Cowboys move on quickly from Jason Garrett, hire Mike McCarthy as coach
9th coach in NFL team's history will be introduced Wednesday
The Dallas Cowboys will introduce Mike McCarthy as the ninth coach in franchise history on Wednesday.
The club made the announcement Tuesday, a day after McCarthy reached agreement on a deal to replace Jason Garrett.
It's the second coaching stop for the 56-year-old McCarthy, who won a Super Bowl nine years ago and went to the playoffs nine times in 12-plus seasons with Green Bay.
The Packers went to the NFC championship game four times under McCarthy, who is 125-77-2 in the regular season and 10-8 in the playoffs.
Garrett led an underachieving 8-8 team in a make-or-break season, missing the playoffs in the final year of his contract. Owner Jerry Jones said Sunday the club wasn't offering Garrett another contract after McCarthy had already interviewed.
The 53-year-old Garrett had the second-longest tenure in club history at 9 1/2 seasons.
Dallas missed the playoffs at 8-8 with high expectations in a make-or-break season for Garrett, whose contract expires next week.
McCarthy was out of football this season after getting fired during what ended up being a second straight losing season for the Packers in 2018.
New Cowboys’ HC Mike McCarthy stayed over Jerry Jones’ house on Saturday night, per source. “Once you stay at Jerrry’s house, he doesn’t lose his guy,” said source.
—@AdamSchefterDallas hasn't been that far in the playoffs since the last of the franchise's five Super Bowl titles to finish the 1995 season. The Cowboys missed the playoffs six times in Garrett's nine full seasons.
With two-time MVP Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback, McCarthy reached the playoffs eight straight years from 2009-16, beating the Garrett-led Cowboys twice in that stretch.
The Cowboys believe they have their next franchise quarterback in Dak Prescott, who was the 2016 NFL offensive rookie of the year after replacing the injured Tony Romo and never relinquishing the starting job.
McCarthy was fired after an embarrassing loss at Lambeau Field to Arizona, a defeat that all but sealed a second straight year without a post-season trip for the Packers.
With a mandate to get the Cowboys past the divisional round for the first time in nearly 25 years, Garrett couldn't build on a 3-0 start. Dallas went 4-8 in the next 12 games with a pair of three-game losing streaks.
The Cowboys still had a chance to make the playoffs with a win at Philadelphia in Week 16, but the 17-9 loss handed their post-season fate to the Eagles for the final week. Philadelphia beat the New York Giants 34-17, eliminating Dallas despite its 47-16 win over Washington.
Dallas finished 8-8 four times under Garrett, who had an 87-70 record, including 2-3 in the playoffs, in nine-plus seasons.
Despite never winning more than one playoff game in a season, the 53-year-old Garrett has the club's second-longest tenure behind Tom Landry.