Keyshawn Johnson: Mike McCarthy Could Get Fired by Cowboys After One Season
The Cowboys were supposed to be one of the best teams in the NFL this year. At least that's what Jerry Jones told every dinghy he passed during those long walks around his super yacht. But instead of living up to expectations, the Cowboys have flopped flatter than a flounder on deck, starting the season 1-3 with their lone win coming on a 20-point comeback against the 0-4 Falcons that was a total fluke (fish pun intended).
When a team with this much talent and this high of a payroll disappoints this much to start the season, judging eyes tend to focus on the coach. In this case it's Mike McCarthy, the former Packers honcho. But this is McCarthy's first year with the Cowboys. Surely they would afford the former Super Bowl champion coach more time to fix the issues plaguing this team, right?
Well, according to former Cowboy Keyshawn Johnson, that might not be the case. Johnson believes McCarthy could be fired if the Cowboys put together a 6-10 season, which he feels would be unacceptable in Jones' eyes considering all the talent the Cowboys have.
“If they go 6-10 and miss the playoffs, you might start to hear a lot of rumblings about him being replaced already.”@keyshawn thinks that Mike MCarthy could be one-and-done in Dallas, but @RealJayWilliams thinks that there’s no way that happens. #KJZ pic.twitter.com/QTuSviWdoG
— Keyshawn, JWill & Zubin (@KeyJayandZ) October 6, 2020
This isn't a crazy idea. The NFC East is complete garbage this year. The Cowboys have yet to face any division opponent. If they can't win at least four games in this terrible division with a team that's clearly more talented than their opponents, McCarthy would have no excuses.
Beyond their divisional scrub competition, they also have games against the Bengals, Vikings, and Cardinals, which they likely would be favored in. Including the division, that's nine games over their last 12 that they should be favored to win (the other three games are against the Steelers, 49ers and Ravens).
If McCarthy can't squeeze more than six wins out of that group, he probably does deserve to be canned.
Jay Williams didn't agree with Johnson and said the Cowboys will never fire McCarthy after one year. Stephen Jones was asked about making drastic changes yesterday and said he wasn't ready to do that. But if the Cowboys can't fix their issues on defense (they're 32nd in the NFL, giving up 36.5 points per game), McCarthy will be under the microscope and, based on the level of talent in Dallas, I doubt Jerry Jones will like what he sees if this team does finish below .500.