Mike McCarthy unfortunately tests positive for COVID-19

As of this morning, Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has tested positive for COVID-19 rendering him unavailable to coach on Thursday night as the Cowboys travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints.

With McCarthy out, the Cowboys will be tasked with filling in his duties with interim coaches. Fortunately, there are two coaches on the staff with previous head coaching experience.

Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn was the head coach for the Atlanta Falcons from 2015-20 and should be able to undertake the head coaching duties without much disruption. The Cowboys also employ John Fassel as their special teams’ coordinator. He was the interim head coach for the Rams during the 2016 campaign.

Mike McCarthy will miss Week 13 with the Dallas Cowboys due to COVID-19

The Cowboys should be fine as far as head coaching duties go, but they do have to undertake a virtual game plan this week with a handful of positive tests coming in. At this point, the larger issue at hand is if the positive cases are any players or if we see the number continue to rise in the coming days.

With the report of eight cases, the Cowboys are under the microscope of the NFL right now as they prepare for their game against the Saints. Monitoring this situation will be very telling in the coming days as things could turn sideways for this team if we see players being held out of the game.

Defensively, much won’t change for the Cowboys as Quinn has been running that unit the entire season and this has minimal to no effect on that. Offensively, we should see Kellen Moore have his largest say to date in the game this week. I imagine Moore will be tied even more into decision-making regarding fourth downs and clock management.

McCarthy will still be involved with the Cowboys’ day-to-day game-planning virtually this week until he hands over the reins to his staff on Thursday. The Cowboys take on the New Orleans Saints Thursday night in a game they desperately need to win to get back on track and if they want any chance at the NFC first-round bye. Fingers crossed this situation doesn’t spiral and the Cowboys minimize any more COVID-19 concerns.