Mike McCarthy to return as head coach of Cowboys in 2024

Mike McCarthy is staying put in Big D.

McCarthy will return as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys for the 2024 season, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported Wednesday night.

Three days after the Dallas Cowboys’ calamitous 48-32 wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers, McCarthy and his staff were conducting exit interviews with players, but McCarthy will not be exiting before the ’24 season — which will be his fifth with the club and the last on his current contract.

Owner Jerry Jones explained his decision in a statement:

“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. There is great benefit to continuing the team’s progress under Mike’s leadership as our head coach. Specifically, there are many layers of success that have occurred this season as a result of Mike’s approach to leading the team, both with individual players and with our team collectively. Mike has the highest regular season winning percentage of any head coach in Cowboys history and we will dedicate ourselves, in partnership with him, to translating that into reaching our post season goals. Certainly, Mike’s career has demonstrated post season success at a high level, and we have great confidence that can continue.

“Further, our loss on Sunday is shared by everyone here, not just Coach McCarthy. Our players. Our coaches. Our front office. Myself. There is accountability for our results. I am accountable for our results. The lens we use to view and evaluate Coach McCarthy is holistic. While we’re all disappointed with the result on Sunday and with our playoff record, I am 100 percent supportive of him as our head coach and ability to reach our goals.

“We will start our process of review and decision making regarding everything that impacts our team and roster and, while we’re not going to address specific players and extensions or free agents at this point, it deserves our deepest review and consideration, and it will get it.”

As noted by Pelissero on NFL Total Access, Jones is known to take a step back to examine things after a season ends and going back to the regular season, Jones had not expressed any desire to make a coaching change.

McCarthy is 42-25 as the Cowboys’ head coach, including three straight 12-win seasons that included a pair of NFC East titles. However, the 60-year-old is 1-3 in the playoffs and is the sixth straight Dallas head coach since Barry Switzer in 1995 to come up short of leading the Cowboys past the Divisional Round.

That streak continued with Sunday’s loss to the Packers, but McCarthy will have at least one more shot at getting Dallas over its divisional hurdle.

However, questions still abound with the staff.

Dan Quinn, the team’s defensive coordinator, has received interest from myriad clubs with vacant head coaching jobs. Also, McCarthy took over offensive coordinator duties in 2023. Success was had for the most part until the team’s playoff fall from grace. Will McCarthy be back as OC? It would seem likely after the team finished the year leading the league in points scored.

Staff changes remain up in the air, but McCarthy will be back as the Cowboys’ head coach.