Dallas City News

It has been less than 72 hours since the Dallas Cowboys season ended, and since then the team has been in the process of their usual rhymes and rhythms. Reports and things of the like are common when you close out a season and going through the process before the month of February is a practice the Cowboys are unfortunately quite familiar with.

Many have been wondering if or when we will hear word about the status of head coach Mike McCarthy. Given how Dallas was humiliated by the Green Bay Packers, many are ready to see the Cowboys make a change, but McCarthy has won a lot of regular-season games and been to the playoffs three years in a row. You can argue yourself in circles based on what has happened over the course of the last 1,000 days or so.

Whatever you believe, it appears that we may have an answer at some point near the end of this week. The Dallas Morning News released a report on Tuesday evening that had all sorts of information, including that Mike McCarthy would be meeting with Jerry Jones on Thursday or Friday.

The report discussed the major factors surrounding this offseason for the Cowboys, including the more-than-likely extension that is to come for quarterback Dak Prescott.

Prescott did his reputation — and more importantly, the Cowboys — no favors with his poor performance against the Packers. The emotional response would be for Jones to throw up his hands and say it’s time to move on, but that’s not the prudent course.

Plus, it’s financially prohibitive.

It’s not wise to dismiss the strides you saw Prescott take during the regular season because of Sunday’s failure. The obvious affinity the quarterback showed for McCarthy and the faith he displayed in his coach’s guidance shouldn’t be disregarded.

Fantasize about Belichick all you want. His record as a head coach in this league is unmatched.

That doesn’t mean at this point he’s the coach to bring out the best in Prescott and these Cowboys.

Before the game against Green Bay, the only pertinent conversation about McCarthy’s future appeared to be whether or not the team would go deep enough to earn him an extension. That’s off the table now. How does Jones shift from that starting point to seriously considering a coaching change?

That’s quite a leap, no matter how hard the Green Bay loss hit.

McCarthy has one year left on his contract. So does Prescott unless/until his contract is addressed. A strong argument can be made that it’s in the Cowboys’ best interest to give these two one more year together before moving on.

That starts by letting McCarthy know he’ll be back for a fifth season before the week is done.

On one hand it is fair to say that McCarthy pulled the best football that we have ever seen out of Prescott when he took over as offensive play-caller, but on the other hand the team just got destroyed in embarrassing fashion. They became the first team to ever lose to a #7 seed in the playoffs and were the only home team to lose across Wild Card Weekend.

The idea that there has to be a fall person for this is common in situations like this, but that is the case because somebody is usually to blame. While it is a divisive subject, the reality of Prescott’s contractual status reinforces that he is not going anywhere. If you can make peace with that whether as a team member or as a fan is one thing, but the organization is nowhere near as tied to McCarthy in the way that their salary cap is to the quarterback.

But this report is perhaps laying the groundwork. We will see.

It has been noted many times that Mike McCarthy is entering the final year of his contract with the Cowboys and the team did make Jason Garrett go through his before not renewing it at the end of the 2019 season. The drama and hysteria surrounding that situation would be immense all season long, but maybe leadership believes that is the best course of action at this point in time.