DALLAS — Other than removing his name from the Cowboys’ marquee, a non-starter, Jerry Jones’ best fan-friendly moves are fairly obvious:
Fire Mike McCarthy.
Hire Sean Payton.
Of course, we’re preaching to the choir here. Jerry loves himself some Payton. For all we know, the 58-year-old retiree, who announced Tuesday he’s leaving the Saints three years ahead of his contract, had been holed up on Preston Road the last couple weeks, swilling Jerry’s bourbon. At least it would explain why the Cowboys’ owner has yet to offer McCarthy a vote of confidence.
Surely there’s more behind Jerry’s curious reluctance than the fact that he simply wants his head coach to wallow in it. If the man’s coming back, why not just say so and get it over with? Dragging it out doesn’t serve any purpose other than to further erode public confidence. Leaves the impression he might still make a move, offering false hope now that the faithful are fresh out of the real stuff.
As it is, there’s no selling McCarthy to Cowboys’ fans now or until they advance at least a couple rounds in the playoffs next season. Gripe about Jerry’s football IQ all you want, but he values his customers. Values their loyalty, anyway.
Their money, OK?
Hiring Payton would not only be popular with fans, it’d be the best football move, too.
Because let’s face it, Payton is a better head coach than McCarthy. Put aside for a moment Payton’s year-long suspension for condoning a bounty system imposed by his defensive coordinator. On the football side, Payton’s reputation as a certified offensive genius is well-documented, and his defenses have ranked among the league’s best.
No one’s ever questioned his football smarts, anyway, which is more than we can say for McCarthy.
After the end in Green Bay, a long, multi-sourced story for Bleacher Report in the spring of 2019 included this quote from a person close to Aaron Rodgers:
“Mike has a low football IQ, and that used to always bother Aaron. He’d say Mike has one of the lowest IQs, if not the lowest IQ, of any coach he’s ever had.”
Now, you could take that comment for what it’s worth, because, as the Bleacher Report story goes on to note, Rodgers holds a grudge dating back to the day he was drafted. McCarthy, then the 49ers’ offensive coordinator and someone who apparently had a say in the draft, voiced his preference for Alex Smith, and Rodgers never got over it.
Frankly, I wouldn’t bring it up now if some of the issues cited in that 2019 story — a “fake tough guy” who never sent messages to players who’d screwed up; a laissez-faire coaching style that produced a soft culture — are sins you’ve witnessed the last two seasons and heard in rumblings from the Star.
For instance, under McCarthy, the Cowboys don’t run a full practice on Fridays. The upside is that it left him with a full complement of healthy starters for the playoffs.
The downside? A team with chronic execution issues, not to mention the most penalized bunch in the league.
Here’s a snapshot of a detail-oriented coach: Gordon Wood, king of Texas high school football coaches, a man revered by the likes of Darrell Royal and Bum Phillips, once told me that if one of his Brownwood players made a mistake in practice, they ran the play again. They’d run it, in fact, until no one made a mistake, then run it some more.
What, exactly, constituted a mistake in Wood’s estimation? He told me he didn’t like the way Emmitt Smith took a pitch. Said he rounded it off.
“Maybe he’s trying to get to the outside faster,” I said.
Wood looked at me like I’d stuck a fork in my ear.
“Just bad coaching, is what it was,” he said, scowling.
McCarthy coaches up turnovers, which is one of the reasons why he’s second only to Bill Belichick in turnover differential. But he doesn’t spend much time in practice working on the traits that drew so many flags. He never took them seriously, and eventually his charges parroted those views. Probably why Dak Prescott, normally a thoughtful type, applauded fans for throwing trash at officials after the loss to the 49ers before eventually apologizing.
Constantly harping about officiating is a loser’s mentality. It excuses mistakes and poor technique. Besides, the numbers suggest it’s not exactly one crew’s bias.
While we’re at it, I’m still a bit bewildered by McCarthy’s admission that he didn’t actually watch every one of the Cowboys’ plays from the 2019 season, like he told Jerry he did in interviews.
Doesn’t that at least suggest a coach who’s not as serious about his craft as he ought to be?
McCarthy certainly has his supporters, and influential ones, such as Bill Belichick and Stephen Jones. He likes to delegate, which was mostly fine with the staff he enjoyed this season, a collection better than any of Jason Garrett’s.
But it sure didn’t go so great last season when Mike Nolan was in charge of the defense.
And what happens next season when Dan Quinn is the head coach of the Broncos or Bears? What if Kellen Moore is out the door, too? Can McCarthy find suitable replacements?
Better question: Could he make up the difference if he can’t?
Payton could rise to the occasion. My only question is if he wants to coach again, and as soon as next season. Maybe he’d prefer a TV gig, as has been suggested. Or maybe he’d like to chill for a year like Bruce Arians did, then resurface elsewhere.
Whenever the time comes, Jerry, you know what to do. Hire Payton. Make a deal with the Saints if you have to. Do that, and do it now, and all is forgiven. Well, not all. Thirty-two years is a lot of ground to cover.
