Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott may be out for the season with an injury, but he still has strong feelings about his head coach Mike McCarthy, and his future with the franchise. In his most recent comments, Prescott not only said he felt “helpless” not being able to win games for his embattled head coach, and hoped that Jerry Jones would retain McCarthy past this season. The Cowboys owner addressed the comments on Friday.
“Dak has a vested interest in the team. He's a critical part of our success as we go forward. His thoughts and ideas about how to be better are very important,” Jones said on his weekly Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on his weekly 105.3 The Fan radio appearance. (h/t Jon Machota of The Athletic) “I understand completely [about him wanting to help Mike McCarthy]. That was the right thing for him to say. If he had been out here and our quarterback and making plays and helping us have a better record than we got right now, that's the way you help Mike. Those kinds of things I know are hard when you're hurt.”
Jones, who developed a reputation as an owner with a quick trigger following his falling out with Jimmy Johnson after two Super Bowl wins, has actually tended to stick with head coaches longer than most think he should in the ensuing years.
And with Dak Prescott signing a massive contract extension on the eve of the 2024 season, the QB does now wield quite a bit of power within the Cowboys organization. So, the question becomes, will or even should Jones fire McCarthy?
Should Jerry Jones fire Mike McCarthy as Cowboys head coach?
Twelve games into the Cowboys' 5-7 2024 season, McCarthy's record with the team now stands at 47-32 in nearly five full seasons at the head of the squad. He is also coming off back-to-back-to-back 12-5 campaigns.
Despite the regular season success, Dak Prescott, Jerry Jones, and Mike McCarthy are 1-3 in the postseason since 2022.
This type of regular season/postseason dynamic is eerily similar to what happened to McCarthy as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers after he won a Super Bowl in 2010. Over the next eight seasons, the Packers made the playoffs six times. but never got back to the Promised Land. McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers were 5-6 in the playoffs post-Super Bowl.
Prescott is now 31 and will be the team's QB for the next few seasons. By the end of his four-year deal, he will be 35, and it's likey his best days will be in the review mirror. So, Jones has a small window to optimize his franchise quarterback's late prime, and doing so by trying a new head coach makes a lot of sense.
