Coach Mike McCarthy 'Capable of Super Bowl,' Says Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones

"Mike has got an opportunity here to win a Super Bowl. And he’s got an opportunity to win other Super Bowls. That’s really the measurement of it.”

FRISCO - Mike McCarthy doesn't want to hear it.

“It’s a narrative I don’t want to be a part of,” McCarthy said at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis when quizzed on the rampant speculation that the "retired'' Sean Payton is positioning himself to replace McCarthy as the Dallas Cowboys head coach.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doesn't want to hear it, either.

“Sean Payton shouldn’t be ‘out there'' as a topic of discussion, Jones said this week. “That’s an injustice for him, the Cowboys, all of us. That’s just sheer pulling it out of the air. ... He shouldn’t be a conversation piece. 

"Mike has got an opportunity here to win a Super Bowl. And he’s got an opportunity to win other Super Bowls. That’s really the measurement of it.”

Jerry's confidence in McCarthy, who guided the team to a 12-5 record and a postseason berth last season, is, however, not forever. As the owner also noted, “It’s an eternity between right now and this time next year in our game, and I’m not trying to be dramatic.''

Still, Jones was quick to add, "Mike is not only here, but he’s in the best position, in my mind, to lead this team as coach. He is very qualified to win a Super Bowl, and I will tell you he has the kind of qualities- in a person and individually- that I really want to work with. I know his players feel the very same way, and his coaching staff feels the same way.

"If I didn’t think a lot of Mike McCarthy being able to coach our team to a Super Bowl, he wouldn’t be the coach today.”

We agree that it's not fair to all parties that they be asked, at every turn, about McCarthy vs. Payton. (We make that point here even while pondering Payton's $100 million future.) Additionally ...

It is a matter of fact that while the Jones family has admiration for Payton, the former Dallas assistant, Payton won exactly one Super Bowl with the Saints - the same number McCarthy won with the Packers. So while the public might think of Payton as a "Super Bowl coach,'' Jones has justification in thinking of McCarthy in the same way.

“All of that is ‘arrow up’,” Jones said of where he think McCarthy is taking his Cowboys in 2022. “He’s worth investing in.''

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