The coaching carousel spins on. And if Mike McCarthy is thrown aboard, he might just be getting off in Chicago.
“I’ve talked to multiple people who believe McCarthy — should he leave Dallas — could set his sights on Chicago,” writes ESPN’s senior NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler.
With 18 seasons of experience coaching in the NFC (13 with the Packers, and now in his fifth with the Cowboys), McCarthy would certainly be qualified for the position.
But talk of him ᴀssuming the head post in the Windy City is highly speculative.
For one, the 61-year-old is still the tenured coach of the Cowboys. And in spite of his team’s calamitous, abominable, incoherent 2024 campaign, franchise owner Jerry Jones has remained largely supportive of his efforts.
In fact, the owner was singing praises after McCarthy led the Cowboys to an upset win over the potentially playoff-bound Buccaneers in Week 16.
“Those guys came out and played as though they were fighting in the championship game to go to the Super Bowl,” Jones said. “So, I can’t tell you how proud I am of them and the coaching staff. It really shows me something.”
McCarthy and company showed Jones something else the following week when they traveled to Philadelphia and surrendered 41 points to the Kenny Pickett-led Eagles.
Dallas’ defense had no answer for Saquon Barkley, who topped 2,000 yards on the season, or DeVonta Smith, who finished the contest with 120 yards and two touchdowns on six receptions.
The offensive effort was just as embarrᴀssing, with quarterback Cooper Rush and the Cowboys managing just seven points.
The Week 17 debacle was about the worst of the Cowboy’s 2024 season, which, by almost all measures, has been an uncharacteristic aberration in McCarthy’s otherwise impressive tenure.
After missing the playoffs in 2020, the coach’s first season at the helm, Dallas finished at or near the top of the division from 2021-23.
And yet, despite the impressive finishes and an overall record of 83-49, the head coach has only one postseason victory to show for his efforts.
Now that McCarthy is in the fifth and final year of his contract, Jones faces the difficult decision of whether to extend his stay or find a new top dog to deliver an uber-talented squad to the promised land.
In Chicago, meanwhile, names that have been floated to lead rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the Bears back to relevancy include Pete Carroll, Kliff Kingsbury and Mike Vrabel, among others.
The Bears fired third-year head coach Matt Eberflus in November after a particularly horrendous bout of clock mismanagement concluded with the Bears dropping their eighth game of the season.
Chicago (4-12) enters Sunday’s road game in Green Bay attempting to avoid an 11th straight loss to end the season.
