Things have not gone well for the Dallas Cowboys in 2024. While they won Week 16’s Sunday Night Football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they were officially eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the day. But while the postseason is no longer an option, Cris Collinsworth noted that the remainder of the season will still have a lot to do with the fate of head coach Mike McCarthy.
With the Cowboys leading the Buccaneers 20-7 late in the second quarter, Collinsworth and Mike Tirico discussed McCarthy’s job security.
“I’ve asked a lot of questions this week about that very subject and a lot of the responses we got back was, ‘Jerry is a lot more loyal to his people than people outside the organization may think.’ But the Dallas Cowboys and Mike McCarthy has to show him something. You can’t just roll over here at the end of the year. And tonight has been sort of the definition of a team not rolling over and fighting.”
“The Dallas Cowboys and Mike McCarthy has to show him something. You can’t just roll over here at the end of the year. And tonight has been sort of the definition of a team not rolling over and fighting.”
Cris Collinsworth on Jerry Jones and Mike McCarthy. pic.twitter.com/b4O23T8kTs
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 23, 2024
“You have a litmus test,” Tirico replied. “You have a good team that needs it tonight, you have a team — at Philly that needs it — and Washington at the end.”
First, we have to point out that nobody who saw how Jones handled the coaching tenure of Jason Garrett would doubt his loyalty to “his people.” Jones made a big mistake in the 1990s when a battle of egos led to Jimmy Johnson leaving the Cowboys after leading the team to back-to-back championships. From the outside looking in, it feels as though Jones has spent much of the last three decades overcorrecting that mistake.
That notwithstanding, Tirico is correct.
Sunday night’s loss was huge for the Buccaneers. Tampa now sits at 8-7 and is tied with the Atlanta Falcons (who own the head-to-head tiebreaker) for first place in the NFC South race.
Dallas’ Week 17 opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles have clinched a playoff spot but are still battling for the NFC East title with the Washington Commanders, who will finish the regular season in Dallas in Week 18.
So, while the Cowboys will not be in the playoffs, they can still have a lot of influence on what the postseason will look like. The question is, should the final games have that much of an influence?
Certainly if the team has thrown in the towel and the players seem disinterested, that’s something to consider. And as Collinsworth noted, that doesn’t look to be the case. In fact, CeeDee Lamb would probably have been better suited not playing on Sunday. Still, Jones’ decision ultimately should come down to whether McCarthy’s positives (three straight 12-win seasons from 2021-2023) outweigh his negatives (disappointing playoff results and an underachieving season in 2024).
If the team totally quits on McCarthy, it’s probably best to move on. Conversely, if several players declare that they want him to return, it’s probably best to give McCarthy one more year. But short of either extreme, it’s hard to think that anything that happens in the final weeks of a disappointing season should have a lot to do with whether McCarthy returns.
[Photo Credit: NBC]
