Troy Aikman on Mike McCarthy hire: I think the Cowboys picked the right guy

Dallas Cowboys franchise legend and current FOX analyst Troy Aikman has not held back when discussing his former team. He was very critical of things that he disagreed with over the course of the 2019 season.

Aikman helped take the Cowboys franchise to even greater levels than they had previously achieved when he played in the 1990s so it makes sense that he would want to see his former team be great. It also made sense that he would want his former teammate Jason Garrett to be the man to lead them there, but unfortunately that never materialized.

Number eight stayed true to this thought process all the way through the official end of the Jason Garrett era as he noted that the process of it all “highlighted the dysfunction” within the franchise. As of now, though, he has a kind word for his former team.

Aikman appeared on Monday’s edition of the Rich Eisen Show and after discussing Sunday’s Wildcard game between the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints, he was of course asked about the news of the day - Dallas hiring Mike McCarthy to replace Jason Garrett.

Aikman agrees with the hire.

“I like the hire. I really do like the hire. It’s probably, I’m thinking back quickly and the hires that have been made, as far as a seasoned guy who’s got a proven resume since Bill Parcells.”

“And I think that McCarthy comes in and it sounds like, at least hearing the conversations today, that he’s going to be given the opportunity to bring in his staff. Which at times under Jerry Jones that has not always been the case, and I think that’s a recipe right from the start for failure. I think coaches need to be able to bring in their own staff so that’s great.”

“And I think that the year off that Mike McCarthy has had has probably served him well. Because he hasn’t just been going to kids games. He’s been studying, he’s been preparing. I met with him back when we were doing a game in Green Bay. I had breakfast with him and he was real intense then. He said ‘We need the game of football.’ He needs the game of football in his life, his family does, and he was prepared and has been preparing.”

“So I think you’re going to see probably a little bit of a different Mike McCarthy in what he wants to do offensively. Maybe some as well as on the management side of things. But I think it was a really good hire. He’s obviously been hugely successful by any measurement as a head coach. I think the Cowboys picked the right guy.”

McCarthy is without question one of the brighter offensive minds in the NFL so to pair him with Dak Prescott and Co. (maybe even Kellen Moore) will hopefully yield a lot of success.