The late Tom Landry coached the Dallas Cowboys for nearly three decades (1960–1988) during his Hall of Fame career. If Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has it his way, Mike McCarthy will have a similar tenure in Dallas – according to the current Cowboys head coach.
“As far as my relationship with Jerry (Jones) … we are in an excellent spot. The partnership that we have, he’s excited about,” McCarthy said Thursday. “He told me a number of times this week that he wants me to coach here as long as coach (Tom) Landry did. I said, ‘ok, that’s a long time.’ I feel really good about our relationship. I think our ability to discuss and disagree, we do a good job at that. I think that’s important.”
The irony of what Jones allegedly told McCarthy is Jones actually fired Landry when he became owner of the Cowboys in February of 1989, despite Landry’s popularity and two Super Bowl championships with the franchise.
McCarthy has a 30-20 regular-season record and is 1-2 in the playoffs in three seasons as Cowboys head coach.
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The Cowboys’ latest playoff loss came at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers last week in the divisional round. Dallas’ offense was only able to score one first-half touchdown and was kept out of the end zone the entire second half.
Dallas hasn’t advanced to an NFC championship game since the 1995 season. McCarthy hasn’t been able to get the Cowboys past the divisional round, but it appears Jones isn’t making changes at head coach or defensive coordinator.
Dan Quinn informed the Cowboys on Thursday that he is remaining with the franchise as defensive coordinator.
“This is big for us,” McCarthy said, per the team’s official website. “It gives us continuity, definitely in what we established these last two years, to build off of that. And frankly, on a personal note, I can’t tell you how thankful I am.”
However, the continuity won’t exist throughout the entire staff. The Cowboys let go of six members on their coaching staff: offensive line coach Joe Philbin, running backs coach Skip Peete, senior defensive assistant George Edwards, assistant head coach Rob Davis, quality control/analytics coach Kyle Valero and assistant defensive line coach Leon Lett.
Additionally, offensive coordinator Kellen Moore is receiving head coaching interest, and McCarthy was noncommittal Thursday about Moore’s return to the franchise.
Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon on Twitter @TheTylerDragon.
Story Credit: usatoday.com