Mike McCarthy will not return as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, NFL Network reported, and sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein on Monday. His original five-year contract ends Tuesday.
For Cowboys fans, who have been waiting for a championship, the news was frustrating—why wait weeks or even months to make a coaching change? During this time, many top coaching candidates were either hired or already deep into the interview process with other teams.
Then came an even more confusing reason for the parting. After a week of meetings between McCarthy and team owner Jerry Jones, “the two sides could not come to terms on an agreement on the length of a new contract.”
The length of a new contract?
A contract’s length matters for two main reasons: to keep a successful coach in place and to set the terms for a potential buyout if the coach needs to be fired early.
It’s about money.
This focus on contract length suggests Jones believed McCarthy was the right coach for the Cowboys in 2025 but was worried about paying millions if he was wrong.
Jerry Jones is 82 years old and worth $17 billion.
Money shouldn’t have been a major factor, especially considering it could cost millions to pay McCarthy if the team failed again. The Cowboys have been without a Super Bowl for 29 years.
This situation shows the same old pattern with Jones, whose decisions are often confusing and don’t lead to success.
You’d expect more urgency from him, but this is how he got the team in this situation to begin with.
Either McCarthy is the right coach, or he isn’t. That should have been the only factor in the decision because you can’t take money with you, but you can buy the experience and legacy of winning another Super Bowl.
So why the hesitation with the contract? And why wait so long?
McCarthy wasn’t the only issue for the Cowboys, especially with the team struggling due to injuries. He had previously led the Cowboys to three straight playoff appearances, although he never took them to the NFC Championship game. He had also won a title with Green Bay.
He is a good coach.
“Mike’s one of the best coaches that I think there is,” said Jones a week ago.
If that’s the case, then why not keep him? But if the decision fell apart over contract talks, why didn’t this happen earlier? The Cowboys’ season was effectively over by mid-November when they dropped to a 3-7 record and lost quarterback Dak Prescott for the rest of the season.
If the length of the new contract was the key issue (even though it shouldn’t have been for a team focused on winning), then they should have figured that out and moved on quickly.
Doing so would have allowed the Cowboys to start focusing on finding their next coach.
Maybe that would have meant reaching out to Bill Belichick before the legendary coach decided to head to the University of North Carolina.
Maybe it would have been talking to other available coaches like former Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel, who has already joined New England.
Or maybe it would have allowed the Cowboys to seriously consider up-and-coming coordinators, like Detroit’s Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson, who embarrassed the Cowboys in Week 6.
Or maybe, just maybe, it could have been something else entirely.
Dallas seems to be stuck while other teams are moving ahead with their coaching hires. While it’s not too late for the Cowboys to still grab someone like Johnson or Glenn—or even get Belichick to change his mind—it’s not a good look.
Jones has always been slow to act. Over his nearly 30-year quest for another Super Bowl, he’s held on too long to coaches, quarterbacks, and even his own role as general manager, mixing loyalty, misplaced optimism, and ego.
As a result, the Cowboys haven’t changed much, and the seasons of disappointment keep adding up.
Now, Jones faces what could be his final coaching hire. He needs to get this right. But instead of moving quickly to choose a new coach, he’s been focused on evaluating the season and discussing contract details.
Does Jones have a plan? Past decisions suggest he doesn’t. Even when he delegates tasks, his role as general manager remains confusing.
This job requires a lot of energy and time, and you wouldn’t think it would be ideal for an 80-something who has other business and public responsibilities.
However, Jones still insists that he makes the decisions on the team’s personnel. He jokes that he’d have fired someone with his record if not for the fact that he owns the team.
It’s a joke… unless you’re a Cowboys fan wondering how they’ll get out of this mess if contract length becomes a key factor in choosing who will coach the team.
