Dallas Cowboys McCarthy Era: Leash is long but patience will be short

Mike McCarthy will be given power and freedom to run the Dallas Cowboys how he sees fit, but with that comes the expectation he’ll deliver immediate results.

New Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is doing it again. He’s continuing to show his clout by making personnel and coaching decisions that don’t exactly jive with Jerry and Stephen Jones’ own personal feelings.

Just last month McCarthy dispatched majority of the Dallas Cowboys coaching staff – Even replacing a popular holdover coach, Jon Kitna,  with a coach more to his personal liking. Kitna may not have been a Cowboys coach for long, but he earned the respect of Cowboys Nation by fixing Dak Prescott’s oft-sloppy mechanics in a single offseason. It was a bold move to say the least.

Now McCarthy’s keeping an all-time Dallas Cowboys great on the hook as the coach decides whether there’s a spot for him on the 2020 Dallas Cowboys or not. It’s hard to envision a situation where Jason Witten doesn’t immediately get re-signed if this was still Jason Garrett’s team. If Garrett was still here, Stephen wouldn’t hesitate re-signing Witten, would he?

This is yet another move by the new head coach, illustrating his freedom to build a staff how he sees fit. Between staff building and roster building, all indications are McCarthy has been given a much longer leash than his predecessor, Jason Garrett. But a long leash means he’s also given a long rope – as in one to possibly hang himself with. As we all know, the knife cuts both ways in matters such as these and for a team ready to compete now, patience will be short for McCarthy.

The last two Dallas Cowboys head coaches to receive this much power and influence were Bill Parcells and soon-to-be Hall of Famer, Jimmy Johnson. The difference with them was they came in to completely rebuild the Dallas Cowboys. Talent was sparse and they had to start from square 1. Such is not the case with Mike McCarthy.

McCarthy comes to Dallas inheriting a team on the verge. This team was supposed to compete for a Super Bowl. Forget what Parcells used to say about “you are what your record says you are.” This team is not supposed to be an 8-8 squad. They were supposed to be a Super Bowl contender. That’s how expectations work (ol’ Bill liked to play dumb to the media in a lot of ways, but we love him for it).

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The expectations are clear – compete in the postseason. There will be no honeymoon. There will be no learning curve. Jerry Jones hired a veteran guy for a reason. If he wanted to accept risk in a swing for the fences, he would have hired a promising first timer like Lincoln Riley or Eric Bieniemy (I would have preferred the latter). But he didn’t. Jerry wanted to limit the risk even if it came with a lower ceiling. He wanted a coach who could hit the ground running and win with the team he had already in place.

He may have signed a 5-year contract but that doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed even half that time to deliver results. If he can’t get farther than Garrett (past the divisional round) in the first two seasons, he may not make it to a third season.

This is not your traditional coaching hire.

Mike McCarthy appears to have a long leash as he works to put the Dallas Cowboys over the top. But that leash will turn to rope if he doesn’t produce immediate results.

• Published on 02/19/2020 at 17:01 PM
• Last updated at 02/19/2020 at 14:18 PM