Mike McCarthy will survive a historic playoff loss after all.
The Dallas Cowboys are retaining McCarthy as head coach for the 2024 season, owner Jerry Jones confirmed on Wednesday night.
The 60-year-old McCarthy is entering the final year of his contract with the team.
McCarthy's job security was in question after the Cowboys became the first No. 2 seed to lose to a No. 7 seed since the NFL playoff field expanded to 14 teams in 2020. Dallas went down 27-0 to the Green Bay Packers at home on Sunday en route to a 48-32 loss in the wild-card round.
After going 6-10 in his first season in Dallas, McCarthy has coached the Cowboys to three consecutive 12-5 seasons. But two of those three campaigns have ended in a home loss in the wild-card round. The Cowboys became the first team since the 1970 merger to win 12 games in three straight seasons and not reach the conference championship game at least once.
Dallas hasn't made it past the divisional round since the franchise's 1995 Super Bowl-winning season.
Speculation around the potential of Dallas moving on from McCarthy was not only fueled by his lackluster playoff resume but also a robust pool of coaching candidates. Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson and Jim Harbaugh are the headliners of this hiring cycle. There are currently seven open head-coaching gigs across the NFL.
So the Cowboys opting to run it back once again with McCarthy didn't exactly get rave reviews on social media:
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