The latest episodes of “As the Cowboys Turn” involve Emmitt Smith and Mike McCarthy making eyebrow-raising comments this past week.
First Smith, the legendary former Dallas running back, went on ESPN San Antonio radio and said the Cowboys were wasting their talent.
“When I look at our Cowboys I’m looking for… who are we going to be?” Smith said. “Are we going to stay the same? Or are we going to just take all of this talent and waste it over three or four or five year timeframe, assuming and expecting to do something great doing the same things over and over and over again.
“It’s frustrating as hell. You see great talent being wasted! You see time passing!”
The Cowboys went 12-5 this past season, winning the NFC East. However, they were upset at home by the 49ers in a disappointing first-round playoff exit as chaos ensued on the team’s haphazard final drive. Dallas has not been a Super Bowl since the 1995 season when it defeated the Steelers.
Smith is concerned about even more years passing with nothing to show for their efforts.
“As Joe Avezzano used to say, it catches up to you when it catches up to you,” he said. “In other words if you don’t eliminate the little foxes in the vineyard they’re going to eat up all the doggone grapes. And the grapes will be gone, years will be gone, and you’re going to find yourself starting over again. And fans are just going to get more and more and more frustrated. With Jerry [Jones], with the team, and everything else.”
Then, McCarthy, who is seemingly going to be on the hot seat until he loses his job, responded to comments made Jones lavishing praise on coordinators Dan Quinn and Kellen Moore. Jones said he would consider Quinn as eventual head coach and McCarthy will not be there forever.
“I think it’s a number of things. I think — No. 1 — every landscape in this league is different,” McCarthy said on “The Rich Eisen Show.” “I’ve been very fortunate to work at two of the very premier organizations in pro football, and they’re all different. And I think the way things are done here, there’s a bigger picture focus. I always, frankly, just keep it about winning and have always taken a blind eye and a blind ear to those things, but that’s not the case when you work here.
“I think, clearly, when you look at those types of comments, I think you have to understand the platform that they come from. I have an excellent relationship with Jerry Jones. We talk on a daily basis about everything and anything — big picture type focus on what we’re doing, program-wise, and more importantly is his interest in the development of our players; and especially our young players.”
Looming even more than Quinn, perhaps, is Sean Payton, who left the Saints and has always been rumored to be the apple of Jones’ eye. For McCarthy to keep his job beyond the 2022 season, it feels like the Cowboys will need to mount a deep playoff run.