Reports: Jerry Jones Has a Backup Plan for Mike McCarthy if High-Flying Cowboys Suffer a Sudden Jolt

The Dallas Cowboys are looking stronger than ever. And Jerry Jones has been waiting a long time for a Super Bowl to arrive at Arlington. It’s been 26 years, to be precise, since the Cowboys last won the championship. And Jones’ patience is running thin.

After losing to the San Francisco 49ers, last year in the wild-card round, Jerry doesn’t seem to be the kind of owner who would give head coach Mike McCarthy another run next year. And former New Orleans Saints HC, and Super Bowl winner, Sean Payton is on Jerry Jones’ mind, as per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

This is not the first time Jerry Jones has made attempts to land the veteran head coach. After losing the NFL Divisional round playoff game to the 49ers in 2019, the billionaire owner and GM of Dallas tried to replace existing HC Jason Garrett with Payton. He finally settled with Mike McCarthy. Getting Payton will be relatively less taxing for Jones as he will not be forced to give up valuable draft picks after Payton announced his retirement in 2022.

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And now that Payton has expressed his desire to return to the NFL sidelines next year and is already gathering a coaching team, the chances look real this time for Jerry. That is only if the Cowboys have a one-and-done playoff run this year with McCarthy.

Jerry Jones couldn’t land Payton because of NBA star Anthony Davis

Yes, Jerry would have had to give a bunch of future picks and a lot more to the Saints if he wanted Sean in 2019. However, according to Florio’s book ‘Playmakers: How the NFL Really Works (And Doesn’t)‘, Jones and Payton had already reached a verbal agreement. And it would have gone through in the coming days, had it not been for LA Lakers and former New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

Days before finalizing the move for Sean Payton, Davis announced his intentions not to renew his Pelicans contract. Pelicans and Saints owner Gayle Benson found herself in a tricky situation and let Saint GM and executive VP of basketball operations with the Pelicans, Mike Loomis, handle things. Loomis quickly realized that he could not be the one who let Anthony Davis and Sean Payton leave New Orleans in the same year. And that is when the Payton to Cowboys deal fell through, unfortunately for Jerry Jones.

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Davis went on to win the NBA Championship the very next season with LeBron James and the Lakers. However, Jerry’s championship fortunes haven’t reversed, and at 80, he will not do a lot of waiting around.