Mike McCarthy is not coaching for his job when the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers meet Monday night in an NFC wild-card game.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told 105.3 FM The Fan that the outcome of the playoff game wouldn’t decide McCarthy’s status.
“No. I don’t even want to … No. That’s it,” Jones said. “I don’t need to go into all the pluses or minuses. I’ve got a lot more to evaluate Mike McCarthy on than this playoff game.”
McCarthy posted a 12-5 record in the regular season. That matches his 2021 regular-season finish, when Dallas lost at home as the Cowboys were bounced from the playoffs by the San Francisco 49ers.
Immediately after that loss, Jones wouldn’t say McCarthy’s job was safe. The retirement of Sean Payton, a Jones friend and former Cowboys assistant coach, fueled speculation that 2022 could be ripe for a big change in Dallas.
But Jones said McCarthy has the Cowboys where they need to be entering the postseason.
“I can’t tell you how much confidence I’ve got in Mike and our coaching staff of being on top of where we are with this team right now,” Jones said. “They’ve got every nuance. They understand every frailty that we might have or we might have shown Sunday (in a 26-6 loss to Washington). They’ve got everything in their grasp and in their understanding, and I have complete confidence in this coaching staff. It’s outstanding. We’ve got a great chance to go down there and have success.”
McCarthy is 10-9 as a head coach in the NFL playoffs (0-1 with the Cowboys), including a Super Bowl XLV win with the Green Bay Packers. He’s 30-20 overall in three seasons in Dallas.
–Field Level Media