After five years, three playoff appearances and just one playoff victory, the Dallas Cowboys have left head coach Mike McCarthy. After lengthy negotiations and a process in which the Cowboys denied another team permission to interview McCarthy less than a week before cutting ties with him themselves, Dallas is now looking for a new chief.
Armed with a strong team led by top talent at Quarterback (Dak Prescott), Wide Receiver (CeeDee Lamb), Edge Rusher (Micah Parsons) and Cornerback (DaRon Bland), Dallas should be able to attract a top coaching candidate. But things are never simple with the Cowboys, because Jerry Jones doesn’t operate like other owners.
With that in mind, we sort potential candidates for this role into three different categories and examine which of them may make sense for the various reasons that need to be considered when dealing with this organization.
Regular search for coaching candidates
Of the names on this part of the list, Glenn might be the most likely. He is both a strong candidate and has ties to the Cowboys organization, where he played under Bill Parcells in 2005 and 2006. Glenn has done an excellent job with Detroit’s defense (and that of the New Orleans before that), and the Jones family loves each other very much. familiar face.
The other candidates here are more or less intrigued. Johnson is arguably considered the top candidate on the entire coaching market, and he can likely take any available opening except the Patriots position that has already been filled. Will Dallas actually open the checkbook to get it? That remains to be seen. Brady and Coen are similar candidates, but probably not as expensive because they don’t have several years of hype behind them. And then Monken is kind of what these guys would be if they were in their 50s instead of their 30s or 40s.
Flores lost his first head coaching job in spectacular fashion and also sued the league over its minority hiring practices. He has, however, been an elite defensive coordinator and may soon get another chance. Weaver was already considered a potential head coach during his time in Baltimore before moving to Miami last season, and he did well there. The Cowboys have also never had a black head coach, which is something to at least keep in mind here. (This would also apply to Glenn.)
Jerry Jones will make sure they are candidates
- Kellen Moore, Eagles OC
- Cowboys DC Mike Zimmer
- Former Cowboys TE Jason Witten
- Former Cowboys DB/Colorado HC Deion Sanders
- Ron Rivera, former Panthers/Washington HC
- Washington OC, Cliff Kingsbury
There’s nothing Jerry Jones loves more than a connection to the Cowboys or the Jones family. Moore played for the Cowboys and served as the team’s quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator for several years. Zimmer served as an assistant and defensive coordinator for Dallas in the 1990s and 2000s before returning to the team last season. Witten and Sanders obviously played for the Cowboys.
Some of these guys are more serious candidates than others. Moore has been a candidate for several positions before and, with the exception of his year with the Chargers, his offenses have been pretty good. Sanders is at least a head coach of a major college program. (Jerry would hate to have Deion as coach, if only because Deion’s press conferences would distract from Jerry.) Zimmer was out of the league for several years before this season and is now 68, and Witten did not lead higher. the high school level. Jones, however, compared Witten to Dan Campbell.
Rivera and Kingsbury don’t fit the mold of Cowboys ties, but they fit other things Jones likes: Rivera is a known commodity and won’t outshine the owner, and has a reputation for making his teams respectable, to say the least. And Kingsbury would allow him to steal a coordinator from both a division rival and a former Cowboys assistant coach, Dan Quinn. Additionally, Kliff has ties to Texas through his experience at Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Jerry loves these Texas connections.
Candidates off the beaten track
- Texas HC Steve Sarkisian
- Bill Belichick, North Carolina HC
- Steelers center Mike Tomlin
Speaking of Texas ties, there’s Sarkisian. He is a former NFL offensive coordinator, who also spent time at Washington, USC, Alabama and most recently Texas. His team just made it to the College Football Playoff semifinals and played its game at AT&T Stadium, which Jerry Jones loves. (There is no doubt in my mind that McCarthy winning his Super Bowl in this stadium played a role in landing the Cowboys job.)
Belichick is the most famous and arguably the best coach in the history of football. Of course, he took the job at UNC. But Jones has the money to pay for the buyout, if he wants to. And what would make more of a splash than hiring the guy in the hoodie? It’s also a bonus that Belichick has very little public persona, which would allow Jones to continue to be the one doing the most talking.
The Steelers seem stuck in a rut. Would trading Tomlin help them out? It doesn’t seem that mad.
