Cowboys Already Linked to Shocking Mike McCarthy Replacement

Things are different when you're involved with the Dallas Cowboys. Three straight 12-win seasons just doesn't cut it if you don't have any playoff success to back it up.

Mike McCarthy has learned that the hard way, and he's on the hot seat thanks largely in part to his 1-3 playoff record. He's been on the hot seat since last season, and a disappointing 2024 season would likely be the last straw.

But McCarthy is certainly better than a lot of head coaches out there. So how could Dallas replace him and be sure they're getting an upgrade? Colin Cowherd has made the link between the Cowboys and Bill Belichick.

The post above highlights the Buffalo Bills, of course, but Cowherd claims "The Beli-check list, in my opinion, from what I've heard, are three teams: Philadelphia [Eagles], Dallas [Cowboys] and Buffalo [Bills]."

Of course, let's get right to the massive caveats:

Colin Cowherd is not exactly the best-connected media member out there. There are plenty of examples of him citing sources that he "really trusts" that end up wildly wrong. So this entire "link" could be literally nothing.

Mike McCarthy is not gone, yet. The Cowboys are +800 to win the NFC on FanDuel Sportsbook, which is tied for No. 4 in the conference and implies an 11.1% chance. If Dallas reaches the Super Bowl, it's hard to see McCarthy not getting an extension.

Nowhere does even Cowherd say this interest is mutual. While adding someone as high-profile as Belichick feels like the kind of splash Jerry Jones would love, the potential power struggle between a head coach who wants to be a GM and an owner who wants to be a GM doesn't exactly seem like a good match.

But let's set aside our inner cynics and entertain the notion for a minute. Why? Because Cowboys training camp doesn't open for nearly a week, so we've got some time to play around with potentially ridiculous hypotheticals before there's any real football action to talk about.

For Belichick to land in Dallas would likely mean two things: he's willing to give up his desire for roster control, and the Cowboys are keeping Dak Prescott and avoiding any sort of a rebuild.

Without both of those pieces it's almost impossible to imagine the fit, so let's assume that any hypothetical needs to have both of those be true.

Suddenly this fit becomes a heck of a lot more interesting. We've got Jones setting up a roster that might actually be "all-in" and an all-time great coach who largely, it seems, looked "washed up" because of the decisions he made as a GM.

You're generally not getting many exciting head coach options on the open market in the offseason — those guys are without a job for a reason. And rolling the dice on a hot up-and-coming coordinator is maybe better suited for a rebuilding team than for a real contender.

That leaves very few legitimate options if the Cowboys do move on from McCarthy. And for a one or two year "all-in" push, you could do a lot worse than the greatest head coach in NFL history.

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