Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said this week he's "not under any unusual timeframe at all" when it comes to deciding head coach Mike McCarthy's future. But there is a clear timeframe in place.
Sources say McCarthy's contract is set to expire on Jan. 14, nine days after Sunday’s season finale at home against the Washington Commanders.
That gives the Cowboys an exclusive negotiating window of a little over a week, according to NFL rules. But it also serves as a soft deadline to strike a deal or potentially lose McCarthy to another job.
There are two windows of time for McCarthy and Dallas.
As soon as the regular season ends, other teams can request permission from the Cowboys to interview McCarthy for coaching positions and Dallas can choose whether to permit him to interview. Once McCarthy's contract expires on Jan. 14 -- a week from next Tuesday -- no permission is required and he is free to interview in-person with other teams and accept another job any time.
A Super Bowl champion with a .610 career winning percentage and 12 playoff trips in 18 seasons as a head coach in Green Bay and Dallas, McCarthy is expected to have interest elsewhere if he chooses to pursue other opportunities. There are few available coaches with McCarthy's track record as an offensive play-caller and quarterback developer -- skills that are at a premium in every hiring cycle and will be again.
McCarthy, 61, has connections with two of the three teams with current head coaching vacancies. He worked with Saints general manager Mickey Loomis from 2000-04 in New Orleans, where McCarthy was the offensive coordinator, and he interviewed for the Jets job in January 2019.
There have been no substantive talks yet about an extension for McCarthy in Dallas, sources say.
The Cowboys have issued no definitive stance on their future for next season. But Jones has been increasingly effusive in his praise of McCarthy amid a rash of injuries this season.
After the Cowboys beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 22, Jones said, "I can't tell you how proud I am of the way the coaching staff, led by Mike McCarthy, the way that the leadership on this team, and really proud of these young players. They just are growing mentally and physically by leaps and bounds, makes me think we've got and outstanding future ahead of us."
Several of the Cowboys' key players, including injured quarterback Dak Prescott and linebacker Micah Parsons, have also spoken up in support of McCarthy's return.
The Cowboys lost, 41-7, at Philadelphia last week to fall to 7-9, ensuring their second losing record in five seasons under McCarthy, who is 49-34 with one playoff win since joining Dallas in 2020.
The situation is unusual, but not unprecedented in Dallas.
After the 2014 season, Jason Garrett's contract expired before the Cowboys signed him to a new five-year deal, as well as retaining his coordinators. Five years later, Garrett's contract expired again, and after several days in limbo, the team announced it would not retain him.
Essentially McCarthy's entire coaching staff -- including coordinators Brian Schottenheimer, Mike Zimmer and John Fassel -- also have expiring contracts, sources say.
Under the NFL's hiring guidelines, teams have a period of exclusivity for negotiating with assistant coaches on expiring contracts through 12:01 a.m. on the second Tuesday after the team's last game of the season, which is Jan. 14 this year for non-playoff clubs (teams can opt to waive the exclusivity). But head coach rules are dictated strictly by the expiration date on the head coach's contract.
Asked last week whether he'd like to return to Dallas or explore other options, McCarthy said: "I do appreciate the opportunity to speak on it. I've answered this question the same for however many months now, so I think the focus, I need to make sure I'm doing exactly what I'm asking everyone else to do. We need to finish the race. It's been a challenging year, based on our contract situation for coaches. It's stating the obvious, but we'll have time to talk about that next week."
