Even after winning two Super Bowls, NFL Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson felt like he was on the coaching hot seat. He said as much when asked about his sense of the temperature of a locker room after a two- or three-game losing streak and what Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy can do to turn the team around, via The Herd with Colin Cowherd.
“[McCarthy] is in the last year of your contract. Win big and you get yourself a huge contract. Then you have all the leverage,” Johnson said. “People say, ‘he's under pressure.' Well listen, every coach is under pressure. Every year, every coach in the league. It doesn't bother me being in the last year of the contract because you got to win regardless of what the contract is. You get paid plenty of money, you got plenty of money in the bank.”
There you have it, folks, win big. While so much of the Cowboys offseason discourse centered around the contract status of Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons, McCarthy is also in the final year of his deal.
What Cowboys' Mike McCarthy can learn from Jimmy Johnson to get a new contract
Jimmy Johnson's advice for McCarthy may include some circular logic, but it's also true. Wins and losses determine value, especially for the Cowboys.
McCarthy is entering his 18th year as an NFL head coach, having spent 13 years with the Green Bay Packers and now in his fifth season with Dallas. Despite the grief he has received because of the Cowboys' postseason struggles in recent years, he has a .620 regular-season record and 167 career wins (17th-most all-time). Only two active coaches have more wins (Andy Reid, Mike Tomlin). Give the man his flowers.
During the offseason, when talk of McCarthy's contract was discussed often in the media, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones gave his head coach a public stamp of approval, via Todd Brock of USA Today.
“I believe this team is very close and capable of achieving our ultimate goals, and the best step forward for us will be with Mike McCarthy as our head coach,” Jones said. “There is great benefit to continuing the team’s progress under Mike’s leadership as our head coach.”
The Cowboys tend to stick with their head coaches. McCarthy is only the team's ninth head coach in franchise history. Continuity and loyalty are underappreciated commodities in the NFL, with coach and front-office turnover often dominating the headlines.
Considering McCarthy has spent the past 30 years coaching in the NFL, he will do fine finding work whether he remains the Cowboys head coach or not.
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