Cowboys: Mike McCarthy should ignore Jason Garrett’s advice

While well-intentioned, Jason Garrett’s advice to Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy amid coaching turmoil does very little for him at this point in time. 

In February, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made it clear that head coach Mike McCarthy will be succeeded at some point, but when that will take place remains unknown.

Understandably, Jones’ comments put McCarthy in a difficult situation. With rumors swirling that everyone from Dan Quinn to Kellen Moore to even Sean Payton were coming for his job, McCarthy spoke at length about how he was processing his position in Dallas.

McCarthy stressed that Cowboys fans “have to understand the platform where they’re coming from”: McCarthy has a positive relationship with Jones, and he also wants Quinn in Dallas.

“The best thing for the Dallas cowboys is for Dan Quinn to be here,” McCarthy said.

In the same segment, McCarthy did acknowledge that the Cowboys environment can be one filled with detrimental distractions.

“I always, frankly, just keep it about winning and have always taken a blind eye and a blind ear to those things, but that’s not the case when you work here.”

It seemed as though the 58-year-old coach who’s been in the coaching game since 1987 knew exactly how to quell the Cowboys rumor mill, but that didn’t stop former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett from offering unsolicited, albeit well-intentioned, advice.

Mike McCarthy should just ignore Jason Garrett’s advice

Garrett also spoke with Rich Eisen on “The Rick Eisen Show”, sharing advice for McCarthy as someone who was in his shoes from 2011 to 2019.

CBS Sports’ Patrik Walker transcribed Garrett’s comments, which can be found below:

"“Well I think the biggest thing for any head coach and really for any player in the NFL, is really just focus on yourself and what you need to do to be your best. And I know that’s a cliche, and everyone thinks, ‘Oh blah, it’s coach speak and all of that’, but it’s so true. And it’s so true certainly in a place like Dallas. There’s a lot of people who make their living speculating about things, and digging things up — stirring things up.When you’re in those roles, you have to just really focus on what you need to do to be your best. And this was a theme that we tried to use with all of our players through the years. Players getting into Twitter wars and all of this kind of stuff. It’s like, ‘Hey, let’s just lock in on what we need to do each day to be our best.’And when you’re preaching that message to your team, sometimes you’ve got to preach it to yourself. And you’ve got to say, hey, everything that I’m trying to share with these guys to help them individually be their best, help our team be its best, you know sometimes you’ve got to say, hey, I’ve got to remind myself of those things.”"

McCarthy already said that he takes a blind eye and ear to rumors and speculation, and he did have quite a few rumors to tune out as reports emerged of conflict between McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers back in Green Bay. McCarthy knows fully well that NFL head coaches have to tune out the noise, but what Garrett and McCarthy both touch on is that Dallas is a different environment. Frankly, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is often the person “stirring the pot” with media rather than any Cowboys players.

And tuning out the noise only goes so far: sometimes, teams really are trying to replace a head coach, which is exactly what happened with McCarthy in Green Bay and Garrett in Dallas.

McCarthy is well-aware of everything Garrett had to share, but also, he should be keenly aware that the 2022 season is critical. Dallas is different, and Jones already has his eye on the future. McCarthy doesn’t need to just do his best: he needs to bring the best out of the Cowboys and make them win, otherwise, he likely will be replaced.