Cooper Rush discusses if Cowboys are playing for Mike McCarthy’s job

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy stays within the remaining season of his contract as backup quarterback Cooper Rush, enjoying rather than the injured Dak Prescott, has helped the membership go from 3-7 to 6-8. 

Following Dallas’ 30-14 win on the lowly Carolina Panthers (3-11) on Sunday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports activities Illustrated requested Rush if he and others within the locker room are enjoying for McCarthy to obtain both an extension or a brand new deal. 

“It’s simply extra who he’s — it’s simply been the angle the final couple of years,” Rush mentioned about McCarthy. “He does an awesome job having a pulse of the staff, holding guys collectively, holding us collectively within the locker room and creating that tradition that irrespective of who we’re enjoying, what we’re doing. In the event you’re on the market, you’re competing your butt off. He has us nicely ready.” 

Some questioned after the Cowboys misplaced seven of their first 10 video games amid an damage disaster this season if staff proprietor and basic supervisor Jerry Jones might half methods with McCarthy earlier than Week 18. Nonetheless, it was reported final week shortly after Invoice Belichick agreed to develop into the brand new head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels that there was a “feeling across the league” that Jones will look to carry McCarthy again for a minimum of the 2025 marketing campaign. 

McCarthy has guided the Cowboys to only one playoff win over 5 seasons, and the NFL’s website confirmed on Monday that Dallas has lower than a 1% likelihood to qualify for the upcoming postseason match. With that mentioned, Jones should be a minimum of a bit of impressed that his gamers are nonetheless competing for McCarthy late into what many assumed was a misplaced marketing campaign for the group earlier than Thanksgiving. 

“It’s simply who we’re, a bunch of men that like to compete, lots of winners on this staff, lots of wins over the previous few years with coach McCarthy and these core gamers,” Rush informed Breer. “There’s a tradition there — you’re going to go on the market and play your butt off and compete it doesn’t matter what.”

As of Monday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Cowboys as four-point underdogs for this coming Sunday’s prime-time dwelling recreation versus the 8-6 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Will probably be fascinating to see how McCarthy’s gamers method that matchup relying on what occurs earlier within the day.