McCarthy, who won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers in , led Dallas to success when having a complete team around him, winning 12 games in three consecutive seasons from to and winning the NFC East twice. In seasons in which franchise quarterback Dak Prescott was healthy, McCarthy consistently led some of the best regular-season teams in the NFL.
With a record of , McCarthy ends his tenure in Dallas with the fourth-highest regular-season win percentage The issue McCarthy consistently ran into, however, was advancing in the playoffs. The regular-season success and postseason exits resembled his predecessor, Jason Garrett, who went in the regular season but won only one playoff game in his final five seasons, leading the Cowboys to move on from him after the season.
The No. Despite Dallas riding a league-best game home-winning streak, Green Bay led late in the first half and midway through the fourth quarter. There was speculation after that game that Jones could fire McCarthy with a year left on his contract.
Dallas started just this season, then lost Prescott for the rest of the year because of a partially torn hamstring. The Cowboys finished , including a mark at home.
After a one-year hiatus following his dismissal from the Packers, McCarthy replaced Garrett in Over the next three seasons, the Cowboys were excellent at full strength. The McCarthy era was also very open to change on the coaching staff. Quinn posted three straight seasons of top-five defensive DVOA performances before taking a head-coaching job in Washington this past season. McCarthy retained Kellen Moore as his offensive coordinator upon joining the staff in Moore posted a top-five offensive DVOA in once Prescott was healthy, but a downturn in led to Moore and the Cowboys parting ways.
