Dallas Cowboys to retain head coach Mike McCarthy for 2024 season despite damaging playoff loss
By Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — The Dallas Cowboys will retain head coach Mike McCarthy for the 2024 NFL season despite rumors of a coaching change after the team’s damaging playoff loss on Sunday.
The Cowboys were humbled at home, 48-32, against a young and inexperienced Green Bay Packers squad, after which McCarthy’s future with the organization came into question.
However, Dallas owner Jerry Jones released a statement on Wednesday explaining that McCarthy would return with the team for next season.
“I believe this team is very close and capable of achieving our ultimate goals and the best step forward for us will be with Mike McCarthy as our head coach,” Jones said. “There is great benefit to continuing the team’s progress under Mike’s leadership as our head coach.
“Specifically, there are many layers of success that have occurred this season as a result of Mike’s approach to leading the team, both with individual players and with our team collectively. Mike has the highest regular season winning percentage of any head coach in Cowboys history and we will dedicate ourselves, in partnership with him, to translating that into reaching our postseason goals.
“Certainly, Mike’s career has demonstrated postseason success at a high level, and we have great confidence that can continue.”
Next season will be McCarthy’s fifth with the Cowboys and is the last year of his current contract with ‘America’s Team.’
He has a 42-25 record in his four years as Cowboys head coach, including three straight 12-win seasons.
However, Dallas has struggled in the playoffs during his time in Texas, losing three times and winning just once in the postseason.
McCarthy’s falling short in the playoffs continues the storied organization’s shortcomings in the postseason, as the 60-year-old became the sixth straight Dallas head coach since Barry Switzer in 1995 to fail to lead the Cowboys past the divisional round.
The loss to the Packers at the weekend continued that trend, with Dallas – who had been so dominant in the regular season – failing on all fronts in a convincing loss.
Jones stressed that Sunday’s loss affected the whole Cowboys organization, not just McCarthy.
“Our players. Our coaches. Our front office. Myself. There is accountability for our results. I am accountable for our results,” he said. “The lens we use to view and evaluate Coach McCarthy is holistic.
“While we’re all disappointed with the result on Sunday and with our playoff record, I am 100 percent supportive of him as our head coach and ability to reach our goals.
“We will start our process of review and decision making regarding everything that impacts our team and roster and, while we’re not going to address specific players and extensions or free agents at this point, it deserves our deepest review and consideration, and it will get it.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
