In most years, they left the Dallas Cowboys richer — but also worse for wear when it came to the NFL’s appetite for their next head coaching job.
Chan Gailey. Dave Campo. Wade Phillips. Even Jason Garrett. All capable. Maybe able to wrangle a second head coaching shot in a less-than-ideal situation. Most ended their careers stranded on the same island of rejection, branded as better supporting actors than leading men. Tom Landry and Barry Switzer never coached in the NFL again after getting axed by Jerry Jones; Landry because he was too old, Switzer because he was too unpredictable.
Two left with their coaching stars intact, if not slightly enhanced. Jimmy Johnson for being the architect and driver of the last Cowboys mini-dynasty. And Bill Parcells for going into retirement with a winning record, while also leaving behind a masterfully developed Tony Romo at quarterback.
Mike McCarthy, despite his flaws, exits Dallas in the latter class — leaving the Cowboys better off than he arrived.
That’s what I heard after making calls across the league about McCarthy. Largely only positive opinions that credit a head coach who notched three straight 12-win seasons, sandwiched between two years when his centerpiece quarterback suffered consequential season-ending injuries in 2020 and 2024. All while the Cowboys were often bargain shoppers in free agency, with his team owner-general manager regularly waxing about the operation — sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes for the demonstrably odd or anecdotally confusing.
If anything, McCarthy leaves Dallas as the good soldier. The guy who sat through seemingly every season-opening news conference in Oxnard under a subtle cloud — or sometimes not so subtle — questioning what might happen if this was another season the Cowboys didn’t take the big step forward. The guy who had to figure out ways to reinvigorate Ezekiel Elliott as a short-yardage running back, elevate Dak Prescott from a mid-level starter to an MVP candidate in 2023, and squeeze every last ounce from an accomplished offensive line that was fading faster than anyone realized.
None of this is meant to imply McCarthy was a great coach in Dallas. He almost always had rosters stocked with good players, including the 2022 and 2023 teams, which should be counted among the best since the franchise’s heyday under Jerry in the 1990s. McCarthy did good things and bad.
He went 1-3 in the playoffs and never consistently balanced out the offense with a running game when it mattered most. Surely he’d like some play-calls and botched moments in game management back. Maybe the clock expiring in regulation without a play against the San Francisco 49ers in the 2022 season’s divisional round of the playoffs. Definitely the curb-stomping loss to the Green Bay Packers in the 2023 season’s wild-card round, which might haunt him forever.
While you could argue that some did more with less over the past five years, few put up a fight the way he did with extended starts from backup quarterbacks Andy Dalton and Cooper Rush. They went a combined 13-10 under McCarthy in situations when the Cowboys easily could have fared far worse. And nobody in the league operated so steadily in the middle of a team owner-driven circus, which featured Jerry doing things, or saying things or getting caught up in the middle of things that had other organizations shaking their heads in disbelief. To the point that “I feel for Mike,” was a regular part of the league discourse about McCarthy’s stint in Dallas.
In the bigger picture, this is what has McCarthy walking out of Dallas as a winner. He went in as a recycled head coaching hire who was almost universally panned in 2020, then got the Cowboys back onto a winning track that made a Super Bowl window at least attainable … even if it was never seized upon in his tenure. Now he departs Dallas as a genuinely coveted high-end asset on the head coaching market. Under the ownership of Jerry, only Jimmy Johnson accomplished that kind of exit.
Impressively, McCarthy accomplished it without public acrimony, despite Jones refusing to let McCarthy speak to the Chicago Bears until his contract had officially expired — which now looks borderline petty, and might have been used as a tool by Jerry to make it look to players like Prescott and Micah Parsons that Jones was interested in retaining his head coach right up to the end. That would be a dubious suggestion now, of course. If Jones had any real interest in keeping McCarthy, he could have accomplished before riding him into a lame duck season, or at least swiftly moving to secure McCarthy after the Cowboys’ season ended. Instead, Jones put on a song and dance about how impressed he was that the locker room was continuing to fight for McCarthy even when there was nothing left to play for but pride. All of which made Jerry’s life only more complicated when both Prescott and Parsons backed a McCarthy return that, unbeknownst to them, was not in the plans.
So McCarthy leaves looking like the bigger man between himself and Jerry. Partially a victim to his inability to break through, partially because of the malaise that began to coat the Cowboys’ fan base and show up in some spotty attendance at AT&T Stadium, and partially because Jerry seems to again be operating on his gut as he moves forward with his franchise. It’s a compass that is growing more questionable by the year — this time somehow opening his head coaching job when Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel had already chosen other paths, and also too late to interview any candidates from the remaining playoff teams. It’s a mistake that left Jones with little more than another carnival barking trick that did exactly what he wanted it to do: Dragging attention back to himself and his franchise by calling Deion Sanders and ginning up some completely ambiguous narrative about an “intriguing” conversation. The details of that chat are about as well-defined as one of Jerry’s wandering missives about the good ol’ days when Deion used to play in Dallas.
When you see this unfolding, you have to look at McCarthy’s departure and think that he’s the better for it. His success with Prescott — and also Rush — can now be added to a fairly prolific run of positive results with an array of different quarterbacks and skill levels during his career. It includes Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre as a head coach, Aaron Brooks and Jeff Blake as an offensive coordinator, and Joe Montana, Elvis Grbac, Steve Bono and Rich Gannon as an offensive quality control and quarterbacks coach with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Historically, when McCarthy has put in sustained time with a group of quarterbacks, both the starters and backups have improved. Often significantly. The lone blip on this résumé was his one-season stint as an offensive coordinator with the 49ers during Alex Smith’s rookie season in 2005. But that was such an unqualified disaster across the entire staff, not even Smith holds that rough season against him now.
It’s what should make the Bears excited about McCarthy when it comes to Caleb Williams. It’s what the New Orleans Saints should be thinking about when it comes to possibly developing the raw talent and considerable arm of Spencer Rattler. And it’s what other teams should be thinking about when they’re looking for a head coach who has had success in getting teams and offenses in order … even if he still has some blind spots.
What he leaves behind in Dallas is nothing short of an immense project for the next head coach. From the significant salary-cap squeeze that’s going to get worse with Parsons’ next deal, to the offensive line that looks like it’s a multiyear rebuild, to a skill position group around Dak Prescott that looks uninspiring when you get past CeeDee Lamb. And lest we forget, Prescott coming off another season-ending injury in his lower body — with no real understanding how it could impact his mobility moving forward.
Dallas has roster problems. It has team owner problems. And for decades, it has had expectation problems that have often failed to distinguish fantasy and reality. Now McCarthy is gone, paving the way for who knows what. The circus goes on, winning attention and buzz and so many things that have nothing to do with finally breaking through to the ultimate goal.
With his reputation and résumé in good shape, Mike McCarthy gained freedom from the circus by losing his job inside it. And that’s just enough to call this his final win in Dallas.
