Michael Gehlken, Dallas Morning News Cowboys Reporter

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That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash grow. Hey Michael, how are you? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. Certainly.

Thank you for taking the time to hop on. I guess the first question is, after what we heard and saw last night and here we are almost 24 hours later, has there been any, you know, word as to what any next steps might be with the team? No, no clarity in terms of the direction and I think obviously there's certain questions that we won't get answers to immediately as it pertains to, you know, what this loss, you know, and what kind of effect it has on, you know, Mike McCarthy's status. I know he's scheduled right now to have a Wednesday press conference with reporters and I highly doubt that if Jerry Jones was to let him go, which I do think is a big if, even still, despite that loss. I don't think it would be something that Jerry Jones would do in the next 48 hours. And then, of course, Zach Prescott, you know, his contract situation, it was a real gimme, I think, throughout the organization, you know, we're going to want to lock him up and I think that still might be the case. But, you lose like that, 12 and 5, you know, at home, second seed in the NFC, themes have lined up about as well for which you could ask at the start of a year and yet you have that kind of a disappointing performance, you know, not to mention the defense with Dan Quinn, just the players execution all the way through.

It was just a really, really poor, poor performance and if you're the owner of a team, in this case, Jerry Jones, it's a type that forces you to step back and decide if themes around you are, you know, what you thought they were and kind of second guess or at least question everything. Dallas Morning News reporter Michael Gelkin is joining us here, the JR Sportbree Show on CBS Sports Radio. For clarity, you said that Mike McCarthy, his press conference is scheduled for when? Wednesday. It's not official time yet, but that's the expectation that he'll speak to reporters on Wednesday afternoon. Okay, and so you feel confident that Mike McCarthy will still have his job for next season?

I thought you asked me to, you know, what do I think is more likely to happen? Mike McCarthy being here or Mike McCarthy not being here? I would say Mike McCarthy being here and I think I feel very confident that he'll still be here Wednesday to take that press conference.

Wow, wow. Now when it comes to Jerry Jones, we've seen over the past, especially with Jason Garrett, it was a lot of fans feeling that they held on a little too long. What sentiment might exist for Jerry Jones to hold on to Mike McCarthy? He's been very clear over the past several seasons about kind of teasing that Mike won't always be the coach.

You know, we got a guy upstairs and Dan Quinn. What do you think is going through his brain to possibly lead to that conclusion? Well, I think the timing of it, you know, I still think Jerry Jones is the same guy or, you know, he's going to be very measured with how he proceeds. You know, he believes in Jason Garrett. I think he believes in Mike McCarthy. Mike McCarthy is an established Super Bowl winning head coach. Mike McCarthy this year had his fingerprints on the offense like he had them before here in Dallas where, you know, Kellen Moore is gone and the new quarterback's coach, you know, they just, offense, some of the language shifted. All that with what they did shifted and Mike McCarthy, you know, in the quarterback room as often as he was, he was a big part of it and, you know, Dak Prescott is someone who played atrocious. I believe his words were, I sucked tonight. That's what he said yesterday and look at the, you know, you know, again, Mike McCarthy's fingerprints is on that too, but overall, you know, this is someone that they were in the conversations for a potential MVP consideration. Sorry, my baby's fighting a war with me as I'm talking. No problem.

No, I would go. Yes, so I think that, you know, something that Jerry Jones sees is that Mike McCarthy did a heck of a job right until Sunday of coaching, preparing the football team and he's got to sort through now a team that's won a lot of regular season games but hasn't been able to get over the hump. What needs to change in order for that to change? Michael Gelkin here with us from the Dallas Morning News. You mentioned the quarterback and we see him lead the league in passing touchdowns.

He now has a postseason record of 2-5. There were conversations about him getting a contract extension. You know, when he got that $40 million per, people looked at him and said, oh my God, Dak is not worth this much and all these years later, it looks like it's a discount. What the heck could his next number be given his performance in the playoffs and also knowing that, hey, you're not Joe Burrow, you're not Lamar, you haven't had the success. But what happens with his deal?

It's an important question. You know, I look back this morning, you know, woke up and immediately decided I was going to look at every throw that Jordan Love threw and then every confidential throw that Dak Prescott threw. So I basically threw out the four-quarter and these are two quarterbacks who are in line for a potential, you know, blockbuster level contract extension and it was clear who the superior quarterback was on Sunday.

I mean, the anticipation with which Love threw the football, the accuracy too, but I was just focused on that as a trait, anticipation was light year ahead of Dak Prescott. And if you're talking about giving both these players similar money in for agency or before they hit for agency, giving them a similar level contract and there's that much of a gap for that playoff performance that we saw to take place, it's like you're saying, okay, we are willing to give, you know, same ballpark money to a guy who's not in the same ballpark on the field and that's, it's kind of inherently placing you at a disadvantage if you build your football team from a financial standpoint and a football standpoint. When you think about the team going into the the offseason, Michael, you know, Cowboys fans are expecting their pound of flesh, they're expecting somebody or something to change.

Dan Quinn, who knows, he might end up somewhere else or he still might be in the same position as defensive coordinator. If Mike McCarthy is going to stick around, if Dak Prescott is going to stick around, what changes? You know, what are some adjustments in personnel for them to get over the hump?

Because it seems like every postseason they keep on stalling. That's a great question and I don't know the answer to it. That's something I think is talking about line one, line two on Jerry Jones's desk. You've got to figure that out of, you know, what do you sell your fan base so that, you know, what's going to be different? And it could require some bold strokes. You know, again, I don't know what that looks like.

I think that's kind of one of the key questions that remains unanswered here. And look, I said I could see Mike McCarthy staying. I think there's a very good chance of it, but there's also a chance that Jerry Jones decides, you know what, we're going to shake it up for that reason in part. And so we're going to have to wait and see. And, you know, I don't think Jerry is going to do anything rash.

I don't think it's going to be something that's going to come again in the next 24, 48 hours. But it is something that, you know, until, you know, Jerry Jones can go on the radio or he can say, you know, kind things outside of a locker room following a game. And he has said that about Mike McCarthy. But right now, Mike McCarthy is someone who, if he's kept, would be going into the final season of his contract. And it's difficult to imagine right now, Jerry Jones giving him an extension based on the hapless playoff performance that has happened now in three straight years.

Yeah, it's three straight years of running in place. Michael, I want to thank you for taking the time to hop on. I know you got some fatherly duties that you need to holler and take care of. Where can we follow you and keep up with all your work with the Dallas Morning News? Yeah, I'm on, I guess X is what they call it, the Elkin NFL. Or you could, you know, I don't know, people, you know, we do have a newspaper website, DallasNews.com, a lot of the work behind the paywall, you know, if you're so inclined, but also understand, given the financial realities and everything. Okay, listen, Michael, appreciate you taking the time to hop on.

And we're all going to pay attention to what changes or what may not. You be well, okay? Have a great evening. You too.

Have a good night. Around New Year's, we get a little obsessed with changing ourselves and forgetting the things we're already doing right. Like taking our supplements every morning or scheduling me time into our day. Therapy helps you recognize those victories and keep up the good work in the new year without changing everything. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy so you can try New Year's same you with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash grow today to get 10% off your first month.

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