Mike McCarthy takes subtle shot at Cowboys’ offseason strategies

Mike McCarthy has never been one to criticize others, let alone his own boss, but the Cowboys head coach made some comments in his press conference on Thursday that raised some eyebrows. When asked about trying to set a standard for the season, McCarthy had this to say:

“I, personally, as a head coach would really… you know, when you’re signing veterans in camp and you’re doing things at the end, I think that’s a pretty big challenge that doesn’t… because it’s happened more this year, it seems, that I haven’t been exposed to as much. I think if you can have everybody here in April, when that draft’s over and you line up and you’ve got that 90 man roster, if you can get to work on continuity and consistency, I think that’s a huge factor in the start of your season.”

It’s not hard to see what McCarthy is referring to here. The Cowboys added veteran defensive tackles Linval Joseph and Jordan Phillips in August, right in the middle of the preseason. Nick Vigil, a key special teamer who’s seen defensive snaps in half of the Cowboys’ games this year, was signed right at the start of August. And Dalvin Cook – who’s played the last two weeks, albeit sparingly – was added to the practice squad once the preseason had wrapped up, which only extended the ramp up period for him.

McCarthy specifically mentions the period right after the draft as the ideal time to have a full 90-man roster in place. The Cowboys had their undrafted free agent class finalized by May 8 this past year. At that point, they had 81 players on their roster. They added two players in June and three more in July, but did not travel to Oxnard with a full 90-man roster.

As McCarthy notes, this is not the norm in the NFL and not even the norm for the Cowboys. Since McCarthy has been in Dallas, the team has never started training camp with more than two open spots on their roster, and when they do it’s because they had players they were working out in Oxnard who signed shortly thereafter.

Not only is this harmful to a team’s ability to build continuity, as McCarthy says, but it also puts a team behind the eight ball to start the season off. And, as McCarthy went on to explain, starting the year off right is key:

“If you can just get started in September, because September, to me, is the best opportunity to win games. I personally think the quality of football is the best, in my coaching career, in September. So to me, from experience, I think there’s more opportunities to win. So if you can at least get out of the gate and get started – and I think having all your people there in April helps you…”

McCarthy then goes on to mention injuries and how the timing of those injuries have pushed rookies into action sooner than they normally would, but the underlying point remains. McCarthy’s philosophy is that wins are easier to come by in September, which tracks with his own experience: in Green Bay, McCarthy was 29-15-1 in September while going 7-5 in September with the Cowboys prior to this year. But after the slow start to this offseason, Dallas went 2-2 in September with a -7 point differential.

This isn’t exactly breaking news to anyone, though, as it’s been a fairly popular opinion all offseason that Jerry and Stephen Jones were setting McCarthy up for failure in the final year of his contract. It’s a little surprising to see McCarthy subtly hint at that, though, and outline in detail how the front office’s lackadaisical approach this offseason put the Cowboys at a disadvantage before a down had even been played.