It took Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones roughly five minutes into his training camp press conference on Tuesday to make some news around the NFL.
With Dallas opening camp in Southern California, Jones joined head coach Mike McCarthy in answering questions. He immediately touched on the latter’s job security, failing to mince words in the process. It was prime Jerry Jones.
“I want to be real clear. He wouldn’t be sitting here today if I didn’t believe he was the man to lead this team to a Super Bowl. And I have choices. “
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Mike McCarthy
Way to put pressure on your head coach mere minutes into training camp. With that said, there were some rumors that Dallas might look to move off McCarthy after just two seasons. That came immediately after the Cowboys’ ugly NFC Wild Card Playoff loss to the rival San Francisco 49ers at home in January.
For his part, Jones seems to be singing a different tune than he was on the heels of the aforementioned loss.
“The thing I want to clear is up is that the idea of Mike twisting in the wind wasn’t the case at all. There was never an issue with me with Mike being the head coach,” Jerry Jones on Mike McCarthy back in January. “You never heard that from me. I didn’t want to get involved publicly because they would have just made it more it more interesting for another club.”
Related: Jerry Jones among NFL’s richest owners
Jerry Jones makes it clear: Super Bowl or bust for Mike McCarthy
When Jones said he had options, we didn’t really need to be a coder to decipher the message. The pressure is squarely on McCarthy to lead Dallas to its first Super Bowl appearance since back in 1996. If not, the Cowboys will look in another direction.
Obviously, former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton has been bandied about a lot. He resigned from his post earlier this offseason and has been linked to Big D over the better part of the past decade.
As for McCarthy, he just recently opened up about his job security — calling it a media-driven narrative.
“It’s irritating that the first question you ask me has nothing to do with how I do my job. I show up every day for work to win a championship. How do we win today? That’s what I’m asking. My viewpoint is it’s not a story. It’s a media-driven narrative, or at least a narrative driven outside my realm.”
Mike McCarthy to david Moore of the dallas Morning News (July 25, 2022)
Talk about being on the same page heading into the 2022 season.
McCarthy, 58, has posted an 18-15 record in two seasons with the Cowboys. The pressue is certainly on him right now.