Another year, another postseason loss. This time it was Green Bay pouring cold water on the Cowboys’ playoff hopes with a 48-32 home loss.
Even under the NFL’s new salary cap, Dallas is still $4M over the limit, meaning current players must do better.
With that in mind, here are three Cowboys on the hottest seats in 2024.
Owner/GM Jerry Jones
No stranger to the hot seat, Jones stepped into the fire with his comments at the Senior Bowl.
"I would anticipate, with looking ahead at our key contracts that we'd like to address, we will be all-in," Jones said. "I would anticipate we will be all-in at the end of this year.”
Jones’ ownership career got off to a great start with three championships in his first 10 years, but Dallas hasn’t been to the Super Bowl since 1995.
After winning two of the last three NFC East championships, the Cowboys can’t seem to get out of their own way in the playoffs.
With players like CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons and Dak Prescott due to become free agents in 2025, it could be now or never for Dallas.
Currently, only five teams have less cap room than the Cowboys, which could nullify Jones’ “all-in” approach.
Head coach Mike McCarthy
What else is new? McCarthy’s .627 regular-season win percentage in four years with the team is hard to ignore but his .250 win percentage in the playoffs is getting hard to forget.
The Cowboys were favored by a touchdown when they faced Green Bay at home in the wild-card round of the 2023 NFL playoffs. Sixty minutes and three Aaron Jones touchdowns later, the season ended with a 48-32 loss to the Packers.
Aaron Jones had more rushing touchdowns against the Cowboys today than he did all regular season pic.twitter.com/z8ddof6YGL
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 15, 2024
McCarthy isn’t signed beyond this year, which could make signing free agents difficult. But that won’t matter as long as Jones is in charge, which means McCarthy might need to win it all to keep his job.
Quarterback Dak Prescott
When asked about McCarthy being on the hot seat, Prescott had nothing but praise for his head coach and offered himself up for similar treatment.
“He’s been amazing,” Prescott said. “I don’t know how there can be [questions about his job], but I understand the business. In that case, it should be about me as well, honestly.”
Prescott threw for 403 yards and three scores in the Green Bay loss but also had two interceptions, including an awful pick-six with 1:50 left in the first half. Still, the 30-year-old quarterback feels confident he’ll get a new deal.
“It helps with the team and it helps with the numbers. Everything is great. It’ll happen,” Prescott said, via Nick Harris of the team’s website.
But as Prescott knows, his seat won't get any cooler with another new contract.
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