Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones discussed the team’s disappointing season and the franchise’s future on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday morning, providing some insight into whether the team plans on retaining Head Coach Mike McCarthy.
Jones remained noncommittal about signing McCarthy to another contract following this season. He stated that the team is focused on the next game and assured fans that he has spent weeks “thinking about how we go forward after this season.”
“I don’t have any comment this morning other than what you just said, and I think the fan sentiment has shown that Mike’s certainly got the kind of coaching background and coaching success that would make him a very qualified coach in the NFL,” continued Jones, per The Dallas Cowboys.
Jones explained that people can “learn a lot during adverse times,” which McCarthy has been forced to do due to the numerous injuries this season.
“But certainly, you learn how it is to work with someone and yes, it’s been that kind of year,” he added, according to The Cowboys.
Jones said he was happy about Coach McCarthy’s performance despite the difficulties he experienced on the scoreboard.
“The main thing is, I like the job that he’s done; it’s unfortunate we’ve had the year that we’ve had, but I feel good about Mike,” said Jones, per The Cowboys.
Although Jones has moved on from head coaches in the past, McCarthy should feel better about his job security after hearing that Jones is pleased with his performances this season.
The former Super Bowl-winning head coach also addressed these discussions on Monday and said that they are not necessary because the organization will have “time to talk about that next week.”
“I do appreciate the opportunity to speak on it. 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,” he said, as reported by ESPN.
McCarthy often refuses to discuss his plans past the current season but said the “future is bright” for this team and there are still “a lot of things in place here” for the upcoming years.
“We need to take a step back after next week, and obviously a lot of decisions got to be made, a lot of business decisions got to be made because of our contract situation, and that’s what we’ll do,” he said, per ESPN.