DALLAS — Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones offered support to head coach Mike McCarthy in an interview with “Shan & RJ” on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM] on Tuesday morning.
McCarthy, who is 30-20 in three seasons with the Cowboys, went 12-5 this season, including a 4-1 mark without starting quarterback Dak Prescott, who missed five games with a fractured thumb.
“No. I don’t even want to — no. That’s it,” Jones said when asked if anything could happen in Monday’s playoff game against Tampa Bay that would affect McCarthy’s future job status in Dallas.
“I don’t need to go into all the pluses or minuses. But I’ve got a lot more to evaluate Mike McCarthy on than this playoff game.”
McCarthy has led the Cowboys to the postseason in consecutive seasons, the first time that’s happened since coach Chan Gailey did it in 1998-99.
Last season, McCarthy’s job status became a topic of discussion after the Cowboys’ finished 12-5 and won the NFC East. When the season was over, following a loss to San Francisco in the NFC Wild Card, Jones didn’t publicly say McCarthy was returning.
Jones indicated he was more concerned with trying to keep defensive coordinator Dan Quinn from leaving for another head coaching job. Jones and McCarthy wanted to keep Quinn to build continuity among the coaching staff. There were also rumors when coach Sean Payton left the Saints he would become the head coach in Dallas because of his close relationship with the Jones family.
McCarthy admitted in the offseason he spoke to Jones about the Payton rumors.
When it comes to McCarthy, there doesn’t appear to be, at least for now, any concerns about his job status. McCarthy has two years remaining on his contract.
“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 told The Fan. “They’ve got every nuance. They understand every frailty that we might have or we might have shown Sunday [in the loss to Washington].”
Dallas enters the NFC wild-card game at Tampa Bay on Monday night reeling from a 26-6 loss to Washington that concluded the regular season. Jones doesn’t feel that loss will have a carryover effect going into the postseason. Tampa Bay lost its final regular-season game, as well.
“I don’t believe we’re going to go into the playoffs overconfident,” Jones said. “I think we’re sober and we certainly can remember last year’s [playoff loss]. We can remember last week if that’s a good thing, understanding that a bad game gets no bogey this coming week, understanding that. We’re going to be in good shape. That was sobering [last] weekend.”
