Jerry Jones is trying to have it both ways with how we got to this point with Mike McCarthy

The Dallas Cowboys held their annual press conference to open up training camp on Tuesday and among Jerry Jones’ first remarks were a defense of head coach Mike McCarthy. Jerry noted that he believes in McCarthy and that he wouldn’t employ him if he didn’t think that McCarthy was capable of winning a Super Bowl for the Cowboys. Obviously that is the reason that McCarthy was brought in two and a half years ago, but patience can wear thin when your franchise has been out of the NFC Championship Game for a quarter century.

It is no secret that McCarthy’s job status has been heavily debated over the last few months, but even though he won’t admit it, that is partly Jerry’s fault.

He tried to defend that on Tuesday. Sort of.

Jerry Jones is trying to have it both ways with how we got to this point with Mike McCarthy

During an interview with The Dallas Morning News earlier this week, Mike McCarthy expressed frustration over his job status being a question. He specifically expressed frustration about how it was the first question that he got in that particular interview.

In talking about all of the proverbial talk, McCarthy noted that all of this (however you define “this”) is a media driven narrative. It actually isn’t. This was partly brought on by his boss in Jerry Jones.

You will recall that after the Cowboys lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card Round that Jerry Jones appeared on 105.3 The Fan and was specifically asked about the status of his head coach. He was specifically given an opportunity to back Mike McCarthy and say that he would be back in 2022, but he did not.

Jerry said this almost two weeks later but he reiterated it again on Tuesday after the presser. He noted that he acted the way he did so as to throw the rest of the NFL off what with Dan Quinn being interviewed for head coach vacancies. He chalked it up to “playing poker.”

This explanation is difficult to believe, but even if it is true then the logic behind it is incredibly flawed.

While in a vacuum what Jerry allegedly did makes sense, it came at the expense of everything that Mike McCarthy is currently enduring. Jerry sacrificed security/peace of mind for his head coach in the name of his defensive coordinator, and while retaining Dan Quinn was obviously a high priority then if Jerry believes in McCarthy the way that he said on Tuesday he is greatly tampering with the state of things.

Being the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys brings with it an inherent amount of pressure and criticism, clearly Mike McCarthy has learned that over the course of the last two years if he didn’t know it already. But the fact that his owner and general manager would purposely dangle his security out in the wind like that, creating a never-ending discussion about the safety of his job in the process, and then that he would admit to it and seemingly brag about it on the precipice of a new season is a tough pill to swallow.