The Cowboys have a history of letting coaches play out their contracts before committing to signing them to another one. They twice did it with Jason Garrett, who got a contract extension in 2015 and then let go after it expired following the 2019 season.
Mike McCarthy is entering the final year of his deal with the Cowboys, something he has admitted is a “challenge.”
Jones said Saturday night he believes having your back against the wall brings out your best.
“Absolutely, I do. I really do,” Jones said. “There’s no question in my mind that angst, pressure, competing will bring out the best in this game from coaches and players. But . . . this game has to have some extra [fire] over the guys that you’re in front of [on the field]. That’s why I’m kind of amazed at someone talking about the job they’re doing without a contract. Blows my mind.”
McCarthy has posted back-to-back-to-back 12 win seasons, something not accomplished in Dallas since the 1990s dynasty. The Cowboys are 36-15 in the regular season the past three seasons, with only the Chiefs, at 37-14, posting a better record in that span.
The Chiefs, though, have back-to-back Super Bowl titles, while the Cowboys have one playoff win.
The regular-season record was not enough for Jones to extend McCarthy, who, frankly, has earned one.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a coach change coaching or how hard he works over his contract,” Jones said. “I didn’t know anything like that ever happened or could happen. I see no difference in what Mike is. Mike is a Super Bowl-winning coach. He has had an outstanding record since he has been here. That’s where it is.”
Jones again brought up the 48-32 home loss in the wild-card round last year, a game that was not as close as the score might indicate. The Cowboys still have not played in an NFC Championship Game since 1995.
“We all have Green Bay on our mind,” Jones said. We all have it on our mind, and we know until we can get that addressed, then we’re going to always have a bad taste on that.”
On Monday, McCarthy was asked a question about CeeDee Lamb, and whether the Cowboys needed better production out of other players to take the pressure off the star receiver to “be a better offense in December and January.”
McCarthy sounded as if he was responding to Jones at the end of his answer, but, whether he was or wasn’t, he made his point.
“We keep talking about playoffs and things like that but I don’t know when the hell it became easy to win 12 games in a season,” McCarthy said, via audio from the team. “So, we’ve got to really get back to winning week in and week out.”
Unfortunately for McCarthy, Jones only seems to care about the record in January and February, and the Cowboys’ record in the postseason since 1995 is 5-13. Jones has not made public what McCarthy has to do to earn a contract extension, but it’s clear that 12 regular-season wins and a wild-card loss won’t be enough.