Although Mike McCarthy is returning as the Dallas Cowboys head coach for the 2024-25 season, he should still avoid sitting down anywhere in the team's facility. Because, based on his latest contract update, the Super Bowl 45 champion's seat is scorching hot. Or as hot as it can get in Jerry World.

Despite a widespread belief that McCarthy would be fired after the Cowboys' embarrassing home defeat to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card Round, owner Jerry Jones is trusting his guy for another year. That is the extent of his generosity for the time being, though.

“Mike McCarthy is not expected to receive any sort of extension from the Dallas Cowboys and will coach the 2024 season on an expiring contract, league sources told ESPN,” Adam Schefter reported. “Jones believes that a person in the last year of a contract is challenged in a different way, and it often can bring out the best in people — which he is banking on happening in 2024 with McCarthy.”

Is this really the last shot for Mike McCarthy with the Cowboys?

HC Mike McCarthy, famous Cowboys logo behind him

Retaining the former Green Bay Packers HC after overseeing another postseason gut-punch is already surprising, but signing him to an extension would have sent seismic waves throughout Dallas and beyond.

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Most know the story by now. McCarthy has been the pillar of consistency in the regular season, winning 12 games in each of his first three years (franchise's best stretch in three decades). Unfortunately, however, he and the Cowboys have also been a very different pillar of consistency in the playoffs. They are 1-3, with a victory against a soon-to-be-retiring Tom Brady and an 8-9 Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad in 2023 serving as the lone triumph. And even that game featured four missed extra point attempts.

This troubling trend of high-stakes football predates the Mike McCarthy Era, which causes many NFL fans to lambaste Jones for creating a culture synonymous with choking. But his job security will not be in doubt next year. Ditto for quarterback Dak Prescott, by the looks of it. The same cannot be said for McCarthy.

Whether he feels it or not, the veteran coach will be under suffocating pressure to finally restore legitimacy back to the Cowboys name. Otherwise, they will remain America's Punchline, and he will be looking for other work.