Mike McCarthy Won’t Discuss Cowboys Contract amid Rumors: We Need to Finish the Race

Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacekFeatured Columnist IVDecember 31, 2024

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The Dallas Cowboys have one more game remaining in a disappointing 2024 season, and head coach Mike McCarthy is focused on the task at hand even if his long-term status with the team is still up in the air.

“I do appreciate the opportunity to speak on it,” he said when discussing his contract and the contracts of his assistant coaches running out after this season, per ESPN’s Todd Archer. “I’ve answered this question the same for however many months now, so I think the focus, I need to make sure I’m doing exactly what I’m asking everyone else to do.

“We need to finish the race. It’s been a challenging year, based on our contract situation for coaches. It’s stating the obvious, but we’ll have time to talk about that next week.”

The 7-9 Cowboys face the Washington Commanders on Sunday and will be watching the playoffs from home.

That is a stark contrast to each of the last three years under McCarthy when the NFC East team finished with a 12-5 record and reached the postseason. However, the Cowboys went a combined 1-3 in those three playoff trips and never advanced past the Divisional Round.

Questions about the overall playoff ceiling under McCarthy were loud coming into the 2024 campaign and likely why he hadn’t yet received a contract extension, but it became clear Dallas wasn’t making the playoffs this year as it continued to deal with injuries to quarterback Dak Prescott and others.

Yet, as Archer noted, players such as Prescott and Micah Parsons have advocated for McCarthy’s return, which the coach appreciated.

“I think it’s just a reflection of what we have here,” he said. “Everybody talks about culture and I’m not up here to give a bunch of buzzwords, but we do things the right way. I can attest to that. I’ve done this long enough to have a strong opinion to how to run a program, what’s best for the players. The players are coached. They’re coached with detail.

“There’s demand there. Accountability. So the basics are in place. But we’re like any other program, we need to get better. There’s a number of areas we need to improve on. but that’s what the offseason is for. This is not the week to be getting into these discussions.”

McCarthy is showing some of that accountability by focusing on the upcoming game against the Commanders and waiting until the offseason to talk about his contract status.