TAMPA - There is a version, inside The Star, of an ideal world: Some how, some way, the Dallas Cowboys, starting their playoff run with a Monday victory here at Tampa Bay, both win the Super Bowl and retain coach Mike McCarthy's top aides.
But defensive coordinator Dan Quinn will likely get an opportunity at a head coaching job, in Denver or elsewhere - especially if Dallas wins it all.
We will break down Dallas' likely list of potential replacements there on another day (note that George Edwards and Joe Whitt Jr. are already on this staff and well-qualified).
But what if offensive coordinator Kellen Moore departs for a top job?
We'll offer three names that jump out.
1) Brian Schottenheimer, 49, is a special assistant on the Dallas staff, and is the son of the late Marty Schottenheimer - a McCarthy mentor who was almost like family to the Dallas boss. It was Marty who gave McCarthy his first NFL job, with the Kansas City Chiefs, as a low-level staffer in 1993.
Schottenheimer has more than 20 years of skins on the wall, with his work with Russell Wilson in Seattle, where he was the coordinator, a highlight.
2) Nathaniel Hackett, 43, makes sense on this list. He was just fired after one bad year in Denver. But he a winner as a coordinator in Green Bay, working with Aaron Rodgers, and guess what? He's also the son of a McCarthy mentor in Paul Hackett.
Sit down and have a beer with McCarthy and almost inevitably, he will bring up the lessons taught him by "Marty'' and "Hackett.''
McCarthy was a GA at Pitt in 1989 under head coach Paul Hackett and the relationship became so close that McCarthy sometimes babysat 9-year-old Nathaniel.
And when Hackett moved to the Chiefs to work for Marty? He took Mike with him.
3) Doug Nussmeier, 52, deserves mention here, too. He doesn't spring from the same McCarthy-tied "tree'' as the others. Nussmeier joined the Cowboys in 2018 after long stints as a college coordinator at places like Alabama, Michigan and Florida. He survived the dismissal of Jason Garrett and was retained by McCarthy, moving from tight ends coach to QB coach, where he works closely with Dak Prescott.
Again, keeping Kellen Moore as part of a title team is the McCarthy idea. The terminology, the relationships and maybe the success would all stay in place.
But just in case ... the McCarthy coaching tree is worth a study.
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