The Dallas Cowboys are not off to the best start this season, sitting at 3-3 and in third place in the NFC East. They have yet to win a single home game this season, but have won all three of their road games. Interestingly, their next two games are both on the road.
There has been a great deal of finger-pointing as to why the Cowboys have struggled so far this season. Many fans, perhaps correctly, blame owner and de facto general manager Jerry Jones for not acquiring enough quality players to build a championship roster. Others have blamed head coach Mike McCarthy for his management of the team on game days.
Indeed, McCarthy is one of most interesting names to watch this season as he is the final year of his contract. Jones and the Cowboys declined to offer him an extension before the year started, which led many to believe that he may not be brought back if Dallas fails to contend this season.
Six-Time Super Bowl-Winning Head Coach Bill Belichick Has High Praise for Mike McCarthy of the Dallas Cowboys
As fans may be aware, former New England Patriots head coach and general manager Bill Belichick now has several media gigs that he does every week. One of these is a Sirius XM radio show. During this week’s show, Belichick addressed the Cowboys and their struggles.
While many fans, and perhaps team executives, place blame for Dallas’ struggles on McCarthy, Belichick does not. In fact, he claims that the Cowboys head coach is one of the best in the entire NFL:
“Yeah, it certainly looks like a tough situation down there in Dallas and I’m sure that ownership is very frustrated about not only the start of this season, but the end of last season. And it’s just tough. They had a great year last year and then had a very poor performance against Green Bay in the playoffs. Got off to a good start this year in Cleveland, and then it’s been pretty rocky since then.
“Meanwhile, Stephen and Jerry Jones have shelled out a lot of money to some very high profile players and have tried to give the team as many resources as they can to win and just haven’t had good results. I’ve always talked about Mike McCarthy, I think he’s one of the best coaches in the league. Mike Zimmer is one of the best defensive coaches in the league, and Bones is a great special teams coach.
“But for some reason it’s just not coming together. There’s a long way to go. Something’s gonna have to start happening. I don’t know enough internally about what that is, but I would say it’s really on everybody that’s gotta play, coach and just generally perform better.”
As one can see, Belichick does not put any blame on McCarthy, or his coaching staff, for the teams struggles. Interestingly, he does says that the Jones’ “have tried” to spend money on high-quality players and that they have not, for some reason, found the results they wanted.
This season, however, it is easy to see why all their spending has not produced positive results.
The Dallas Cowboys Were Not Honest with Their Fans
The Cowboys have not been to the NFC Conference Championship Game since the mid-1990s. Their fanbase is starved for another title and has become, understandably, impatient.
And while Dallas made major moves to extend Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb this offseason, they also let numerous key players go. To replace those players, Jones signed bargain-bin veterans and drafted younger players that will need time to develop.
In other words, he is pseudo-rebuilding his team. But instead of admitting that to fans, he told them he was “all-in.”
However, his decision to sign Ezekiel Elliott in free agency instead of Derrick Henry (who signed for just $8 million a year with the Baltimore Ravens) is one of the main things fans point to when they claim that Jones really was not all-in. It was a confusing decision then and it continues to be so now.
No matter how much Jones tries to defend his player personnel moves, the fact of the matter is that they were not good enough.
And that is not McCarthy’s fault.
