Before Mike McCarthy walked out on the Dallas Cowboys, he was presented with an interesting plan for the 2025 season. On Tuesday, NFL Network's Jane Slater shared some details regarding that plan.
During an appearance on NFL Network, Slater revealed that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wanted McCarthy to add former All-Pro tight end Jason Witten to his staff for the 2025 season. Witten would essentially be the "coach in waiting" for Dallas. Although we can't say for certain that McCarthy hated that plan, his decision to walk away from "America's Team" is pretty telling.
"I do believe he was part of a plan that Jerry initially had when he was going to bring back Mike McCarthy. I think the plan there was to be an heir apparent of sorts. Mike McCarthy sort of surprised him by deciding he wanted to end these conversations," Slater said. "Now we'll see if Jason Witten will still be in play here."
Slater added that Jones feels "very strongly" about Witten's future as a coach.
This might seem like a crazy strategy, but Jones put this same plan into effect in the late 2000s with Jason Garrett and Wade Phillips. Everyone in the building knew that Garrett was the eventual successor to Phillips
An argument can be made that this time around would've been worse since Witten does have any coaching experience at the college or pro level. He has, however, won a pair of state titles for Liberty Christian in Argyle, Texas.
Garrett, meanwhile, was the quarterbacks coach for the Miami Dolphins before being offered the offensive coordinator position in Dallas.
Now that McCarthy is out of the picture, Jones could offer this same plan to other candidates this coaching cycle. Heck, he could outright offer the position of head coach to Witten.
According to Slater, the Cowboys' coaching search is not fully underway. Jones is apparently on a "solo mission" though.
Who do you think will be named the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys?
