As of Sunday afternoon, Mike McCarthy will have no further work to do for the Cowboys. But he will still be working for the Cowboys — for another nine days.
As reported on Friday morning by NFL Media, McCarthy’s contract expires on January 14. (On Thursday, the Cowboys declined to answer a question from PFT on that specific point.)
Under the NFL’s tampering policy, a head coach cannot talk to other teams until his contract expires. However, after the season has ended, his current team has the power to give a specific team permission to talk to the coach, or to give general permission to the coach to talk to other teams.
The threshold question is whether the Cowboys will play hardball with McCarthy, forcing him to wait until January 14 to interview with other teams. They might hold firm, simply because owner Jerry Jones might prefer to commandeer the news cycle for most of the week before leaking and announcing the news on McCarthy’s future during one of the playoff games.
Ideally, the game(s) involving the Eagles or the Commanders.
That’s what happened five years ago. During a Seahawks-Eagles playoff game, reports surfaced that the Cowboys would not be signing coach Jason Garrett to a new contract. Also, the Cowboys leaked the news of quarterback Dak Prescott’s new deal on the morning of the first Sunday of the regular season.
So if Jones hopes to be the center of attention for all of next week and into the first weekend of playoff games, letting McCarthy interview with teams like the Jets, Saints, or Bears will undermine the big reveal that Jones might be planning for wild-card weekend.
