Cowboys fans ultimate holiday wish list: Dak Prescott, Mike McCarthy and more

Since it's the holiday season, we thought it’d be nice to come up with a few wishes that Dallas Cowboys fans might be hoping for this year.

Whether they are realistic or just wishful thinking, Cowboys fans are a boisterous bunch and have their opinions on everything concerning the franchise. Some want to replace certain players, the coach and even certain high-ranking executives on the team. Either way, we’ll run through some of Cowboys fans' top wishes for this holiday season.

New head coach

Cowboys fans can’t replace the owner and realize this, so the next best thing is to get the head coach ousted. However, with the Cowboys ending the season on the uptick, that might end up being a pipe dream. Mike McCarthy has coached with no safety net this season as he was not given an extension before the season started. Despite McCarthy downplaying his current job status, it’s got to be something on his mind more often than not.

“I believe in time and place and this isn’t the time or place. ," McCarthy explained. "I’m more focused on (the rest of the team/coaches). It benefits everybody for me just to stay on course.”

Now, as we approach the end of the 2024 campaign, the Cowboys have four of their last five games with two remaining and the chance to finish above .500. Six weeks ago, it seemed as if Dallas might be vying for a top-five pick in the NFL Draft. While they have been eliminated from playoff contention, the Cowboys have continued to fight which means McCarthy could be back with a new deal next year.

Better draft position

When the Cowboys were 3-7, many fans had resigned themselves to the notion that they’d be drafting high enough to select Shedeur Sanders as the eventual replacement for Dak Prescott. Then the team began to win and now they’re 7-8 and likely drafting somewhere in the middle of the first round.

Even if Sanders wasn’t the pick, if you’re not going to make the playoffs, most fans feel you might as well be really bad and pick in the top five. Jerry Jones came out weeks ago and stated they would keep fighting, which most took with a grain of salt. But low and behold that’s exactly what they’ve done.

New QB

Unbelievably, this is a thing. Many Cowboys fans have been done with Dak Prescott for a while as it seems like the team has gone as far with him as possible. However, with the extension he signed just before the season started, Prescott won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon. Prescott is 31 years old and his new deal will take him through the 2028 campaign in Big D.

So, Cowboys fans will have to get used to seeing Prescott on the field once he’s healthy again. It’s not that Prescott isn’t a good quarterback, it’s that he just doesn’t seem to have that ‘it’ factor. Dak will produce great regular season statistics and might even be at the top of the league in some categories. But when it comes to postseason success, that’s where most tend to jump off the Prescott bandwagon.

"They're so financially strapped with all these contracts," former Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson said. "First of all, I would've never given Prescott a new contract. I would've let him play it out. He's the highest-paid player in the league. He's not the best player in the league. He wasn't going to go anywhere. If you go to the Super Bowl with him, hey, wasn't going to go anywhere. Pay him whatever. If he struggled in the playoffs, then you negotiate. If he got hurt, you save money.”

Prescott is 2-5 in the playoffs and has only one postseason victory in the past five years. After nine seasons in the NFL, we’ve likely seen the best that Prescott has to offer which has not been enough to get this team over the hump or satisfy the fan base. But this is the least likely of any wish Cowboys fans might have considering how much money is tied up in Prescott over the next few years.