Mike McCarthy press conference: Gerald McCoy is a huge loss for the Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy took to the proverbial podium on Tuesday morning and obviously there were a lot of questions about the injury that defensive tackle Gerald McCoy sustained on Monday.

McCarthy spoke about it as well as a few other topics. The season is just beginning and some people are joining us for the first time, so a quick reminder that any time that the head coach speaks, we put this together for you all and hit on everything that he said.

With that, let’s begin.

Gerald McCoy is a huge loss

Mike McCarthy stated the obvious in noting that Gerald McCoy’s injury was very unfortunate and that he is a huge loss. He even went as far as to say it makes you sick on a personal level. He said that McCoy is a big personality and that he feels confident that the defensive tackle will approach this the way that he does everything else.

Younger players will have to step up

Again McCarthy stated the obvious in noting that there is always a need to groom younger and less experienced players but that an injury to someone like McCoy heightens that.

Neville Gallimore and Trysten Hill look good

Coach said that he likes what he’s seen between Gallimore and Hill but that it is obviously early. In spite of how early it is, he projected confidence in the younger players.

Tempo will become normal

Many Cowboys players have noted that the tempo of practice is higher than they are used to. McCarthy said that everyone will get used to it and this is all part of their overall goal.

Gerald McCoy is anticipated to continue to help out

Gerald McCoy noted in the statement that he released after his injury that he is planning on sticking around the Cowboys to mentor the younger players and Mike McCarthy corroborated that.

Thoughts on Andy Dalton

To my knowledge this is the first time that McCarthy has publicly spoken about Dalton which is somewhat significant. Here is what McCarthy had to say.

“Andy Dalton’s doing an excellent job. I thought he had an exceptional practice yesterday. I think he had three or four reads that were right on the money. I really like what Andy brings to our football team. I think he’s an excellent addition to the quarterback room. I know I’ve spoken on it in the last couple of days, but it’s a quarterback room that’s going to produce a lot of great things. I’m confident in that. I think dynamics of a quarterback room, pretty much like any position room, but the dynamics of that room is so important for the progress of the offense and just the collaboration, the coordination between Doug and Kellen, I think we’re off to a great start. The Quarterback School drills and what we’ve implemented there, all four players are doing a very good job with that. Their workload capacity, I’ve been very impressed with. Andy’s a big part of that.”

The quarterback guru is clearly at work.

Michael Gallup is a number one receiver

Asked for his thoughts on the value of having Michael Gallup as the team’s number two receiver, Mike McCarthy established that Gallup is a number one.

“Let’s make it clear. Michael Gallup’s a number one receiver in my view. I think we’re fortunate to have three players with that level of potential to go out and play at that level. The reality of it is everybody wants to live by numbers, but it’s really comes down to opportunities. I’ve been so impressed with not only what MIchael’s done on film last year. He was definitely one of the players that really jumped off the video during the offseason study because I didn’t know a whole lot about Michael until last year. He’s primed to take that next step. You look for your younger players in that second and third year to take a big step, not only in their production, but just their overall awareness: their football IQ, their emotional IQ, all those things. And I think he will definitely be one of those players for us. Obviously CeeDee’s a rookie and he’ll continue to grow, Amari’s established and he has a standard that he’s played to this point. But those three guys, we have a chance to do some really big things, and really the overall receiver group. We’ve got a bunch of young guys that are stepping up each and every day. It’s a group that has competition, but I think we’re very fortunate to have three players of that caliber.”

Carry on.

Differences from Green Bay

McCarthy was asked what he’s doing differently with the Cowboys than he did with the Green Bay Packers and he noted that obviously a lot of it is the same thing. He mentioned that experience changes things and that they are running with an 8 AM CT schedule that is specific to this year, but overall things are obviously similar to a degree.

Names on the back of practice jerseys

We have talked a lot about jerseys to this point which is a lot of fun if you’re into that sort of thing. McCarthy has had the Cowboys quarterbacks wearing red jerseys in practice which is a deviation from the norm, and there is a new variable involved now in that players are wearing their names on the back of their own jerseys.

McCarthy stated this has to do simply with the fact that there are so many new people involved with the organization, he did acknowledge respect for tradition in the process. It is interesting to note that in the first year without Jason Garrett that the Cowboys have names on the back of their practice jerseys and that the New York Giants in their first year with him, granted as the offensive coordinator and not head coach, they do have them.