Cowboys Ownership Doing Mike McCarthy One Last Favor on His Way Out

The Dallas Cowboys have been officially eliminated from the playoffs after the Commanders won in Week 16. After starting the season with Super Bowl aspirations, the Cowboys are left with nothing to play for in the last two weeks of the season.

Despite the disappointing 2024 campaign, the Cowboys have been playing much better lately, winning four of their last five games. Their record at 7-8 doesn't look as bad as it did a month ago.

The recent surge has brought about questions about the future of Mike McCarthy with the organization. The experienced head coach's contract is expiring at the end of the season, and many had assumed that the Cowboys would find a replacement in the offseason. While that may still be the case, the Cowboys management is doing him one last favor before his departure.

The Cowboys ownership has been praising McCarthy at every turn. Stephen Jones continued to do so on Monday in his appearance on 105.3 The Fan. Per The Athletic's Jon Machota, the Cowboys EVP said McCarthy was doing a great job, especially with keeping the group together.

Even though this may be understood as the Cowboys potentially being interested in retaining McCarthy, it is worth noting that Jones didn't mention anything about a contract extension. Instead, he said, "We’ll start worrying about the future when we’re through playing the Commanders on our last football game of the year." If they were in fact happy with the job McCarthy was doing, they could have easily talked about him earning an extension.

They are not doing that. This suggests that they may be intentionally hyping McCarthy up to not hurt his reputation. This may be because they want to help him land another job or it could be because of the positive working relationship they had over the years. Regardless, all of these compliments don't necessarily mean that McCarthy will be the head coach in Dallas going forward.

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