After failing to make it past the Divisional Round of the playoffs for the fourth straight year as Cowboys head coach, Mike McCarthy entered the 2024 NFL season on a bit of a hot seat. Often that type of pressure comes externally from a disgruntled fan base or media criticism, but the fact that nearly the entire coaching staff, including McCarthy, was playing on the final year of their contracts didn’t help.
McCarthy is known for coaching playoff teams. In 13 years with the Packers, McCarthy took the team to the playoffs nine times. Green Bay did make it to four NFC Championship Games under McCarthy, advancing to (and winning) only one Super Bowl. In Dallas, McCarthy has seen similar regular season success followed by postseason struggles. After a 6-10 debut season with the Cowboys, McCarthy led the team to the playoffs with three straight 12-5 seasons. In those three postseason appearances, McCarthy’s squad has only won one game, failing to make any NFC Championship Game appearances.
According to ESPN’s Todd Archer, team owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones doesn’t believe the staff’s lame duck status was a distraction during a tumultuous 2024 campaign. In fact, Jones believes “people do better…when they don’t have a contract.” So far, Jones has been noncommittal on the future of McCarthy and his staff. He claimed in a recent interview that he doesn’t feel that he’s “under any unusual time frame at all.”
Jones doesn’t seem to have made much of an indication at all hinting at whether or not he sees McCarthy returning, and at the moment, he doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to make such a decision.
Here are a few other coaching rumors coming out of the NFC:
- In an interview on the Rich Eisen Show, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer tabbed Browns coaching and personnel consultant Mike Vrabel as a name to watch for the Giants‘ likely opening head coaching position. After his first head coaching stint with the Titans came to an end, Vrabel was unable to secure another gig, settling at the time for a minor role in Cleveland. Breer believes that New York has an advantage in securing Vrabel’s services, thinking that Vrabel’s likely picks for general manager (Ryan Cowden) and defensive coordinator (Shane Bowen) are already in house. Cowden was vice president of player personnel (and interim general manager) during Vrabel’s tenure in Tennessee and now serves as executive advisor to the general manager in New York. Fired alongside Vrabel in Tennessee, Bowen went from one defensive coordinator job to the other, coaching the Giants’ unit this season. Though the season is not yet over for Cleveland, head coach Kevin Stefanski indicated that Vrabel’s contract was amended in order “to allow him to get a jumpstart” on interviews, per ESPN’s Tony Grossi.
- In another interview, this one with NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero on Good Morning Football, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was discussed. According to Pelissero, Johnson’s likeliest destination in 2025 remains Chicago. Johnson is looking for a place at which he can build alignment and sustainable, long-term success, similar to what was built in Detroit. So far, all signs seem to be pointing to Johnson taking the intra-divisional job with the Bears, keeping in mind, of course, that him getting hired as head coach of Washington seemed like a sure thing last year before he made the decision to remain with the Lions. With Vrabel and Johnson being established as the two hot names for teams looking for a new skipper this offseason, we’ve seen their names connected to several teams. Breer recently reported a new connection, though, claiming that many see the Jaguars as a good fit for Johnson, should they part ways with Doug Pederson.
Hmmm, was Vrabel’s contract amended because Stefanski was worried about him taking his job?
NYG certainly look like a good fit. As an NFL general manager, I’d prefer Vrabel over 24 of the head coaches working now.
It seems that the Bears are the destination, which would be great for them, but the possibility of Johnson going to a considerably weaker division in Jacksonville really is intriguing to me. The Bears have a definite advantage GM-wise, though, if the Jags retain Baalke in this scenario. The functionality of the organization seems important to Johnson, so I wouldn’t be surprised that the earlier whispers about candidates having questions about Warren’s role in Chicago were related to Johnson. Either Williams or Lawrence seem like they’d be lucky to have Johnson aboard, in either case.
Johnson has supreme confidence for a guy who never has been a HC in the NFL. I would hope he pans out if the Bears would get him, but the Bears have had too much of a recent history with coordinator types who mismanaged the coaching responsibilities. I would rather see an established guy like Vrabel get the Bears job as someone who has been an NFL head coach before and is not over 70 so he should be able to build a solid foundation and oversee it for some time.
No argument from me. I think the allure is the offensive prowess to help Williams (perhaps the familiarity with the division), but you are correct in that there aren’t any guarantees that Johnson could do it again. I like the fact that he didn’t springboard one season of success into a job immediately, but being a first year coach in possibly the toughest division in the sport will also be a brutal learning curve.
Tennessee was not a prime destination (check the record out post-Vrabel, even with a true #1 pick QB), yet Vrabel managed to make even the Titans a playoff regular.
I still feel Johnson will go to Dallas but Jerry likes his three-ring circus for fan visits, so he will probably let McCarthy get one more year with Prescott.