Dallas, TX
Like it or not, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is gaining ground for a contract extension from Jerry Jones
Late Sunday night in the Dallas Cowboys locker room, as players reveled in a 26-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, head coach Mike McCarthy was making his way through a jovial scene when he spotted Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones near an entrance. Earlier in the day, the two had shared a conversation steeped in disappointment when they’d learned the Cowboys had been eliminated from the playoffs by a Washington Commanders win. But now, as McCarthy approached Jerry, the tenor of the day had changed.
Jerry smiled. And when McCarthy held out his hand for a shake, the owner instead opened his arms and drew his head coach into a hug. He then took a few moments speaking to McCarthy, one hand on the coach’s shoulder and another gently tapping him in the chest with a fist. As the dialogue subsided, Jones patted McCarthy on the shoulder a few times and pumped his fist. All of this, perhaps not by coincidence, unfolded in front of a “Sunday Night Football” camera that was televising the emotional exchange to whatever portion of the Cowboys’ audience that was still watching.
If you were going to gauge what’s going on with the Cowboys’ head coach and the franchise’s owner right now, this was a worthwhile snippet of video for two reasons: First, it’s clearly something that Jerry — still keenly aware of optics and the power of theater — wanted people to see. Whether it was a public display of pride or affection that McCarthy had earned or Jones just wanted to staple an image to his words that night, he knew where the moment would go. In a word, everywhere. And the second reason the moment matters? Jerry knows it’s coming in the midst of a time when the primary conversation about McCarthy is one of his job status, a situation Jerry created when he chose to make his head coach go into the final year of his contract with no discernible public mandate on how an extension could be achieved.
Let’s be honest about this joyous but complicated embrace as it moves forward: both of these men created it. Jerry by letting McCarthy play out this string of games with no clarity on what could be next for the Cowboys’ coaching staff. And McCarthy by arguably saving his best coaching for the portion of the season when there was nothing more to clinch other than the dignity of not quitting.
Make no mistake, that’s what we saw unfold last night. McCarthy showcased a locker room that is still galvanized despite having lost a postseason aim. They gutted it out with a massive spate of injuries on the offensive line and backup quarterback in Cooper Rush, not to mention wideout CeeDee Lamb, who played through a painful shoulder issue Sunday. Join that with a shorthanded defense that battered a good Buccaneers offense and literally ripped a win away in the final moments of Sunday night, when cornerback DaRon Bland pulled a fumble from the belly of Tampa running back Rashaad White. It was a moment that encapsulated a number of big-play stands on both sides of the ball, definitively halting a game-winning drive that seemed very achievable for quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The resounding feeling? The Cowboys’ playoff hopes are dead, but the attitude toward the remaining schedule is anything but buried. Instead, a narrative about culture is unfurling — about whether there is actually some kind of underlying strength Dallas can display in the final weeks of the season that say something about this team and coach. Maybe it’s enough to fulfill the hopes of the franchise cornerstones, including Lamb, quarterback Dak Prescott and edge rusher Micah Parsons, who have all (in some fashion) endorsed a McCarthy return in 2025. Surely, Jerry has heard that message, leaving him to look for reasons to keep McCarthy that goes beyond the three straight 12-win seasons that preceded 2024.
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Afterward, Jerry was effusive in his praise of the effort in the win over the Buccaneers — making clear that it had stoked something emotional inside him.
“Those guys came out and played as though they were fighting in the championship game to go to the Super Bowl,” Jones said afterward. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of them and the coaching staff. It really shows me something.”
For his part, McCarthy tried to put a fine point on what that something was.
“I just think that [effort] shows you who they are,” McCarthy said. “I think everybody says the coach is always talking highly of the locker room — well, this is what I’m talking about. When I talk about, ‘It’s a great locker room,’ this is the definition of it. This is what a great locker room looks like. And it’s a mixture of men from all over the country, all over the world and different personalities. Obviously in circumstances [out of the playoffs] that we’ve discussed at length already. But when it came time to play, they played their asses off and I can’t tell you how proud I am.”
Of course, this peak of sorts — winning four of the last five games, getting to 7-8 with a chance at finishing the season at 9-8 — comes with measuring that goes beyond just a great locker room. There are fair questions to be asked about where this locker room culture was during a brutal five-game losing streak from mid-October to mid-November. It was an expanse that saw Dallas get obliterated in three of those games, against the Detroit Lions (a 47-9 loss), Philadelphia Eagles (34-6) and Houston Texans (34-10). And it wasn’t that long ago that Jerry was openly questioning some parts of the Dallas scheme, while also spiraling into sometimes odd postgame diatribes that lacked a cohesive connection to the here and now.
Those were the days of Bill Belichick possibly being the next Cowboys coach, and they weren’t that long ago. But times can also change quickly with Jerry. He rides Everest-ian highs after wins and Death Valley lows after losses. All of which typically result in McCarthy’s own roller coaster when it comes to his future employment.
Right now, the Cowboys are winning again — even if it’s too little and too late when it comes to the postseason. But as the victories have begun to stack onto the ledger and the support of vital players has ebbed into the public (and Jerry’s) consciousness, the disappointment has also started to soften where it matters. You hear it in Jerry’s words. You see it in the arms and embrace between an owner and head coach that seemed to be an intentional message to the fan base.
Things are changing. A 9-8 finish and the positive feedback of his players has Mike McCarthy pointed toward the one thing Jerry has avoided offering him thus far.
A contract extension.
First Shift 🏒
The bad news is that the Stars’ recent slump has been going on for a little while.
The good news is that there is plenty of time to fix it.
