5 inevitable Mike McCarthy replacements after Cowboys fire him in 2025
By John Buhler
Just rip the band-aid off, man. Jesus...
The Dallas Cowboys are actually going to give Mike McCarthy one more year leading their perpetually underperforming franchise. Not only that, but he will be doing so on an expiring contract. The expectation is that McCarthy will not be extended this offseason by owner Jerry Jones. This is why the Cowboys have not won much of anything at all in over 30 years.
Jones has a bad reputation of doing this, having done so twice with McCarthy's predecessor during his run leading the team roughly half a decade ago. The only time the Cowboys have been exceptional under Jones' ownership is when he empowered a head coach who could challenge him. He did it most famously with Jimmy Johnson to start and did it very, very briefly with one Bill Parcells.
Not until Jones decides to empower a great head coach and not some run-of-the-mill type like McCarthy is and Garrett was before him, nothing will ever change in Dallas. Jones' time on this earth is drawing to a close, but he may have very well seen his last Super Bowl championship in Dallas during the Bill Clinton Administration. I was in kindergarten in 1995-96. I am 34 years old right now.
Because McCarthy is a dead man walking next year, here is who Dallas can look to replace him with.
Dallas Cowboys: 5 replacements for Mike McCarthy for 2025 NFL season
5. Steve Sarkisian to Dallas improves Cowboys, and makes Texas worse
Wouldn't this be so funny? Now that he has the Texas Longhorns back, would Steve Sarkisian leave a top-three job in college football for a chance to lead America's Team? I doubt he would want to leave Austin without winning a College Football Playoff National Championship first, but the dollars have to make sense for him to stay there. Furthermore, who is Jerry Jones' alma mater's bitter arch rival?
It has been over a generation since Arkansas and Texas played in the old Southwest Conference, but there are two things to know with either side of the emerging Battle Line rivalry between Arkansas and Missouri. Arkansas hates Texas, and Missouri hates Kansas. We don't need to expound upon that because that's just the way it is. Jones hiring Sarkisian away would be extra level petty for him to do.
In truth, I think Sarkisian would make a fine NFL head coach. I didn't hate him when he was Kyle Shanahan's successor as the offensive coordinator for my Atlanta Falcons. Since turning his life around, everyone is cheering for Sark these days. If he can be the man who brought Texas back, he could be the one to make Dallas anything more than the glorified hype machine they have become.
The Cowboys are one of the only few institutions that could outbid Texas for Sarkisian's services.