Cowboys' Jerry Jones explains Mike McCarthy decision: 'It all makes sense'

Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones spoke with reporters at the Senior Bowl on Tuesday and explained that his decision to keep Mike McCarthy as his head coach was related to how quarterback Dak Prescott has played under McCarthy over the past few years. 

"We're right at a key spot with Dak," Jones said, per Nick Harris of the Cowboys' website. "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."

Legendary Dallas quarterback and Hall of Famer Troy Aikman credited Jones last week for keeping Prescott and McCarthy together, and the 30-year-old signal-caller was later named a finalist for The Associated Press' 2023 NFL Most Valuable Player Award that will be handed out at the "NFL Honors" ceremony on Feb. 8. The Cowboys had been linked in rumors with former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, in part because McCarthy now has a 1-3 postseason record with Dallas following the club's 48-32 home wild-card loss to the Green Bay Packers on Jan. 14. 

Jones insisted on Tuesday he did not have to "talk" himself into sticking with McCarthy. 

"I felt good during the year with the job that Mike was doing," Jones said. "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."

Interestingly, Jones hinted that McCarthy won't be made to coach in the final year of his contract. The Cowboys are expected to sign Prescott to some type of extension this offseason to lower his salary-cap hit for 2024. 

"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 added about 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."

The fact McCarthy's teams have gone 12-5 across each of the past three regular seasons likely means little to Jones considering the Cowboys haven't played in a conference title game since January 1996. Regardless of McCarthy's contract status, he may need more than one playoff victory next January to remain with the club through and beyond the 2025 scouting combine.