Owner Jerry Jones has yet to come out and publicly endorse Mike McCarthy as the Dallas Cowboys head coach for 2022 one week refusing to do so under the guise of needing to evaluate the staff.
But Jones has also not made any contact with former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton about the Cowboys coaching job.
Hiring Payton, who served as a Cowboys assistant under Bill Parcells from 2003-2005, has long been a dream of Jones.
And while he has continually stated since his decision to retire from Saints after 15 seasons on Tuesday that he has no plans on coaching in 2022, Payton admitted on the Dan Patrick Show Thursday that a couple of teams have made back-channel contact to gauge his interest.
Payton refused to name the teams.
But when pressed if the Cowboys and his hometown Chicago Bears were the two who made contact, he said “no and no.”
“Look, you know this,” Payton said to Patrick. “You can have a back door, ‘Hey, would you have any interest?’ That’s happened maybe with a couple clubs.”
“I’m not looking at that path right now.”
Payton is still under contract to the Saints.
In order for another team to hire him, it would have to request permission from the Saints to speak with him and then compensate the Saints for his services via cash or a draft pick.
That doesn’t appear to be a move the Cowboys are going to explore as of now.
Payton plans to pursue opportunities as a NFL broadcast analyst. He says he has already received two or three calls from people in the television industry.
But he is also not finished coaching.
It won’t happen this year. But he will be back in the sidelines in the future.
The question is will it be with the Cowboys?
It certainly makes next season a make-or-break campaign for McCarthy.
