The longtime Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy will return to football as the coach of the Dallas Cowboys, according to multiple news media accounts.
McCarthy, 56, coached the Packers for almost 13 seasons, catching the end of the Brett Favre era and ushering in Aaron Rodgers as the franchise quarterback. His teams made nine playoff appearances, and the Packers won the Super Bowl after the 2010 season.
But despite his longevity and a 125-77-2 record, he was a divisive figure for many fans and commentators. Some questioned his play-calling and game management.
He was praised for his work with the young Rodgers, and he will now have the opportunity to bring his skills to bear on the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, 26. But a key criticism was that under his stewardship, an elite quarterback like Rodgers, with two league Most Valuable Player Awards, had just one Super Bowl appearance.
The Packers also seemed to have had more than their share of agonizing overtime and last-second playoff losses, some of them despite being played on the favorable home tundra of Lambeau Field.
Toward the end of their time together the McCarthy-Rodgers relationship became frayed, by many accounts, with Rodgers appearing frustrated at McCarthy’s propensity to go for field goals on short fourth downs or to call running plays when Rodgers would rather pass.
McCarthy was fired after missing the playoffs in 2017 and then starting 4-7-1 in 2018. He took a year away from the game, and devoted some of that time to studying football analytics: a departure for a coach who was sometimes seen as data-phobic.
As teams dismissed coaches after the 2019 regular season, McCarthy’s name came up for many jobs, including the Giants’ coaching vacancy, for which he interviewed last week.
Dallas, the winner of the McCarthy sweepstakes, dismissed Jason Garrett, its longtime coach on Sunday, after a prolonged exit interview. After nine-plus years, Garrett wound up with a lot of .500-ish seasons and no Super Bowl appearances: not good enough for a franchise that considers itself N.F.L. royalty and is blessed with Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott.
If McCarthy does have a special gift with young quarterbacks, as some claim, he may be a boon to Prescott. (A possible wrinkle is that Prescott’s rookie contract has not been extended past the 2020 season, although he is expected to eventually sign a new deal.)
The team owner Jerry Jones stuck with Garrett for over nine years, maybe longer than some other owners would have. Garrett’s dismissal had been anticipated for weeks after the Cowboys lost the N.F.C. East title and finished with an 8-8 record. Jones has a renowned hunger to win, and apparently believes McCarthy is the man to return the team to glory.
Source: Football - nytimes.com
