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Cowboys legend Michael Irvin is adamant he doesn’t want Mike McCarthy back

Posted on January 2, 2025 - 6:12 am by

Dallas Hall of Fame receiver feels it’s time to take another path

The Dallas Cowboys are preparing to face their final game of the 2024 NFL season against the Washington Commanders, who already have a playoff berth and are the arch-rivals of the Lone Star, but the main topic this week is none of that and the conversation has taken another direction.

More important than that is the uncertain future of Mike McCarthy, who if it were up to former star quarterback Troy Aikman, Dallas should extend McCarthy’s contract, as Aikman believes that Jerry Jones would struggle to find and hire a better coach than McCarthy if he leaves.

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But Cowboys receiving legend and leader Michael Irvin sees it differently and made that clear when he appeared on The Herd this week and made it very clear how he feels about McCarthy.



Michael Irvin doesn’t want Mike McCarthy back as head coach

“When I still see a 7-9 record and a ‘pretty good December,’ I keep saying it was too little, too late,” Irvin said on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd when talking about his former team.

“I just think it’s time to go in another direction. And I hear these last ditch attempts to stick with Mike McCarthy. I’m not on that train. What I think is that this team needs more discipline. I’m not saying Mike McCarthy is not a good coach, X’s and O’s coach. But I think the team needs more discipline.

“You can’t go in soft and then try to be hard. You have to go in hard and then relax, because then the guys will feel like they’ve earned some respect,” Irvin said.



Irvin, a close friend of owner Jerry Jones, added that the team is too soft to return as it is currently built and the proof is in last week’s poor 41-7 performance against the Eagles.

“This kind of game erases December,” Irvin said. “Their backups playing against your backups, and they put a 40-burger on you, and you look like you look… yeah, I would (replace McCarthy).”

McCarthy is a good coach, according to Irvin, but he has a different reason for wanting him out of his job.

Indiscipline is Cowboys’ ‘Achilles’ heel’

Irvin is absolutely right that the Cowboys need more discipline. Under McCarthy, Dallas has been among the most penalized teams in the NFL.



Heading into Week 18, only three teams have accumulated more penalties this season than McCarthy’s group. In 2023, they were tied for the second-most penalties. They were in the top 10 in 2022 and ranked No. 1 in 2021 with a whopping 127 penalties.

“It’s hard to do that when you say, ‘OK, this guy who doesn’t have that firm hand in discipline is now going to bring someone else in to help him with discipline.’ And that doesn’t work,” Irvin said.

Irvin adds that the Cowboys need to move on as there was no discipline on the team, with the Cowboys being the fourth most penalized team in the league.

Jones will be the one making the decisions on the coaching staff, but he previously said he was proud of how his team fought during the season after a Week 16 win over the Buccaneers.



However, that might be old news, as the Cowboys were throttled by the Eagles’ backup quarterback Kenny Pickett and third-string backup Tanner McKee.

Jones was heckled by Eagles fans on Sunday as his team was dominated from start to finish while he watched from his luxury box.

McCarthy’s last game as Cowboys coach will be at home against the Commanders on Sunday.

The Cowboys would not have to fire McCarthy as his contract will expire after this season.

Who should replace Mike McCarthy?

While Irvin believes McCarthy is a good coach, it’s clear the Hall of Fame receiver believes Dallas has reached its ceiling with McCarthy.

However, the only hole in Irvin’s argument is that he did not say who should replace McCarthy. We know Irvin would support Deion Sanders, but Sanders is not leaving Colorado. Nor do we think Jones would consider Sanders as the team’s head coach.



It’s easy to say the Cowboys should move on from McCarthy. We can support that. The problem is that the Joneses can’t be trusted to hire someone better. What they value most is experience. The only known candidates who fit that profile are Mike Vrabel, Ron Rivera, Jon Gruden, Pete Carroll and Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

While Irvin is absolutely right in saying that Dallas needs more discipline, surely the Joneses will think they should stick with McCarthy if those names are the only alternatives, although they had plenty of time to talk and negotiate with Bill Belichick who left the New England Patriots organization whom he led to six Super Bowl wins, and they let him go to sign for five seasons with North Carolina.



Definitely the Joneses and the Dallas Cowboys organization will have to make decisions, but they will have to start by knowing how to make decisions and let those who know how to make the right ones, and not to have a new competition or power struggle like the one that happened in the offseason and affected the preseason and regular season and the results are there.