Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is on the hot seat. By the time you’re reading this article, there is a decent chance he will have already lost his job. The former Super Bowl champion head coach entered the season knowing that the Cowboys needed to make a deep postseason run. The team had the quarterback, a star wide receiver in CeeDee Lamb, a star-studded defense, and one of the best coaching staffs in football. This team had the talent and foundational framework to make it to the Super Bowl, something the team hasn’t done since the 1990s. With 2023 marking his fourth season with the team, McCarthy had no excuse for a lackluster season.
While the Cowboys went 12-5 and won the NFC East crown, they lost during the Wild Card round. Not only did they lose, they lost embarrassingly. Outplayed in every phase of the game, the 9-8 Green Bay Packers won by a final score of 48-32, with most of Dallas’ points coming once the outcome had long been decided. This loss also marked the first time a second seed has lost to the seventh seed since the playoffs expanded to include a third Wild Card spot. This is the type of loss that results in lost jobs, and Mike McCarthy is probably packing up his office as we speak.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is 81 years old and desperately wants to see his team win it all in the coming seasons. He’s also not afraid to spend up on his team, and he loves grabbing headlines with big-name acquisitions. If the Cowboys start looking for a head coach to replace Mike McCarthy, there is a very real chance he will go after one of these three guys.
3 Big-Name Head Coaches To Replace Mike McCarthy
Bill Belichick
Let’s start with the obvious one. After 24 years of unprecedented success, the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick mutually decided to part ways. While Belichick has struggled to build a competent offense without Tom Brady, there is no denying that he is still a defensive genius. The 2023 Patriots were a top-10 defense by most metrics despite losing their two best players in Christian Gonzalez and Matthew Judon early in the season. Seeing as the Cowboys already have a good starting quarterback in Dak Prescott, Belichick won’t need to worry about that aspect of the job. He can just hire Josh McDaniels, have the offense take care of itself, and unleash havoc on opposing offenses with Micah Parsons. Maybe he’s not the coach he used to be, but he’s still better than Mike McCarthy.
Nick Saban
Alabama legend Nick Saban decided to call it a career, retiring at the ripe old age of 72. However, money talks, and perhaps he’d welcome a return to the NFL game while taking command of arguably the biggest franchise in American sports. Much like Belichick, the present-day version of Nick Saban has slowed down a bit with age, but he’d still be a clear upgrade on Mike McCarthy. Additionally, perhaps Saban would be able to make a stronger connection with the older, more experienced NFL players, rather than his college crew.
Mike Tomlin
Despite making the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers are reportedly beginning to consider life without Mike Tomlin. The longtime head coach hasn’t guided the team to a Super Bowl title in quite some time, but he continues to put a winning product on the field. The coach hasn’t had a starting-caliber quarterback since the 2018 version of Ben Roethlisberger, yet he’s always able to pull out wins. If given Dak Prescott, there is a very real chance that he could get this team further in the playoffs than Mike McCarthy ever could. He’s still under contract, so the Cowboys would have to give up a draft pick for his services, but that is a price worth paying for a coach of his stature.
Main Photo: Wm. Glasheen – USA Today Sports
