AP Photo/Ron JenkinsAccording to Jori Epstein of USA Today, the Dallas Cowboys brass has assured head coach Mike McCarthy that his job is safe in the wake of the retirement of New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton.
"The assurance came as early as in conversations after the Cowboys' 23-17 wild-card loss to the San Francisco 49ers and as recently as this week after Saints coach Sean Payton announced he was stepping down, a person with knowledge of the conversations told USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly disclose the information."
McCarthy led the Cowboys to a 12-5 record and the division title in his second season with the team, but they fell to the 49ers in a game they trailed 23-7 prior to a late comeback attempt.
The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl in 2011.
The ugly loss to end the season created speculation that McCarthy could be fired, and team owner/general manager Jerry Jones didn't give his coach a vote of confidence.
"I don't even want to discuss anything like that at this particular time", Jones said, per NFL.com. The game speaks for itself.
Stephen Jones said that he thought McCarthy would be back for a third year.
Jones did not fully endorse McCarthy when he was asked about the coach's status last Friday.
"I'm not going to get into any conversations that I've had with anybody relative to anything to do with the staff. So I've got a lot to think about regarding these coaches. I've got a lot to think about regarding these scouts. I've got a lot to think about regarding various aspects of this organization."
Before he became the Saints head coach, he was an assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach for the Cowboys.
A connection to the Cowboys became a natural one after his retirement.
Since losing Sean Payton to New Orleans, Jones has thought a lot about connecting dots to see the Cowboys coach.
According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, it was reported that the Dallas coach was almost hired by the team in 2019.
That never happened, and it appears that Payton is not interested in coaching Dallas in 2022, at the very least.
Nick Underhill @nick_underhillPayton: “I don’t like the word retirement.” Says he still has a vision for doing things in football.
“That could be coaching again in the future, but that’s not where my heart is at all right now”
