On Sunday afternoon, a portion of the Dallas Cowboys’ football staff figured: We’ve got to be keeping Mike McCarthy, right?
Exact details about the head coach’s meetings with team owner Jerry Jones hadn’t surfaced. Jones was unusually quiet as franchises across the league began requesting to interview candidates, and interviewing candidates, and in one case (hello, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel) even hiring a candidate.
Conclusions developed based less on the Jones family’s feelings about McCarthy and more on the blueprint for coaching changes across the league.
“If we had thoughts of starting a new search,” one person close to team decision-makers texted on Sunday, “I’d think we would have started the process by now.”
By Monday morning, the tenor at Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas had changed.
“Starting to buzz around here this morning,” the same person said. “My assumptions might’ve been wrong.”
Welcome to working for Jerry Jones.
Shortly after 11 a.m. local time, Jones and McCarthy’s final meeting concluded without reaching the negotiations stages. Their marriage of five years, on tenuous grounds this season with an expiring contract, dissolved. Two teams sources confirmed then to Yahoo Sports that the Cowboys and McCarthy were “parting ways.”
Jones issued a statement four hours later reiterating his recent compliments for McCarthy and insisting he has “great respect” for the 18-year NFL head coach who won a Super Bowl at the helm of the Green Bay Packers. But respect doesn’t always translate to a contract offer that would satiate both sides. Jones had been careful not to hint at a future each time he offered praise.
Jerry Jones on Cowboys and Mike McCarthy parting ways: “Prior to reaching the point of contract negotiations, though, it became mutually clear that it would be better for each of us to head in a different direction.”
Full statement 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/f4ryUMpphR
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) January 13, 2025
“Prior to reaching the point of contract negotiations,” Jones said in the statement, “it became mutually clear that it would be better for each of us to head in a different direction.
“We will commence a search process immediately to hire the next coach of the Dallas Cowboys.”
By Monday evening, Jones had reached out to Colorado head coach and former Cowboys star Deion Sanders to discuss, per multiple reports. ESPN and NFL Network characterized the discussions as producing “mutual interest.”
Whether Sanders becomes the odds-on favorite or the Cowboys explore more broadly, it’s worth asking:
What will they be looking for — and what should they be looking for — in McCarthy’s successor? Here are three criteria.
As the Cowboys charge forward with an immediate if somewhat belated search, what will they be looking for — and what should they be looking for? Here are three criteria.
1. A success builder or success maximizer?
There are franchises around the NFL who need a head coach to pull them from the mud and create stability. There are cultures that need to stop vicious losing cycles and snap futile draft classes. The Cowboys fall in neither category. Dallas’ drafts under top personnel evaluator Will McClay have been excellent, homegrown talent regularly fueling the franchise’s success. Injuries and a bad playoff loss hangover doomed this season to 7-10, but the Cowboys won 12 games each of the three prior seasons. They earned three straight playoff berths, though only in one did they advance past the wild-card round.
From 2021 to 2024, Dallas ranked fifth with 43 regular-season wins, trailing only perennial powerhouses in the Kansas City Chiefs (52), Philadelphia Eagles (48), Buffalo Bills (48) and Baltimore Ravens (43). Jones is fond of citing that data point as proof his recipe is working — even as his team’s Super Bowl and NFC championship game droughts creep into their 30th year.
The Cowboys and Mike McCarthy are “parting ways,” multiple sources confirm to @YahooSports.
5 seasons, 3 playoff berths, but no ending to NFC Championship or Super Bowl drought. Cowboys need a new head coach.
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) January 13, 2025
Jones thus is looking for someone who will take the ingredients he’s gathered — beginning with quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who each received massive contract extensions in 2024 and perfect the dish. He still believes in his assertion the Cowboys went “all in” last year after signing those players to new deals. Edge rusher Micah Parsons could follow this offseason.
