As the Dallas Cowboys search far and wide to find their next head coach, they’ll also keep close tabs on the man they just fired.
Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys mutually agreed to part ways on Jan. 13, ending a five-year run after a disappointing 2024 season. The Cowboys are looking for a fresh face, but McCarthy is looking to prove he wasn’t the problem in Dallas this year.
McCarthy wound up going 49-35 as the Cowboys’ head coach, with a 1-3 record in the playoffs. His overall record as an NFL head coach is 174-112-2 over an 18-year span, with a Super Bowl title in 2010 as the Green Bay Packers’ bench boss.
Though McCarthy’s tenure eventually went sour in Dallas, his track record could well merit one more opportunity to take the reins of an NFL franchise. One football writer sees him staying in the NFC to do just that next season.
On Monday, Yahoo Sports’ Cory Woodroof predicted that McCarthy would become the next head coach of the New Orleans Saints, who are coming off a 5-12 season and fired Dennis Allen after a disappointing three-year tenure.
“McCarthy should land another head coaching job in this cycle, and New Orleans might be his best landing spot,” Woodroof wrote.
“If the Saints really are determined to run it back and not kick off a rebuild, McCarthy is a good candidate to bring some stability to the franchise. However, a rebuild makes more sense.”
New Orleans isn’t a particularly appealing job at the moment, but there aren’t many of those left. They have an aging quarterback in Derek Carr returning from injury and a never-ending pile of debt that they keep kicking down the road through salary cap gymnastics.
If McCarthy goes to New Orleans, the Cowboys might see him down the road someday in an important NFC matchup. The important thing now is to prove they were right to let him go by finding a worthy replacement.
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