that team owner and general manager Jerry Jones could part ways with McCarthy before Week 18 rolled around. Dallas responded to such chatter by earning four wins over five games, even with injured quarterback Dak Prescott sidelined through January. 

Prescott, star pass-rusher Micah Parsons
and current starting signal-caller Cooper Rush are among the noteworthy Cowboys players who publicly backed McCarthy during the campaign’s second half. While Jones offered high praise for McCarthy recently after Dallas’ win over Tampa Bay, Jones hasn’t yet locked the coach down via an extension or a new deal. 

“…It’s a good locker room, good leaders,” McCarthy told Breer. “And a lot of our leaders are now on [injured reserve]. They were good examples, when young guys got to play a lot more football than, frankly, I’d have preferred them to play early. But it’s a team that was coming together, unfortunately, just one game too late. It’s a hell of a bunch. I admire their consistency. They just stay after it.”

While some previously suggested Jones could eventually target former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel as McCarthy’s replacement, Vrabel has more recently been linked with the Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets, and New England Patriots. However, it’s unclear if McCarthy will want to continue working for a boss who kept him in a contract year through all of 2024. 

Breer noted that Cowboys players “have shown everyone, with their actions, what they want,” regardless of what happens when Dallas plays the 12-3 Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday. That said, it remains to be seen how Jones would react if his club ends the season with back-to-back losses.