Can Mike McCarthy end the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl drought?

Can Mike McCarthy change the five-time Super Bowl winning Dallas Cowboys playoff fortunes? Cowboys Nation hopes that the 24-year drought ends soon.

The Dallas Cowboys have never been short on attention grabbing headlines. Long before owner Jerry Jones bought the team, Tex Schramm, the team’s first General Manager, was dreaming up America’s Team moniker and introducing cheerleaders to the NFL.

Since winning their fifth Super Bowl in the 1995 season, Dallas main success has been Jerry Jones pocket book with the franchise becoming the most valuable sports franchise in the world. For the past 24 years, Cowboys fans have been hoping for more success on the football field rather than headlines and Forbes franchise rankings.

After the disappointing 2019 season, the Cowboys did not renew head coach Jason Garrett’s contract and instead hired Mike McCarthy to be the ninth head coach in franchise history. McCarthy was the Green Bay Packers coach from 2006 through the 2018 season. During the 13 years as Packers coach, he compiled 127-79-2 win, loss and tie record.

In 2010, he led the Packers to a Super Bowl win in AT&T Stadium over the Pittsburgh Steelers. He also faced the Cowboys in AT&T Stadium three times winning each game including a playoff game in the 2016 season. Cowboys fans are hoping that his perfect record in AT&T stadium continues.

McCarthy’s resume screams production. His Packers made the playoffs nine times in his thirteen seasons. More importantly, in six of the playoff seasons, his Packers won a playoff game which has been hard for all the Cowboys coaches since Barry Switzer resigned after the 1997 season.

Chan Gailey and Bill Parcells had a 0-2 record in the playoffs; Dave Campo never even made the post season. Wade Phillips was 1-2 and Jason Garrett was 2-3 bringing the Cowboys playoff record since the 1998 season to 3-9.

McCarthy and the 2010 Packers won one more playoff game en-route to wining their Super Bowl than the Cowboys organization has won in the last 22 years. So there is hope that the new Cowboys coach knows how to win when it matters most.

More importantly, the coach knows how to get more with less. Over his 13 seasons as head coach of the Packers, McCarthy had seven players named First Team All-Pro and 52 players who were named Pro Bowlers during his tenure.

Over the same period, Cowboys players were name First Team All-Pro 18 times and had 84 Pro Bowl seasons. Yet McCarthy and the Packers had a 0.615 winning percentage and the Cowboys had a 0.577 winning percentage.

Since 2006, the Packers have had five drafted or acquired players make multiple Pro Bowls. The Dallas Cowboys have had 12 acquired or drafted players make multiple Pro Bowls during the same period.

McCarthy has never had the luxury of talent acquisition that the Dallas Front Office provides. The Dallas Front Office, since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl, has not had a coach, besides Bill Parcells, with the credibility and results that McCarthy brings.

Could this be a perfect marriage? Have the Dallas Cowboys finally found a coach who can lead the talent to wins when they matter most? Time will tell but the future looks brighter than the recent past.