Jerry Jones can work with Bill Belichick, but didn’t talk to him about job with Dallas Cowboys
For the record, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones likes Bill Belichick and could see himself working with him.
But he did not talk to the six-time Super Bowl champion coach, who parted ways with the New England Patriots, or any other coach, before he decided to continue on for another season with Mike McCarthy as coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
“I didn’t talk to anybody,” Jones said. “And I haven’t talked to anybody that is a head-coaching candidate other than my own.”
But Jones didn’t deny Belichick being an apple-in-his-eye when asked about him by Yahoo Sports.
“I know him personally and I like him,” Jones said. “There’s no doubt in my mind we could work together. None. None. We all know that he’s certainly excellent, maybe at the top of his profession. To say that any one person automatically assures you a Super Bowl is ridiculous. That’s too high [an] expectation for him. But is he maybe the greatest pro football coach of all time? Could very well be.
“He is a friend and I like him and I want to make real clear: I wouldn’t have any problem working with him.”
Jones also wants it real clear that he never gave any thought to moving on from McCarthy after a three straight 12-5 seasons were ended by a third straight early playoff exit in a 48-32 wild-card setback to the Green Bay Packers that he has called the most painful playoff loss of his career as Cowboys owner.
Jones let things stew for a few days before announcing that McCarthy would return for 2024. But he didn’t have to talk himself into bringing McCarthy back.
“I didn’t have to resist doing anything as to the decisions that we’ve made, and that was going forward with Mike,” Jones said. “I did let a few days go by, but Mike’s decision to continue coaching, that decision for me was pretty compelling. We need to benefit from what he’s done well, and we’re better off riding with it now than we would be changing, obviously or I would have changed.
“This is not a ‘talk yourself into it,’ ” Jones added. “It obviously gives you a lot of things to consider and think about. Everybody has options. This is one I’m very comfortable with. I felt good during the year with the job that Mike was doing. The team was responding well. We were all disappointed that we didn’t win that Green Bay game. We had visions of a lot better than that; we all did. But there are things there that we can take forward.”
One of the pluses for McCarthy coming back was the play of quarterback Dak Prescott, who is a top five NFL MVP candidate after becoming the first quarterback in franchise history to outright lead the league in touchdown passes in his first year with McCarthy as the play caller.
Prescott is heading into the final year of his contract and the Cowboys would possibly like to see how much more they can grow before making any long-term decisions.
“We’re right at a key spot with Dak,” Jones said. “Dak has improved since Mike has been here, and I think we can look forward to that improvement. There’s more there to get in terms of Dak’s improvement with Mike. The evidence points to that. With more to get there, more pluses on Dak, that impacts a lot of other things that we’re doing right now with the decisions we’re making so it all makes sense to have [McCarthy] back.”
Considering that McCarthy is heading if the final season of the five-year deal he signed in 2020 to join the Cowboys as head coach.
It goes without saying that 2024 is a make-or-break season for McCarthy.
“Certainly he is in the final year of his contract, so he is under contract so we didn’t really have to do anything at all,” Jones said of McCarthy. “The idea of renewing a contract doesn’t necessarily happen at all right after the last game. It can happen at any time. That’s kind of a wrong signal to send that there’s not more future than just this year in the picture. I’m comfortable doing it this way and Mike is comfortable doing it this way.
“I think that when you’re a head coach in the NFL or you’re frankly relying on the system the way we all do, there’s pressure in several places. That’s just one of them. There’s a lot of pressure. That’s just part of the game.”
And considering that Jones openly expressed his fondness for Belichick, part of the game for McCarthy and the Cowboys next season will include speculation about the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach if they don’t get it done in 2024 and end the franchise’s now 29-year cap since their last title in 1995..
