McCarthy responds to speculation about his employment

It was that quote specifically that entered the news cycle, when McCarthy appeared on “The Rich Eisen Show.”

In a wide-ranging conversation, Eisen asked McCarthy bluntly about the speculation, and McCarthy responded that it’s just part of the Dallas Cowboys’ “landscape.”

“I never felt like I wasn’t going to be the head coach going forward, and frankly, I’ve been around this long enough that that’s all I’m focused on,” he said.

A big part of this story is the return of Quinn, who was named the NFL’s Assistant Coach of the Year over the weekend after helping turn the Cowboys’ defense into one of the biggest success stories of the 2021 season.

Despite the narrative that Quinn could one day take McCarthy’s current job, McCarthy echoed Jones’s sentiment that the Cowboys’ head coach played a significant role in preventing Quinn from leaving for another vacancy. In a revealing moment, McCarthy even acknowledged that he had spoken to Quinn about the effect outside speculation could have on the team.

“Reflecting on the relationship that Dan and I have, he said, ‘Hey, I’m not comfortable with this narrative. If you really feel like I need to take one of these jobs, be honest with me,'” McCarthy said. “We laughed about it a little bit, and I just said ‘Dan, 10 or 12 years ago I would tell you to get out of here, I don’t want to deal with this.’ winning matters, and the best thing for the Cowboys is that Dan Quinn is here.

That doesn’t make the conversation any less unusual, a reality McCarthy acknowledged on multiple occasions. But at least it’s encouraging to know that the Cowboys’ brain confidence is on even terms on that.

In fact, McCarthy also acknowledged to Eisen that he has spoken with Jones since those initial comments hit the news cycle.

“We talked about the Dan situation, definitely. We also talked about the Sean Payton narrative. We’ve touched on it,” he said. “The conversation was ‘You and I are in this back to back. It’s a partnership,’ and just focus on what we have to do to move forward. He made some personal comments about how he feels about it, but that’s between him and I. But I feel very, very comfortable with our relationship and our dialogue.”

The goal, as McCarthy added, is to end the Cowboys’ current Super Bowl drought of 26 years without an appearance. If they achieve that, this is all a silent discussion.

In the meantime, discussions will continue. For his part, McCarthy will try to keep the focus on what matters.

“I wish we were talking about something else. But it’s part of our landscape,” he said. “I think you have to be clear, keep things focused, because at the end of the day it’s about the people you’re in charge of, it’s about the people you train, and more importantly, it’s about our locker room, and in our locker room it’s all about winning.”