It’s no secret that Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is coaching for his job this season after owner Jerry Jones declined to give him a contract extension heading into this season, meaning this is the final year of his contract.
But Jones doesn’t think McCarthy should be feeling that pressure yet, even if the team lost in a blowout to the New Orleans Saints.
During the latest episode of his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan, Jerry Jones had a pretty clear message for Mike McCarthy about his performance this season given his contract situation.
“I don’t think where he is with his contract has anything to do with [the season-opening win at] Cleveland, where we were giving accolades out to him and [Mike] Zimmer or how we played Sunday,” Jones said on the show according to Pro Football Talk.
“We’re trying to get this team ready and in place to really make a run at the playoffs. On any given Sunday you can have a bad day in the NFL, and you can certainly lose a game in the NFL. And the NFL is one that you can lose several games, and if you’re playing well at the end of the year you can win the Super Bowl. And so that’s just what we’ve got.”
Jones made it pretty clear to McCarthy that the pressure isn’t necessarily to win games during the regular season – it’s to have success in the postseason.
“If we’ve got any albatross around our neck, it’s that we’ve been a good-to-very-good team during the season over the last four to five years with Mike, and we haven’t done well in the playoffs. So let’s trade some challenges during the season for doing well in the playoffs, if you want to look at it that way.”
We’ll have to see whether or not McCarthy can prove himself this season.
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