Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy entered the 2023 NFL season firmly on the hot seat after their past two seasons ended in playoff losses to the rival San Francisco 49ers.
For owner Jerry Jones and Co., regular-season success has not translated to wins in the postseason. In fact, Dallas has not made it as far as the NFC Championship Game since back in 1996.
Dallas entered Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills with a 10-4 record and riding a five-game winning streak. The team’s offense has been on a roll, ranking No. 1 in the NFL in scoring at 32.4 points per game.
This success could soon lead to an extension for the much-maligned McCarthy.
“That’ll have a course that seeks its own time frame. I don’t do anything of that sort until the season is over,” Jones on potential Mike McCarthy contract extension, via NFL.com.
Whether this actually happens will likely be reliant on what Dallas does in the playoffs. It clinched a postseason spot before taking to the field against Buffalo on Sunday. But continued postseason futility could very well change Jones’ thought process.
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Mike McCarthy record (with Dallas): 40-23, .635 winning percentage
Dallas boasts a combined 34-13 record since posting a 6-10 record in McCarthy’s first season back in 2020. Despite this, the team has not advanced past the divisional round of the playoffs.
Jones has in the past opened up about the lack of playoff success, leading to questions about McCarthy’s future in Big D.
“I can tell you the story of every one of those disappointing years. I can go back and pick about four of those years that we had the goods to be there, but for whatever reason, we weren’t,” Jones said after last season’s playoff loss to the 49ers. “The motivation is here and we created the motivation in what we do in presenting the Cowboys. We write a check with our mouth that our butt has to cover. Or should cover.”
Dallas has an opportunity to win the NFC and potentially earn a first-round bye in the playoffs. But as Jones has noted multiple times in the past, it’s all about what happens in January.