NFL analyst weighs in on Dallas Cowboys' HC situation with Sean Payton rumors refusing to die down
The Dallas Cowboys have a situation on their hands that is likely to be around for quite some time, maybe even through the 2022 NFL season.
Their head coach, Mike McCarthy, has been under fire lately after two somewhat underwhelming seasons with the team. Despite winning the NFC East and making it to the playoffs last year, the team faltered against the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card Round to lose 23-17.
Many blamed McCarthy for his poor game management during the game's final stretch. In the offseason, longtime New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, who has ties to the Cowboys as he was once their OC, decided to retire.
Rumors instantly began to fly about Payton returning to the Dallas Cowboys sometime soon to replace McCarthy. NFL analyst Jeremy Fowler was a recent guest on ESPN's "First Take," and here's what he had to say about the HC situation in Dallas:
"I continue to hear that the Cowboys are not planning for a short shelf life for Mike McCarthy right now. The words full confidence have been used to me behind the scenes when I asked him. I don't sense an overly tenuous situation."
Fowler added:
"The Cowboys feel like McCarthy made progress last year with 12 wins. Now, how he wins and loses next year will be important because they really struggled with situational football last year, so it was ugly."
McCarthy was signed to a five-year contract upon being hired as the head coach in 2020. However, Fowler also made assertions that all of what he said is contingent upon what happens next season.
Will Mike McCarthy's time management issues hurt the Dallas Cowboys in 2022?
In 2021, NFL pundits and fans of the Dallas Cowboys franchise were adamant that McCarthy struggled with time management and situational football. One glaring example of this came on the last drive of the Divisional Round playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Cowboys were down 23-17 with no timeouts and had the ball with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. McCarthy called for a QB draw (run) play for Dak Prescott and proceeded to run for a 24-yard gain.
Prescott slid at the 49ers' 24-yard line and the clock was at nine seconds by the time he slid down. Time expired as the team was unable to snap what would have been the final play in time.
Fans were livid and confused as to why McCarthy would call a QB draw up the middle of the field with no timeouts when he needed a touchdown to tie the game.
Risk taker McCarthy waits until the playoffs to go conservative and I hate it.
McCarthy faced another time management issue in an early-season matchup on Monday Night Football against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Dallas Cowboys defense stopped the Eagles offense right in midfield with about a minute left before halftime.
McCarthy could have called an immediate timeout in an attempt to score points before halftime. Instead, he opted to let the clock run until the Eagles called a timeout with 20 seconds left on the clock to punt the ball away.
Even the Manning brothers, who hosted the game on their ManningCast broadcast, were in confusion over McCarthy's (non) actions.
Peyton Manning isn't enjoying the Mike McCarthy clock management:
"Call timeout, MIKE!" https://t.co/LvOAxnza8T
Fans will hope that McCarthy improves on his situational play-calling and time management play-calling this season. If he doesn't, the calls for Sean Payton to take over in Dallas may grow louder as the season goes on.