WHAT WE LEARNED: NFL WEEK SEVEN

BY ADAM GREENE

We’re locked in on the Dallas Cowboys this week because, oh man, this is bad.

JERRY JONES MIGHT BE WAKING UP

In a tense radio exchange Tuesday on the Shan & R.J. Show on 105.3 The Fan, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones let his temper flare just a little. And in that moment the façade dropped on his thoughts on the Cowboys’ coaching situation, in spite of the fact that Jones’ own plastic filled façade couldn’t move if it were hit with jet engine wash.

Pressed on a lack of leadership in the Dallas locker room, Jones snapped at the host to “Shut up” and let him answer. The answer, it seems, was that there was no leadership issues when those issues are visible from space.

Jones testiness comes not only from the team being 2-5 despite opening the year with a Super Bowl caliber roster. It comes from his own shame, because it’s his fault. He picked Mike McCarthy as his head coach when he didn’t have to. No one forced McCarthy on him and even a cursory Google search could have told him not to do that. I personally dedicated many a column inch to keeping McCarthy out of the NFL, but in the end, I’m just one man.

Colin Cowherd made the point on his radio show Jones wants a coach he can push around, at least figuratively, because I’m pretty sure if Jones tried to physically move McCarthy he’d be in the hospital with a watermelon-sized hernia sticking out of his groin.

While that might be what Jones wants, it’s not what made the Cowboys successful. Their three best coaches under Jones, Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer and Bill Parcells were not guys Jones could control. And while Switzer may have been lacking as a pro coach, he and Jones were peers and he had a pedigree.

The guys that Jones could push into the corner and dominate, Jason Garrett, Chan Gailey, Dave Campo and even Wade Phillips were bad head coaches and the team underachieved. McCarthy is another one of those guys. Jones famously said with McCarthy interviewed with him, he had a “tingle.” I joked at the time that maybe he needed to check himself for a stroke. But what the tingle was from was the thought that this was a “Super Bowl” coach he could bully around.

But here’s what’s undeniable. Mike McCarthy is a fraud. He rode a Hall of Fame quarterback in Aaron Rodgers to mediocrity with the Green Bay Packers, a team that was instantly better and continues to surge specifically because he was jettisoned from the building. He can’t call a game. He does not design NFL-level plays. Rodgers was quoted as saying the McCarthy had the lowest football IQ of anyone he’d ever met.

Plus, he lied to Jerry Jones’ desiccated face to get the job and admitted it.

Needless to say, McCarthy’s tenure has been a disaster and this was before Dak Prescott, in the midst of a career season and on the franchise tag, turned his ankle into the letter “L” against the New York Giants. The Cowboys players have now entered the conversation, leaking to the media their problems with McCarthy’s lack of coaching ability.

Here’s the thing that really sticks out about McCarthy; what the hell did he do in his year away from football? It sure wasn’t learning anything new about coaching. It wasn’t how to design NFL level plays. He didn’t watch every Dallas snap. He didn’t watch and learn from anything. What did he do? Just close down every Golden Corral men’s room in a tri-state area?

So Jones is mad and defensive. He wants to pretend that he’s picked the right guy in McCarthy when even the casual fan can see that this has been a complete disaster. He’s too prideful to admit he was wrong and, more importantly, he needs to hire a coach that will keep Jones’ nose out of the day-to-day business of the team.

Jones has fired his share of coaches since buying the Cowboys, including Tom Landry, the first and only coach in team history in 1989. But he’s never fired a guy after one season. The shortest tenure under Jones is Gailey, who coached for two. Even Wade Phillips made it four years. Hell, Dave Campo coached for three. We all know that McCarthy should be fired at the end of the year. Will Jones admit it? Will he do it?

Because nothing is going to change in 2021. McCarthy spent a year covering his couch in cheeto dust to be even worse than he was in 2018. There’s no magic switch going to click next season, even with a healthy Dak Prescott. With Prescott, this team was still 2-4.

Coach’s contracts aren’t like player deals. They’re guaranteed, or at least have buyouts. According to reports, Dallas gave McCarthy a five-year, $30 million contract. It was pretty much the same deal Jason Garrett had and par for the course. They are not overpaying an NFL head coach, but they are overpaying Mike McCarthy who should be working a broom at Denny’s right now.

So what should Jones do? Fire McCarthy obviously. And I’d honestly take him to arbitration to keep from paying him any buyout or remainder of his contract because he admitted to lying in his interview.

After that, Jones needs to look for the best of both worlds if he’s got to keep his finger in the pudding. He needs to hire a young coach with a real offensive mind that can actually grow into the job. And one that can stand up to him when need be. The Cowboys should be one of the best head coaching positions in all of sports. It’s the most valuable franchise in the NFL, a worldwide brand and they have the roster, when Prescott comes back, to win a Super Bowl. This should not be a hard sell.

Jones has made it one. So the answer now is a reach, and if I was reaching for a guy that maybe should bet the job a year before everybody wants to hire him (like the Los Angles Rams did with Sean McVay), I’d look hard at Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Shane Steichen. What he’s been able to do with a rookie quarterback in LA is astounding. While the Chargers are losing, Steichen’s playcalls and designs (and Justin Herbert’s level of play) are not the reason. They’re the reason they’re in any game at all. I’d love to see this guy with Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott and the rest of the Dallas’ offense.

And so should Jerry Jones.

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