Even before Dake Prescott unknowingly announced to the world that his team “bleeping bleeps,” the season was gone prior to his hamstring injury.
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He would never say this publicly, but that hamstring injury is the second best development to his 2024 season; the first being the four-year, $240 million contract he signed a few hours before the start of Week 1 in Cleveland.
That win on Lake Eerie feels like 20 years ago rather than two months. An already long season is on the precipice of a football nuclear winter. Dak is out for the next several weeks, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb’s shoulder may force him to the sidelines, too; also of note, the team stunk up the place even when those guys were healthy.
Sorry, Mike McCarthy, but if this is your final year with the Cowboys this stain of a season is not on you. But, Jerry Jones’ gotta can somebody and you’re on an expiring contract. He doesn’t even have to fire you.
Jerry has fired a coach during the season only once before, Wade Phillips in 2010, and it’s pointless to do that with McCarthy. That team quit on Wade, and Jerry had the head coach-in-waiting on the sidelines, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.
There are so many signs that Jerry may just have to do something he really doesn’t want to do and contemplate going back to 2002, when he made the third boldest coaching decision of his tenure.
No. 1 was hiring Jimmy Johnson. No. 2 was firing Jimmy, and hiring Barry Switzer. No. 3 was hiring Bill Parcells.
The Cowboys of ‘24 are showing so many similarities to the Cowboys of 2002 that Bill Belichick as this team’s next head coach is no longer just a time-killing segment for morning sports talk shows.
In 2002, the team was fumbling its way to its third straight 5-11 season under head coach Dave Campo. The fan base was no longer angry as much as it was checked out. The biggest difference between that ‘02 team and today is talent; this version of the Cowboys has a few more decent players than the 2002 team. Not a lot. A few.
It was unbelievable at the time that a personality like Parcells wanted any part of working with Jerry. But, Bill aspired to play the “big room” (and to make big money). After so many bad seasons, Jerry needed to do something big.
He hired Bill, and the two worked together from 2003 to 2006. The two liked each other, and, aside from a few differences, the relationship worked. That era of the Cowboys didn’t net a Super Bowl, but it proved that Jerry could handle a Parcells-type coach.
After Parcells retired following the 2006 season, Jerry proudly boasted of “doing it the other way;” meaning, he tried the method of yielding personnel control to the head coach. What he would not say is that it worked.
Now it’s 2024, and the top free agent coach available is Parcells’ protege, Belichick, who had personnel control for nearly the length of his run as the head coach in New England, 2000 to 2023.
The Cowboys hiring Belichick would be bigger than the announcement of Parcells. Belichick is the most successful NFL coach of the modern era, and the perception of his personality may actually be worse than Parcells.
When the Patriots basically fired Belichick in the offseason, he was passed over for every potential available head coaching job. The Atlanta Falcons hired Raheem Morris over Belichick.
In an effort to reshape his grumpy, grouchy image, which was earned not given, Belichick is now playing the part of the happy NFL analyst for numerous television shows this season. He also was a good sport during his appearance on Netflix’s roast of his former quarterback, Tom Brady.
There are other details on this potential scenario working against him, other than his cantankerous personality.
No. 1 Belichick’s record as a head coach without Tom Brady as his starting quarterback, 83-104.
No. 2 When the Cowboys hired Parcells, he was 62. Belichick will be 73 next year, which would make him the oldest coach in the NFL by a wide margin. Kansas City’s Andy Reid currently owns that distinction, and he is 66.
No. 3 One part of the Parcells era the Cowboys ownership did not enjoy was the lack of joy. In season, Parcells could be a difficult personality, and 0.0 fun. Even when the Cowboys won, it was almost worse. Jerry called it “walking on egg shells” for the staffers in the building.
Parcells and Belichick are different men, but there is a lot of Parcells in Belichick. Jerry’s preference would be not to return to that type of personality.
But this season is gone, and no owner in sports is better at “big” than Jerry Jones.
Hiring Bill Belichick would be the biggest thing he’s done since he fired Tom Landry.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024, 5:00 AM.
Mac Engel is an award-winning columnist who has covered sports since the dawn of man; Cowboys, TCU, Stars, Rangers, Mavericks, etc. Olympics. Movies. Concerts. Books. He combines dry wit with 1st-person reporting to complement an annoying personality. Support my work with a digital subscription