Despite finishing with a 12-5 record in each of the last three seasons, Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy finds himself on the hot seat. Now, from my vantage point, there are three ways to look at this:

  1. Mike McCarthy is on the hot seat because despite the fact that Dallas has won more regular season games over the last three years than any other team in the NFL except for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Cowboys are a disappointing 1-3 in the postseason in that time.
  2. Mike McCarthy is on the hot seat because Jerry Jones is the owner and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, and Jerry operates a little differently than other team owners do.
  3. Mike McCarthy is on the hot seat because Bill Belichick is waiting for the Dallas Cowboys job to open up.

Let's focus on that last point for the time being.

For as accomplished as Mike McCarthy has been as an NFL head coach — his 167 career wins are 17th-most in NFL history — for better or worse, he is not Bill Belichick. Belichick's success is nearly unparalleled, and for that reason, he had grown accustomed to being given complete control of football operations during his tenure with the New England Patriots. Once Belichick's time in New England had finally petered out, the expectation around the league was that Belichick would be in search of similar control wherever he decided to coach next. This proposition may have scared away numerous teams. The Atlanta Falcons, for instance, were hesitant to pull the trigger on hiring Belichick for that very reason.

However, according to Bill Belichick disciple-turned-rival Eric Mangini, the Dallas Cowboys head coaching job could be the only one Belichick would be willing to loosen his grip on football operations for.

“The difficult part about that is which GM is going to have the strength to stand up to Bill, and to stand up to him consistently,” Mangini wondered during an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. “To say you know this player is better for your vision than the player that you like. Is Bill going to be able to take a step back and accept that? Now maybe Dallas is the best place for Bill because the GM is the owner, and that’s one person you can’t push back against, and he was able to push back against Bill Parcells so maybe he can make it work with Bill Belichick.”

By no means is it a guarantee that Bill Belichick will end up coaching the Dallas Cowboys, or anybody else for that matter in 2025. The six-time Super Bowl winning head coach is 72 years old already, and despite being 27 wins shy of passing Don Shula for the most in NFL history, he's widely considered to be the greatest coach in the history of the sport. However, if Belichick does make one last push for Shula's record, he'll likely be bringing many of his former assistants in New England with him. Just don't expect Eric Mangini to be one of them.

Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy (left) and owner Jerry Jones at training camp press conference at the River Ridge Fields.
© Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Bill Belichick-Eric Mangini saga 

Eric Mangini was a defensive assistant under Bill Belichick with the New York Jets for three seasons in the late-90s, and then coached with Belichick for six more seasons in New England before becoming the youngest head coach in the NFL when he took the job to return to New York. Mangini's departure put an immediate strain on his relationship with his former mentor, and things only got worse in 2007, when Mangini became the catalyst of the Spygate scandal. Rich Cimini of ESPN.com detailed the chain of events that led to the former friends becoming bitter rivals.

“It was destroyed at the start of the 2007 season, when the Jets and Patriots met in New Jersey. Before the game, Mangini told Jets security to keep an eye on the Patriots' sideline, where they were illegally videotaping opponents' signals. The Jets informed the NFL and, sure enough, the Patriots got busted during the game.”

In the aftermath of the NFL's investigation, the Patriots were fined $250,000 and lost a 2008 1st Round Draft pick. Belichick was hit with a massive $500,000 fine as well. Since 2007, Belichick and Mangini still haven't spoken, though “the Mangenius” is still hopeful that he and Belichick could eventually bury the hatchet.