Jerry Jones was feeling “proud” when Mike McCarthy led the Cowboys to a nail-biting win over the Buccaneers in Week 16. Jones has backed the HC despite calls for his removal during what has been a disappointing season. The Cowboys owner cited his history with midseason changes as one of the reasons why he is prepared to give McCarthy time. But the pride Jones felt after the Bucs’ win would have been hurt after his side were hunted by the Eagles.

The Week 17 game saw the Cowboys being dominated by the Eagles in all aspects of the game as they fell to an embarrassing 41-7 defeat. In their first game without WR CeeDee Lamb this season, Dallas’ offense was all over the place. Their final eight drives involved four punts, an interception, two lost fumbles, and a missed 61-yard field goal. This loss disappeared the goodwill that their recent run, where they won four out of five games, had generated, and clouds McCarthy’s future. But the management isn’t panicking.

After three consecutive seasons of an identical 12-5 record, the Cowboys sit 7-9 this year with one game to go. Things haven’t gone to plan for McCarthy, who has been under the cosh for some time now. However, he seems to have the support of those in power. If anything, Jerry Jones’s son Stephen, was all praises for the HC, when talking about how their season has gone.

On Monday morning, the Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones went on 105.3 The Fan to discuss what lies ahead for his franchise with the season nearing its end for them. Talking about McCarthy, he admired how the HC has done given the circumstances. “I think Mike’s done a great job considering the challenges that we’ve had, and Mike Zimmer the same way, it’s been a new group out there,” Jones mentioned.

There will be a section of fans that may disagree with Stephen’s comments, but these have been trying circumstances for McCarthy. The Cowboys haven’t spent money to bolster their team and be at the very least a playoff contender. Yes, they handed out big contracts to CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott, but the team doesn’t have the depth it needs. In 2024, the Cowboys were 13th in terms of spending the most cash on players. On top of that, a season-ending injury to Prescott didn’t help McCarthy’s cause either.

The HC is in the final year of his five-year contract and while Jerry Jones has openly shown his support for him, there hasn’t been a new contract offer on the table. There has been reported interest in McCarthy from other NFL teams with the Jets and the New Orleans Saints linked. For Stephen, this is no surprise.

“Doesn’t surprise me a bit, Mike’s an established head coach in this league. He’s won a Super Bowl championship; he’s been to multiple championship games.” Talking about the HC’s future he said, “We’ll address all this after the Commanders game.” 

Against the Eagles, McCarthy was without CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott, and Zak Martin but wide receiver KaVonte Turpin had a thinly veiled critique of his HC’s playbook in the absence of his marquee stars.

“Man, I just feel like, at the end of the day, with CeeDee gone, we weren’t really calling no pass plays,” Turpin said, via The Athletic, postgame on Sunday. “We just run the ball, throwing checkdowns … that’s the plan in the receiving room. We thought we’re going to go out there and show people, it ain’t all about CeeDee.”

McCarthy did seem short of ideas against the far superior Eagles, who clinched the NFC East division, but how much of it was down to the head coach? After promising to go “all in” in the offseason to upgrade his roster, Jerry Jones changed his tune to “get it done with less” after losing six starters and depth at multiple positions.

Moreover, they added only three players as external free agents. Ezekiel Elliott (RB) was added on a one-year contract worth, $2 million, while Eric Kendricks (LB) also joined on a one-year $3 million deal. Royce Freeman also signed a one-year deal worth $1.25 million. So is Jerry Jones’s backing of McCarthy a reward for not demanding more? His son’s words about McCarthy dealing with the circumstances handed to him, do suggest that the office is happy with how he has gone about his business.

Following the thrilling 26-24 win over the Bucs, Jones was over the moon and highly praised McCarthy, suggesting a change might not be on the cards. “I’m real proud (of the team),” Jones said. And Mike McCarthy, he just won’t let them not think that they’re playing for the Super Bowl out there. He won’t let them do it. I’m proud of that. I’m proud of the coach.”

The Cowboys not parting ways with McCarthy, could also be in line with what Jones said about regretting his decision to fire coaches and not give them enough time. But will the latest hammering by the Eagles change his mind? Maybe, his son is right. How things will go in their last game of the season, could determine McCarthy’s future.

Apart from this, Stephen Jones also talked about the team’s issues at QB with Dak Prescott’s injury being a factor in their regression.

The never-ending QB dilemma for the Cowboys

Keeping aside all the concerns, whether it is roster management or ownership issues, there’s no doubt that one of the major reasons behind the Dallas team’s embarrassing season is Dak Prescott’s injury. You’ve got Trey Lance on the roster, and you’ve got Cooper Rush as well. And keeping in mind the starting QB, Rush’s season turned out to be challenging.

Against the Eagles, Rush started the game and threw a pick six, before salvaging some pride with a a 4-yard touchdown pass on a goal-line fade to wide receiver to Jalen Tolbert. In 12 games he has featured in for the Cowboys, Rush has 12 TDs, 1,844 yards with a 60.7% completion rate. He has also thrown 5 interceptions and been sacked 13 times.

As far as Trey Lance is concerned, the Cowboys already passed on his fifth-year option, and to make it worse, he’s not even getting a chance to start. What will you call that trade, then? The worst trader ever? Because the staff’s keeping quiet on whether this QB will get the nod for the season finale or not.

“We want to finish strong against Washington,” Jerry Jones’ son said when asked about Lance getting to start against the Commanders. “We’ll look at that situation this week and see where we go from there.” I mean, what good that strong finish would do to the Cowboys, anyway?

Let’s be real—no one’s handing out trophies for beating Washington in Week 18. If anything, a big game from Trey Lance will just make the Cowboys’ staff look worse for keeping him on ice all season. At that point, ‘finishing strong’ might just turn into explaining themselves.