“We’ve got some commitments that we have in place that are real cornerstones that we’ve got to consider,” Jones told reporters Jan. 5 after the Cowboys’ season finale. “So that’s a big consideration: how to maximize where we’ve really made commitments [that] we like the status of. I wouldn’t put a coach in here who didn’t agree with some of the commitments we’ve made and some of the directions we’re going in personnel.
“You want to build everything to [maximize] that advantage, not undermine it.”
2. Up-and-coming innovator or experienced leader?
Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is the hottest head-coaching candidate on the market for a reason. He’s the most attractive schematic mind available (Andy Reid and Sean McVay aren’t going anywhere), and it’s tantalizing to consider how he could elevate protection and integrate pre-snap wrinkles to give Prescott and Lamb a regular edge.
There’s reason, too, to believe the Cowboys could do well without a proven leader at the head-coaching level, given Prescott’s deeply established leadership acumen entering his 10th season quarterbacking Dallas. And while Jones’ atypically frequent public comments can create questions, Jason Garrett showed they also can let a coach off the hook from answering other questions.
In recent hiring cycles, at head coach and lower levels, the 82-year-old Jones has shown greater comfort with candidates whose formula he can envision because they’ve already tried it. His penchant for seeing a coach’s peak as their resting point makes former head coaches with deep playoff runs attractive to him. Jones leans also toward coaches with whom he’s interacted previously, knowing firsthand how their personality can influence a team.
So even within the Lions organization, Johnson may not be the optimal candidate. Detroit defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, whose presence and defensive production despite injuries have made him a top candidate, played for the Cowboys from 2005-06. That will likely pique Jones’ interest, one team source expecting the Cowboys to seek an interview though playoff timelines could complicate that.
Other names that meet Jones’ combination of experience and some previous Cowboys exposure: former Los Angeles Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn, Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and former Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson.
Lynn played two years for the Cowboys; Moore played and coached for the Cowboys; and Johnson coached Prescott at Mississippi State.
Then there’s Sanders, who spent five official years as a Cowboys player but has stayed close to and present with the organization in the 25 years since.
3. Culture builder… but for what culture?
There are team ownership groups who associate the oft-used “leader of men” phrase with a coach who can maximally motivate players, inspire toughness, counter distractions and coach not just players but also other coaches. Jones may not be opposed to those traits, but he also cares deeply about hiring a coach who is proud to coach the Cowboys.
“Let me be real clear: I wouldn’t want anybody under contract to continue working here who didn’t want to be here,” Jones said last week. “I wouldn’t want that at all because I would be concerned about their enthusiasm for doing the job.
“Any time I’m going to spend any place over the next weeks ahead, they all want to be here. You can assume that if I’m talking to them, they wouldn’t be here … or I wouldn’t sit down and talk to them.”
Jones’ definition of “want to be here” is open to interpretation, but his conversation implied a reverence to the Cowboys and the brand they’ve built, with Jones as the top decision-maker and typically the chief spokesperson. That will impact how he structures a contract and how he develops his belief in his next coach. His belief that a coach should “want” to coach the Cowboys on Jones’ terms rather than, at times, their own, seems to have contributed to McCarthy’s chapter closing.
Some fans may stress about the timeline in which the Cowboys are pursuing a coaching search, the disadvantage they have compared to other teams who began researching and interviewing in recent weeks.
But a source close to the team told Yahoo Sports they believe Jones is less interested in an exhaustive coaching search than some members of the front office and ownership group. If Jones settles on a candidate, that historically has spelled the end of any search.
And don’t wait for him to admit any errors in his timeframe.
“I always, always know coaches and where they’ve been,” Jones said. “When we go to [the Senior Bowl], you’ll see about 500 of them down there who would love to be on the staff.
“And yes, you’ll see coaches down there who have been on Super Bowl staffs. Absolutely you do. There are probably Super Bowl coaches out here right now who, if given the opportunity, would coach again.
“In my mind, there are.”
