Report: Mike McCarthy was seeking 5-year deal, Jerry Jones offered 3-year contract

Mike McCarthy reportedly wanted a 5-year deal and Jerry Jones was reportedly sticking with 3.

Friday night will mark a full week since news broke about the Dallas Cowboys hiring Brian Schottenheimer to be their 10th head coach in franchise history, and enough has happened already to where it feels like much longer than that.

Consider that Monday saw Schotty’s introductory press conference, and with Senior Bowl activities happening in Mobile, the Cowboys brass was present and offering thoughts on this, that and the other. In parallel, Schottenheimer has been outfitting his staff (keep track of it here), basically the machine is back rocking and rolling and moving towards 2025.

Such is life in the NFL. People come and go whether they are players are coaches. Super Bowl LIX is next weekend, so in that sense the 2024 season still has life, but 30 of the league’s 32 teams have fully turned the page.

There is one last line to read on this one for the Cowboys, though.

Mike McCarthy reportedly wanted a 5-year deal, Jerry Jones wouldn’t budge on 3

On Tuesday evening it was reported that former Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy would sit out the 2025 season and focus on the 2026 cycle. McCarthy garnered interest from both the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints after he and Dallas finally parted ways, but the former went with Ben Johnson and the latter appears primed to hand the keys to Kellen Moore.

Obviously McCarthy drew at least some level of interest from the Cowboys themselves as it took a week for the parting of ways to officially happen. Clearly the interest from Dallas wasn’t enough to meet McCarthy’s demands, wants or wishes, but until now the specificity of those was not exactly known. Thankfully some light has been cast on it.

ESPN reported on Thursday that McCarthy was seeking a five-year deal and that Jerry Jones would not budge on a three-year offer.

ON JAN. 13, the Cowboys released a statement from Jones saying he and Mike McCarthy, whose contract as head coach had expired after five seasons, agreed to part ways. That concluded days of meetings regarding the fallout from a 7-10 finish.

While no financial figures were discussed, the length of a proposed agreement was a sticking point. McCarthy was seeking a five-year deal, according to multiple sources, while Jones was sticking with three.

It has been noted several times since the two parties split that contract length was one of the core issues, but as noted this is the first time that some numbers have been revealed. If McCarthy wanted a five-year deal and the Cowboys offered a three-year one, those are clearly some significant differences.

McCarthy’s first contract with the Cowboys, the one the team let run out which led to all of this, was of the five-year variety so in that sense it makes sense that he wanted to follow the previously set standard. It is difficult to understand why Jerry Jones wanted a three-year deal specifically, and why he “stuck” with that given what Brian Schottenheimer ultimately got.

You will recall that immediately after the Schottenheimer news was announced that it was reported he received a four-year deal with the Cowboys.

The way that the FWST’s Nick Harris framed the Schottenheimer element specifically makes sense. Tying the head coach, whether or not you think it is a good hire is a different point, to the franchise quarterback and wide receiver along the same timeline makes sense. They are the tripod that everything will be built upon, and if it fails, then the expiration date allows for a reset at the most important points on the team, generally speaking.

But if that logic is so sound and robust,why did Jerry Jones refuse to budge on a three-year deal for McCarthy? If Jerry’s sticking point was a four-year deal for the reasons we just outlined then it would be easy to understand his approach as you would not want to have the same head coach (assuming the contract was lived out fully) in a world where you were starting over at quarterback and receiver. It seems though that Jerry actually preferred the opposite of that where Prescott and Lamb would (barring extensions before then) be entering the final year of their current deals in potentially the first year of a new head coach. That doesn’t make sense either.

Maybe there is some middle ground that was discussed that isn’t a part of this report. Perhaps a four-year deal was discussed, but given the reporting it seems that Jerry did not feel comfortable meeting Mike on that point.

Whatever the case Schotty, Dak and CeeDee are, in fact, all in this together.