Dallas is 2-2-2 over its past six games, including a 3-2 shootout loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday that disappointed head coach Pete DeBoer. The Stars got behind 2-0 in the game and battled back to claim a point. However, it was another inconsistent performance for a team that has the third best record in the league and a high standard that has been established during the DeBoer era.
“You’re patient, you’re patient, you’re patient…to a point, and then you have to get their attention,” DeBoer said Friday. “I think we got to that point last night.”
Part of the problem, the coach said, is the fact that other teams are dialing up their intensity in preparation for the playoffs. Dallas couldn’t keep up with the pace set by Edmonton, Winnipeg, Colorado and Tampa Bay in recent games, and while there were comeback efforts in most of the contests, the bottom line is the Stars didn’t initiate, but reacted instead.
“I made excuses for them for a few games there,” DeBoer said. “I’ve got to stop making excuses, but there are some real underlying factors, including where you are in the standings, where the teams you are playing in the standings are, the desperation level of those teams. We’re learning really quickly that we have to up our standards.”
The Stars have 14 games remaining before the playoffs and are in a great spot in the standings. Still, players and coaches know that you can’t just flip a switch and be ready for the postseason. When asked what the window is on finding that higher level of intensity, defenseman Matt Dumba said, “The window is right now.”
“You want everyone feeling good going into the playoffs, structure-wise and just how efficient we’re being,” Dumba said. “You want everyone on the same page, so when it comes to that time when you’re in these gritty games, you’re ready and you can rely on everything you have built during the year.”
The Stars on Friday worked on the details of their game like puck support and connectedness, and would like to get back to that in a 1:00 p.m. game on Saturday against Philadelphia. Dallas is third in points percentage at .662, fourth in scoring at 3.37, sixth in GAA at 2.62 and fourth in goal differential at plus-51, so it has done a lot of things right during the season.
“I’m not sure that I’m concerned. I’m a little disappointed is probably a better word,” DeBoer said. “I know we’re going to get it fixed. We’ve played too good of hockey for too long a period that we won’t get it fixed.”
The coach said he doesn’t mind trying to open a few eyes. Backup goalie Casey DeSmith was great on Thursday and is 6-0-1 in his past seven starts. That could open the door for more games.
“He’s earned it,” DeBoer said. “I think everyone has been on notice, including our goalies. We have one agenda here and that’s winning. It’s my responsibility to give the team the best chance to win. Is Jake our starter? Yes. But Casey is making a strong case to play more.”
Jake Oettinger, who is 1-2-1 in his past four starts, could face some motivational adversity, DeBoer said. In fact, the entire team can learn from some hardship.
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” DeBoer said. “I’d much rather go through this now than three weeks from now. I think our group has the mental toughness to respond the right way.”
The city of Dallas named five finalists to become the next police chief for a department of just over 3,100 officers.
The list includes finalists with experience in local and federal law enforcement, but who all started their careers with a police department at a city level.
Dallas City Manager Kim Tolbert said a list of 25 candidates was reduced to the following five finalists:
Interim DPD Chief Michael Igo; DPD Assistant Chief Catrina Shead; Carrollton Chief of Police Roberto Arredondo; Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Daniel Comeaux of Houston; and former FBI Assistant Director Brian Boetig.
The next chief will inherit a department that has seen the violent crime rate fall each year since 2021 but also will be tasked with adding officers after voters last November approved a measure requiring DPD to hire about 900 officers to reach 4,000 officers.
Rene Martinez with LULAC served on the community panel tasked with questioning finalists during the search for a police chief in 2020, a process that yielded the hiring of Eddie Garcia.
“Those shoes are going to be hard to fill but going out into the community, being able to speak to different communities,” Martinez said. “I’m looking at someone that’s going to hopefully have the ability to deal with a diverse community.”
The city said Friday the five finalists will be in Dallas between Monday, March 31, and Wednesday, April 2, meeting with community members before interviewing with City Manager Kim Tolbert.
Tolbert said she plans to make a hiring decision for the city’s next police chief by the second week of April.
Biographies for each of the five DPD chief of police finalists are available ahead of the planned community meet and greets.
The Tennessee Titans parted ways with linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr. to begin the offseason, trading him to the Dallas Cowboys.
He was a potential cut candidate, making the trade not too much of a shock. Still, Murray Jr. admitted he was “extremely” surprised by the move.
“I’m not gonna lie, it was extremely surprising for me, just because I wasn’t expecting it,” Murray Jr. said, per Jon Machota of The Athletic. “… At the same time, I was ecstatic because obviously playing for the Dallas Cowboys is a big deal. I’m excited to be able to come here, bring my brand of football and just fly around and make plays.”
The former first-round pick spent the first four years of his career with the Los Angeles Chargers before signing a two-year, $15.5 million contract with the Titans.
He will now join a Cowboys defense that features star linebacker Micah Parsons, cornerbacks DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs, defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and more.
It’s a bit of a dream come true for Murray Jr. A former Oklahoma Sooners star and Houston area native, he grew up a Cowboys fan in Texas.
“I’ve always loved the Cowboys,” Murray Jr. said. “I grew up a Cowboys fan. My whole family are Cowboys fans. So this is definitely a dream for me playing here.”
Murray Jr. wasn’t the only defender to arrive to Dallas via trade this offseason. The Cowboys also acquired former first-round cornerback Kaiir Elam from the Buffalo Bills.
Murray Jr. will head into his sixth NFL season with 67 starts across 73 career games while posting 416 total tackles (271 solo), 8.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, 12 pass breakups and three interceptions. He started all 14 games he appeared in for the Titans this past season.
Make sure you bookmark Tennessee Titans on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!
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