Shocking admission by Stephen Jones: Cowboys haven't even begun to think about the HC decision

The Dallas Cowboys have already been eliminated from playoff contention, but they haven’t shifted their focus to offseason coaching changes just yet.

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said the team hasn’t “even thought about” the timing of making a decision about head coach Mike McCarthy.

“We’ve been so focused on this season that we haven’t really even thought about it in terms of timing,” Jones said on San Antonio’s Sports Star (h/t The Athletic’s Jon Machota). “Obviously Mike McCarthy and his staff have done a hell of a job for us. We’ll really sit down and go over that, but in terms of starting to set up time schedules and those types of things in terms of when we’ll make decisions, we haven’t gotten to that point.”

The Cowboys are sitting at 7-9 on the season and will close out the year with a matchup against the Washington Commanders on Sunday. From there, Dallas will have an offseason to evaluate what it can do to get back into playoff form.

McCarthy took over as the Cowboys head coach ahead of the 2020 season and led Dallas to three consecutive postseason appearances from 2021 to 2023. This year will be the second time in McCarthy’s tenure that he didn’t reach the playoffs.

Though McCarthy has produced a playoff team more often than not, the Cowboys haven’t made it past the divisional round since he took over. Whether he’ll get the chance to return as Dallas’ head coach and finally find playoff success is to be determined, but the Cowboys apparently aren’t rushing a decision.