Jerry Jones defends Mike McCarthy as Cowboys coach: He is my choice ‘to lead this team to a Super Bowl’

Jerry Jones has offered both firm and loose commitments to his head coach, Mike McCarthy, over the last two seasons. On Tuesday, with the Cowboys kicking off 2022 training camp, he offered one of his most emphatic endorsements to date. Addressing reporters alongside McCarthy, Jones opened his press conference by defending the coach, reiterating that the longtime Packers coach is his top and personal choice to “lead this team to a Super Bowl.”

“It has been an offseason full of (various) issues, but one of the ones I wanna address directly, because I guess it’s the one that probably I have the most sensitivity about … is Mike,” Jones said Tuesday. “I wanna be real clear: He wouldn’t be sitting here today if I didn’t think he was the man to lead this team to a Super Bowl. He would not be. And I have choices.

“And so that’s not to be insensitive to anybody, that’s a fact,” Jones continued. “You guys write about a lot of those choices, and they were there for my use had I wanted them. (But) no, the guy to my right is who I’m convicted about, have been, (and) we certainly have had things we’ve addressed. … I think we have successfully put together a staff, from this vantage point, that absolutely gives us the best chance … to get to the ultimate success.”

Jones’ remarks come a day after McCarthy himself expressed frustration over questions about his job security.

“It’s irritating that the first question you ask me has nothing to do with how I do my job,” McCarthy told The Dallas Morning News. “I show up every day for work to win a championship. How do we win today? That’s what I’m asking. My viewpoint (on job-security questions) is, it’s not a story. It’s a media-driven narrative, or at least a narrative driven outside my realm.”

McCarthy is entering his third season as Cowboys coach, after spending 2006-2019 atop the Packers’ staff. After going 6-10 in his Dallas debut, largely hindered by quarterback Dak Prescott suffering a season-ending ankle injury, McCarthy led the Cowboys to a 12-5 finish in 2021, although the team went one-and-done in the playoffs thanks to a wild-card loss to the 49ers.