The Dallas Cowboys are searching for a new head coach, and apparently that is something they did not expect to have to do this offseason.
Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys parted ways last week after the two sides could not agree on a contract extension. Team owner Jerry Jones said in a statement that his discussions with McCarthy never reached the point of actual contract negotiations.
According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic,” that surprised Jones. On the latest episode of her “Scoop City” podcast, which was released on Friday, Russini said Jones fully intended to bring McCarthy back in 2025.
“There’s definitely a camp that I’m talking to that’s like … this is not real. This is not real. They talked. This is all flirting. This is all … Jerry was not expecting Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys to go separate ways,” Russini said, as transcribed by RJ Ochoa of Blogging the Boys. “The plan was to bring him back. They did not have a plan in place here.
“So a lot of this was scrambling, from what I can gather, of just, ‘I need to figure out how to fix this, quickly.’ And so now we’re seeing the coaches get called in.”
Jane Slater of NFL Network reported earlier this week that Jones wanted to keep McCarthy and add former Cowboys tight end Jason Witten to McCarthy’s staff as a coach-in-waiting. It does not sound like the Cowboys ever came close to executing that plan, though Witten might now be a head coach candidate for the team.
McCarthy has drawn interest from other teams, and he is viewed as one of the favorites for the Chicago Bears head coach job. It is possible that Jones was not willing to offer McCarthy what the 61-year-old deemed was a fair deal.
The Cowboys could potentially make a huge splash with their next head coach hire, but it sounds like McCarthy’s replacement will be Plan B for the team.
