Mike McCarthy is a dead-man walking.
That seemed like a given before the season when Jerry Jones decided not to extend his head coach’s contract. The Cowboys assuredly will move on from McCarthy, and most of the rest of the coaching staff, after this season.
But they will not change coaches during the season, the owner reiterated after Monday night’s 34-10 loss to the Texans.
“I have made a change early on a coach with Chan Gailey, and I’ve always regretted that, and I’ve made a change during the season [with Wade Phillips] and regretted that, and that’s the music I’m listening to,” Jones said, repeating what he said after last week’s loss to the Eagles.
Gailey went 10-6 and 8-8 in 1998 and ’99 respectively and was fired despite back-to-back playoff appearances. Phillips was fired in 2010 after a 45-7, non-competitive loss to the Packers dropped the Cowboys to 1-7. Jason Garrett took over as interim coach and was hired for the full-time job in 2011.
McCarthy came into this season with three consecutive 12-win seasons. But the Cowboys set him up for failure in 2024 by not doing anything in free agency while letting key players walk out the door.
The Cowboys lost their fifth consecutive game on Monday, falling to 3-7. It already is the franchise’s most losses since 2020, McCarthy’s first season, when they went 6-10. The Cowboys appear headed toward their worst season since at least 2015 when they were 4-12.
Jones, though, isn’t worried about McCarthy losing the locker room or the team quitting on him.
“You don’t need to worry about anybody in that locker room giving everything they’ve got and more and how bad they feel when they get beat on a play or get beat in a quarter or the whole game, at all,” Jones said. “I don’t ever worry about that.”
The Cowboys are 45-32 in McCarthy’s five seasons, with a 1-3 postseason record. He and the entire coaching staff are in the final year of their contracts.