Mike McCarthy has five games left guaranteed on his contract.
Dak Prescott wants the Dallas Cowboys to have more continuity as their head coach.
The Cowboys quarterback will not be able to significantly impact the team’s performance as he recovers from season-ending surgery to repair a torn hamstring. That bothers him.
“It seems like your coach is playing on his last contract and (I) feel almost helpless not being able to help him in this situation, especially if you have so much faith in him and you are the head coach. He’s a guy who believes in that,” Prescott told Yahoo Sports during a Zoom call Tuesday afternoon. “I’m going to control what I can control and help and support Mike as much as I can.”
In his nine seasons with the Cowboys, Prescott played for two head coaches. He will rely on his experience coaching Jason Garrett in the final year of his contract in 2019 as manager this season. Prescott said he was pleased to hear team owner and general manager Jerry Jones say last week that it was “not crazy” to consider McCarthy returning for a sixth season or beyond.
“I really believe in him,” Prescott said in association with DICK’S Sporting Goods. “Obviously I don’t necessarily want to get into all the nitty-gritty and screws, but I think he definitely deserves a chance, another contract and a chance to coach this team with more influence.” “On his terms” might be a better way to put it.
“But I believe in him with all my heart.”
The Cowboys had three consecutive 12-win seasons from 2021 to 2023 under McCarthy. They made the playoffs in each of McCarthy’s years, and though Prescott stayed healthy for more than half of the games, they fell far short of their postseason goals. The Cowboys haven’t advanced to the NFC Championship, let alone the Super Bowl, since the 1995 season.
After the 2021 season, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cowboys 23-17 in the Wild Card Round. Dallas was the only district champion to lose in that round.
The following year, Dallas defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and soon-to-be-retired Tom Brady in the wild-card round. However, the 49ers eliminated them again in the divisional round.
And after the 2023 season, the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers defeated the Cowboys 48-32 at home, a win that was more lopsided than the late scoring would suggest. The Packers led 27-0 with two minutes left in the first half.
The Cowboys had won 16 straight games at home before losing six straight before defeating the New York Giants on Thanksgiving.
Jones told 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday morning that he believes momentum transfers from season to season, and that the Packers loss continues to play into the Cowboys’ struggles this year.
Can the Cowboys carry their strong season finish into 2025? Interesting response from Jerry Jones on @1053thefan.
“There’s no question that good play can carry over from one season to the next. Maybe the not-so-good play against Green Bay in the playoffs last year will carry over.”
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 3, 2024
Dallas went 3-5 in games Prescott played.
“It hurt,” Prescott said of the Packers’ loss. “You have to learn from the lessons (and) you can’t go into a playoff game with a slow start, especially against a hot team. What Jerry is saying is a slow come-on rally (which might help). I mean, look at Green Bay, a team that barely made it to the playoffs last year, got better in the second half of the year, and not only made it, but beat us. They played well until the end, and that’s what propelled them into this season.
“Winning two games in a row is huge, so we just have to continue to do that and build momentum and continue to have confidence, knowing that a lot of the players on this team will be on the team next year. Masu.”
With the Cowboys on a two-game winning streak, Jerry Jones tells @1053thefan that Mike McCarthy is “steady as a rock.”
“He’s the real deal. He’s no BS to these players. I never thought for a second that teams stopped recognizing what a good coach he was.”
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 3, 2024
The Cowboys, who are 5-7 with district wins over the Washington Commanders and Giants, have a 4 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to Next Generation Stats.
The Cowboys next host the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football. The Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders will also follow Dallas’ schedule.
Jones and the Cowboys’ front office will then decide the coaching future of the franchise. Prescott knows his vote.
He wants a coach who taught Prescott the nuances of the game and helped him hone the footwork and timing that led him to MVP runner-up last season.
“That guy won a Super Bowl. I know Jerry is proof of that,” Prescott said. “Not many players or coaches have been able to do that, and who can do that from experience? I know how valuable he was to me.”
