The Dallas Cowboys' search for a new head coach has gone worse than expected. However, an unexpected rumor cropped up on Thursday that injected some hope into a dejected fan base.
Per Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Cowboys expressed some level of interest in former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll. Harris noted that Jerry Jones and Carroll spoke on the phone, but the conversation was "informal" and no interview was set.
With Brian Schottenehimer seemingly the only other candidate in the running, Carroll was viewed by Cowboys fans as the team's last chance to make a respectable hire.
Well, it took less than 24 hours for that dream to go up in smoke. The Las Vegas Raiders zeroed in on Carroll as their next head coach early Friday. Before long, it was reported that Carroll signed a three-year contract with the AFC West contingent.
Pete Carroll takes Raiders' head coaching job, leaving Cowboys with slim options
Pete Carroll to Las Vegas is done. Whatever the conversation with Jerry Jones was, it’s irrelevant to the Cowboys coaching search now. https://t.co/t2JVmhb7MR
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) January 24, 2025
This has to leave Brian Schottenheimer as the runaway favorite the job. That's been the case the entire week, but there was a glimmer of hope that Carroll's phone call with Jerry Jones went well enough to bring him in for a formal interview.
It is almost too perfect that Carroll to the Raiders picked up steam right after his reported conversation with Jones. Was this another case of a coach using the Cowboys as leverage to secure a deal with their preferred destination? That is seemingly what transpired between Jones and Deion Sanders, who is angling for a lucrative extension with Colorado.
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Carroll was comfortably the best coach left on the market. He won a Super Bowl in 2013 and took Seattle to back-to-back Super Bowls in 2013 and '14. He arguably should have won both games, but he called a pass play at the goal-line rather than give the ball to Marshawn Lynch. Russell Wilson's pass was intercepted by Malcolm Butler and the rest is history.
In a vacuum, Carroll would have been the perfect placeholder coach for Jones while the franchise presumably molds Jason Witten into a head coach. He has 11 winning seasons in 18 years as an NFL head coach, including 12 playoff appearances. He is one of four head coaches to win both a Super Bowl and a college football national championship.
Winning is in Carroll's DNA. He was arguably the Cowboys' last hope to salvage what has been an absolute farce of a coaching search.
That the Raiders, Jets and Bears have all landed marquee coaches this cycle while Dallas puts all of its eggs in the Brian Schottenheimer basket is a sad, yet accurate summation of the state of the franchise.