Mike McCarthy on state of relationship with Jerry Jones: 'We're in an excellent spot'

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy met with the media on Thursday to wrap up the 2022 season and discuss the already numerous changes to his staff. The non-renewals for six members of his coaching staff clearly took a toll on the former Packers coach, but his relationship with team owner Jerry Jones remains “excellent.”

McCarthy shared that Jones told him this week that he hopes he’ll coach the Cowboys as long as Tom Landry did, which was almost three decades.

“As far as my relationship with Jerry … we are in an excellent spot,” McCarthy said. “The partnership that we have, he’s excited about. He told me a number of times this week that he wants me to coach here as long as coach (Tom) Landry did. I said, ‘OK, that’s a long time.’ I feel really good about our relationship. Think our ability to discuss and disagree, we do a good job at that. I think that’s important.”

After Dallas’ second-round playoff loss on Sunday night, despite several reassurances from Jones, rumors continued to swirl about McCarthy’s job security. The head man called the concerns “externally generated.”

“I get to talk to Jerry a lot, so I’ve never felt that,” McCarthy said. “The narrative is externally generated and I think the industry should show more respect to the individuals. Change is part of it, was all understand it, but these guys’ families have to listen to some of the things that are said, and it’s not right. No different from my family.”

McCarthy, Jones on solid ground heading into offseason

During his press conference, Mike McCarthy revealed that Jerry Jones had an opportunity to talk to the team ahead of the staff changes that impacted them on a very personal level.

“I thought he was incredible with the team,” McCarthy said of Jones’ Monday meeting. “We have a lot to build off of. We are in a mode of evaluation. We’re going to continue to have conversations about how to get this thing done.”

Asked whether the Cowboys will analyze the impact of the Amari Cooper trade last offseason, the Cowboys skipper said there is a constant evaluation of the team’s “decision-making.”

“Those conversations are really on-going,” McCarthy said. “We’re always evaluating our decision-making. Let’s make sure we learn from decisions we made in the past.”

Dallas will continue coaching staff evaluations this week before moving into more in-depth personnel and roster discussions.