Cowboys news: Mike McCarthy will be back for the 2024 season
Sources: Cowboys to retain Mike McCarthy as head coach – ESPN
This can now be put to bed, the 2024 Dallas Cowboys will be coached by Mike McCarthy.
The Dallas Cowboys will not be making a head coaching change, as Mike McCarthy will return for the 2024 season, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Wednesday.
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones had been silent about McCarthy’s future since Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round.
McCarthy, who has one more year left on his contract, is 42-25 in four regular seasons with the Cowboys, including three straight 12-win campaigns and NFC East titles in 2021 and 2023. He has just one playoff victory with Dallas, however.
A number of Dallas players, including quarterback Dak Prescott and left guard Tyler Smith, stood up for McCarthy following the loss to the Packers. They said they appreciated McCarthy’s willingness to take care of their health and well-being during the course of the season.
3 internal defensive coordinator options for Cowboys if Dan Quinn leaves – Reid Hanson, USA Today
If there is a coordinator shakeup, the replacement may already be in-house.
Coordinator Candidate No. 1: Al Harris
Harris is seemingly everyone’s favorite assistant coach in Dallas. The former Green Bay CB has been coaching for 12 years in the NFL. In his short time in Dallas, he’s produced two of the NFL’s biggest ballhawks. Trevon Diggs led the league in interceptions in 2021 and DaRon Bland led the league in 2023.
Harris’ success in developing CBs has made him a weekly conversation piece during Cowboys broadcasts. Logging more screentime than Taylor Swift, Harris has a celebrity status in Dallas and is a hot name across the NFL.
The jump from DB coach to DC is an enormous one, but if anyone has the juice to make that leap, it’s Harris.
Coordinator Candidate No. 2: Joe Whitt Jr.
Whitt, Quinn’s No. 2 in command, is the odds-on favorite of the internal candidates. It’s Whitt who fills in for Quinn as play-caller on occasions, and Whitt who holds the official post of secondary/defensive passing game coordinator with the Cowboys.
Whitt comes with 16-years of NFL coaching experience, coaching one season for Quinn in Atlanta and 11 seasons under McCarthy in Green Bay. He’s the most qualified coach on the staff and understands the personnel across the roster as good as anyone in Dallas.
If Quinn takes a head coaching position this offseason, it’s possible he could ask Whitt to come along and coach his defense. But Whitt’s ties to McCarthy and the opportunity to coach a defense as talented as Dallas’ might be too good to pass up.
Cowboys’ success with No. 24 draft pick is evident – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com
The Cowboys have the 24th pick in this year’s draft, and their history at that spot is promising.
1969 – Calvin Hill, RB (Yale): Diehard Cowboys’ fans know all about Calvin Hill, one of the more popular halfbacks of his era. He got the call from Dallas as the No. 24 pick in 1969 and flew out of the gates at the professional level — named AP Offensive Rookie of the Year and a First-Team All-Pro. Hill instantly became a gold standard for how to pick late in the first round.
1992 – Robert Jones, LB (East Carolina): Jones came as a first-round package deal in 1992 alongside cornerback Kevin Smith, who was selected at No. 17 in the same draft, but kudos to a player from a small school like East Carolina being able to not only get the nod from America’s Team, but to also produce a combined 108 tackles in 13 starters en route to AP All-Rookie Team honors, and a UPI NFC Defensive Rookie of the Year nod, deserves a salute.
2010 – Dez Bryant, WR (Oklahoma State): The most heralded Cowboys’ pick at this spot, of all-time, definitely belongs to “X” himself. Jerry Jones and the front office traded up 2 spots from No. 26 to grab Bryant in 2010, and the interstellar wideout went on to have one of the best and most impressive careers in franchise history. His brand still rings loudly throughout the league and Cowboys nation as a whole, and throwing up the X will forever be relevant.
2022 – Tyler Smith, OL (Tulsa): Though the initial reception for Smith’s pick by fans was the polar opposite of what Bryant received, all the Tulsa product went on to do was save the day at left tackle, and as a rookie who had only taken training camp reps at guard, no less, in the wake of losing Tyron Smith; and his sophomore season saw him return to left guard before becoming one of the best at that position [as well] in the entire league. From being much-maligned to an All-Pro honor in the span of two seasons is kind of a big deal.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sends clear message to players: ‘We got to win, this is the Dallas Cowboys’ – Garrett Podell, CBS Sports
Despite the playoff loss, multiple Cowboys players have great respect for Coach McCarthy.
McCarthy addressed the 2023 iteration of the Cowboys for the final time Monday morning, sharing a message of compassion and regret.
“He felt for us,” Lewis said relaying McCarthy’s message to the team today. “He wanted it really bad for us given the caliber of guys we are all together. We wanted it.”
Team owner and general manager Jerry Jones also addressed the squad, airing out his annoyance and distress regarding the Cowboys early postseason exit.
“We got to win,” Lewis said when relaying Jones’ message in a meeting with the players on Monday. “This is the Dallas Cowboys, we had everything to win. We can’t let this feeling keep going on. I just feel like he (Jones) wants to win right now. The urgency is now. It was always that, and we always had that on our shoulders, but he made that clear. That was his point.”
[KaVontae] Turpin said Jones, 81-years-old, emphasized the ticking clock of Father Time.
“Jerry talked about how he doesn’t have too many years left in this business,” Turpin said. “He just wants it bad. He wants a ring bad.”
Lewis, a Cowboys third round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, is one of 16 of Dallas’ pending unrestricted free agents, and potentially seeing his career his the team that drafted him end this is painful for the 28-year-old defensive back.
“I just wanted to help the team win,” Lewis said. “We’ve been here together, all of us, for three years now, and I just wanted to finish it the right way. It hurt that we didn’t get the chance to do that. It’s life. It hurts that we lost like that. I might not be a part of this next year, so it kind of hurts.”
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