It has seemed like Mike McCarthy had been on the hot seat for multiple years. But despite his team’s postseason shortcomings, the Dallas Cowboys head coach always kept his job. Jerry Jones finally made the tough decision, though, choosing to let McCarthy’s contract expire this week and finally parting ways after five full seasons together.
It is rumored that McCarthy will garner interest from teams with coaching vacancies. The Saints and Bears are teams to watch on that front, as the latter requested an interview with him as recently as last week.
Who Will Be The Next Head Coach Of The Cowboys?
As for the Cowboys, who is the one that will replace McCarthy as head coach? Here are the candidates with the shortest odds of landing the job, according to BetOnline:
Jason Witten +100
As reported by Cowboys insider Nick Harris, the team is showing interest in bringing Jason Witten onto the coaching staff. The former tight end spent 16 seasons in Dallas as a player, an iron man who retired as recently as 2021. Witten was always one of Jones’ favorite players, shown in the relationship’s longevity, and will be considered for the role of the team’s head coach upon McCarthy’s departure.
In fact, no candidate on the odds board has a shorter designation than Witten when it comes to landing the job. Kellen Moore was at the top when the job first opened up, but the report by Harris apparently changed the thought on who is the most likely option for the next Cowboys head coach.
For the last four years, Witten has been the head coach of a successful high school football team in Texas. His team went undefeated on their way to a state championship in 2023, and were able to repeat in 2024.
Kellen Moore +150
There was a time when it was thought that Kellen Moore would be the next in line to take over as coach of the Cowboys. After spending his final three seasons as a player in Dallas, he became the team’s quarterbacks coach, and eventually the offensive coordinator. But when the team kept sticking with McCarthy, Moore went to Los Angeles to be the Chargers coordinator, and currently holds the same role with the Philadelphia Eagles for their playoff run.
Before news about the team’s interest in Witten was released, Moore was the overall favorite for the job. He hasn’t been mentioned much in this year’s coach hiring circuit, but he will garner plenty of attention now that the Cowboys have an opening.
The Cowboys had two seasons in which they had the top ranked offense in the NFL during Moore’s tenure as their coordinator. This past season, his Eagles ranked 8th in total yards.
Deion Sanders +600
There is a noticeable theme at the top of the odds board. All three of the candidates with the shortest odds are former Cowboys players, though the one with the longest odds of the three is perhaps the most recognizable.
Deion Sanders has proven to be a worthy head coaching candidate during his time at the collegiate ranks. In just two years, he transformed one of the most downtrodden programs in the country and turned Colorado into a ranked team, working wonders for the city of Boulder and bringing national attention to a school whose football program was floundering. There has been plenty of speculation about what his next move will be, and his connections with Dallas have been pointed to as a possibility. The oddsmakers currently have Sanders listed at +600 to be the next Cowboys head coach.
Joe Brady (+800) and Kliff Kinsbury (+900) make up the rest of the top-5.
