NFL 2024 preview: 7 coaches on the hot seat, does Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy deserve a spot?

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has somehow picked up a reputation of cycling through head coaches on a whim. The opposite is true.

Jones is excruciatingly patient with his coaches. Since Jason Garrett took over after Wade Phillips’ midseason firing in 2010, Garrett and Mike McCarthy have been Dallas’ only two head coaches. Inevitably, the Cowboys flame out in the playoffs and everyone assumes Jones will fire his coach, but he’s fired a coach only once in 14 years.

That doesn’t mean McCarthy has a job for life. At some point he needs more success in the playoffs or Jones will make a change. Does that mean he’s one of the five coaches on the hot seat entering the NFL season? Here’s our list:

Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys

By halftime of the wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers last season, everyone knew the Cowboys were on their way to a loss. They trailed 27-7. The only intrigue was whether it was McCarthy’s last game.

The consensus was that McCarthy would get fired after the Cowboys’ latest playoff failure. But Jones retained McCarthy after the team’s third straight 12-5 season. Jones said it was a fairly quick decision.

“This is not a ‘talk yourself into it,'” Jones told the team’s site shortly after Dallas’ season ended. “It obviously gives you a lot of things to consider and think about. Everybody has options. This is one I’m very comfortable with. I felt good during the year with the job that Mike was doing. The team was responding well. We were all disappointed that we didn’t win that Green Bay game. We had visions of a lot better than that, we all did. But there are things there that we can take forward.”

Head coach Mike McCarthy and his Cowboys have a big year ahead of them. (Photo by Brandon Sloter/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

For a coach who is 42-25 over his four Cowboys seasons, the perception is McCarthy has little job security. Maybe that’s true. Only Jones knows for sure. But if the Cowboys’ season ends up short of the Super Bowl, we’re going to…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-08-26 13:00:36

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