On Monday, eight days after the conclusion of the regular season, the Dallas Cowboys parted ways with head coach Mike McCarthy. The decision ended McCarthy’s five-year run in Dallas and put the Cowboys in the market for another head coach, which will be the franchise’s 10th. Earlier this week, The Athletic ran a survey to get a pulse of the fanbase on the decision, and on what comes next.
Thank you to everybody who participated. Here is how your fellow Cowboys fans feel about the decision to move on from McCarthy, how it was handled and what the road ahead looks like for the Cowboys.
The 65-35 split here indicates that it wasn’t a slam-dunk notion among fans that the Cowboys should move on from McCarthy. It would be interesting to ask voters who said parting ways with him was not the right decision if they feel that way because of their belief in him, or because they aren’t inspired by the options to replace McCarthy — especially the options who are expected to get the most legitimate consideration from the Cowboys, based on their history.
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Still, 65 percent of voters saying that moving on from McCarthy was the correct decision is the voice of the comfortable majority in this poll. It’s an understandable sentiment, not just because McCarthy is coming off a 7-10 season — yes, there are caveats — but more so because over the course of his five-year tenure, it’s hard to really point to one marquee win. There were good achievements, such as the three consecutive 12-win seasons, success with Cooper Rush in 2022 for five games and the playoff win in Tampa Bay but none of those serve as a blinking-light achievement. On the other hand, the playoff losses to the San Francisco 49ers sting and the postseason blowout to the Green Bay Packers stick out like a sore thumb. McCarthy was brought in to deliver playoff success and in his five years, he was unable to do it.
This response isn’t surprising. As we wrote the day of the decision, regardless of where you fell in that discourse, the approach to the divorce was messy and unnecessary. It doesn’t matter if it was Jerry Jones who strung things along and was the leading voice to separate, or if it was McCarthy who ended up leaving the table. The season went off the rails in October, and the playoffs were out of the question with three games left in the season. There were weeks, if not months, to evaluate McCarthy’s tenure, well before the season officially ended. A conclusion for the road ahead should have been reached much sooner. Instead, it took eight days and one job interview denial. Much like their contract negotiations with players, the Cowboys’ front office chose to drag things out longer than it needed to, and serve as an anomaly compared to their peers around the league.
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In the grand scheme, the messy approach doesn’t hurt either side too bad. The Cowboys missed out on some virtual interview opportunities with coaches on the top-seeded teams. McCarthy will still get his chance with the teams that are most interested in him, the Chicago Bears and the New Orleans Saints. The bungling of the situation was just unnecessary, as the voters express here.
Fan apathy might be at an all-time high, so it’s not a surprise that more than half of the voters believe the franchise is lost and there’s no reason for hope. Being completely lost as a franchise is probably too strong, but there are good reasons to be skeptical of the direction. There doesn’t appear to be a detailed plan of how they are going to find their next head coach. That’s reason enough for concern. The wrong move there could set things back much further than they are right now. Keeping McCarthy was unlikely to lead to a Super Bowl parade but there was stability.
Deciding to move on is fine, but it didn’t need to drag out a week, especially when other teams were already conducting interviews with top coaching candidates. Will they make a quality hire who is paired with a quality staff? We’ll soon find out. One surprising thing from the poll results is that 6 percent believe the Cowboys are moving in the right direction.
There isn’t an obvious name when it comes to the Cowboys’ coaching search. Deion Sanders is the biggest name and Ben Johnson appears to be the most coveted candidate across the league during this hiring cycle. But neither is a no-brainer match for Dallas. If money wasn’t an option, which it shouldn’t be, Johnson makes the most sense. Yes, he’s never been a head coach. But his 13 years on NFL coaching staffs, including the last three as Detroit’s offensive coordinator, make him an excellent option. There could be some growing pains early, but pairing him with a former NFL head coach on the defensive side, like Mike Zimmer, could help in that area. Johnson is also intriguing because he isn’t just the latest attractive offensive mind coming from the Shanahan tree. He’s paved his own path. Seeing the success he’s had elevating Jared Goff’s play makes a pairing with Dak Prescott very intriguing.
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The voters basically had three tiers with their results. Johnson was by himself on the top. Tier 2 was Mike Tomlin and Sanders. Tier 3 was a close competition among Bill Belichick, Kellen Moore, Pete Carroll and Aaron Glenn. A lot of fans would be intrigued by a partnership between Jerry Jones and Sanders. But would Jones really end up with someone without any NFL coaching experience? And someone who would take a lot of spotlight away from the team’s owner and general manager? Where things currently sit, anything is possible.
(Photo of Deion Sanders: Joe Robbins / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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