Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was already on the hot seat before the season-ending Dak Prescott injury. With the franchise signal-caller lost for the year and pressure heating up, it’s now an expectation that McCarthy won’t return in 2025. However, there have been NFL rumors about his replacement.
Dallas is on pace for its first season with double-digit losses since 2020, which also came under McCarthy. It would be the second time in five years that the Cowboys failed to make the playoffs under McCarthy. Even worse, he’d become the first Cowboy coach since Dave Campo with multiple seasons of 10-plus losses.
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- Deion Sanders coaching record: 11-10 with the Colorado Buffaloes
A Cowboys coaching search won’t begin until the offseason, in part because of how owner Jerry Jones handles operations. As he did with former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, McCarthy is operating under an expiring contract that ends in January. Just as Dallas did with Garrett, it will announce at the end of the 2024 NFL season that McCarthy won’t be retained.
Once McCarthy’s status is official, Dallas will become part of an NFL coaching carousel that could be especially busy this offseason. While some head-coaching candidates will avoid the Cowboys, given the distractions surrounding the franchise, Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders has been floated as a potential option.
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Regarding the NFL rumors linking Sanders to Dallas, Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated recently reported that he’s not aware of “any seriousness” around the league regarding a potential pairing of Jones and Sanders.
There has been plenty of buzz in recent weeks about the Buffaloes’ coach making the jump to the NFL with quarterback Shedeur Sanders, his son. However, that’s unlikely to happen in Dallas considering a Prescott trade this offseason would leave the Cowboys with a $104.137 million dead cap charge.
If Sanders is going to be an NFL head coach, especially one who is partnered up with his son at quarterback, it’s far more likely to be with the Las Vegas Raiders. As for Dallas, it will likely have to pick from a pool of coaching candidates who are willing to put up with Jones’ antics every week.
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