After last season, the Cowboys didn’t give Mike McCarthy an extension for a third consecutive 12-win regular season, and they didn’t fire him for a third consecutive playoff disappointment.
So, McCarthy is in the final year of his contract knowing what he needs to do to extend his time in Dallas.
McCarthy called being a lame duck coach a “challenge” before training camp started, and it’s become a bigger challenge now after a 44-19 home loss to the Saints.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, though, said McCarthy is under no more pressure than he was before Sunday.
“I don’t think where he is with his contract has anything to do with [the season-opening win at] Cleveland, where we were giving accolades out to him and [Mike] Zimmer or how we played Sunday,” Jones said on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan. “We’re trying to get this team ready and in place to really make a run at the playoffs. On any given Sunday you can have a bad day in the NFL, and you can certainly lose a game in the NFL. And the NFL is one that you can lose several games, and if you’re playing well at the end of the year you can win the Super Bowl. And so that’s just what we’ve got.
“If we’ve got any albatross around our neck, it’s that we’ve been a good-to-very-good team during the season over the last four to five years with Mike, and we haven’t done well in the playoffs. So let’s trade some challenges during the season for doing well in the playoffs, if you want to look at it that way.”
Jones repeatedly has mentioned “Green Bay” as the reason the Cowboys didn’t extend McCarthy’s contract after last season. The Cowboys lost to the Packers 48-32 in a wild card game at home that wasn’t that close. The Cowboys are 1-3 in the postseason the past three seasons with two home losses.
