Jerry Jones says he purposely left things vague regarding Mike McCarthy to help keep Dan Quinn

Jerry Jones sure did say… something on Friday.

It has been one week since Jerry Jones went on the radio on 105.3 The Fan to talk about the season ending for the Dallas Cowboys and he was rather upset about it. Who isn’t?

In a surprise move, Jerry Jones decided to once again jump on the radio on Friday morning. Keep in mind that last appearance was part of regularly scheduled programming while this week’s was impromptu. Jerry only jumps on spontaneously if he is rather upset or has a specific thing that he wants to get off of his chest.

Jerry spoke for about 25 minutes and discussed Dan Quinn returning to be the team’s defensive coordinator, but in the process really only confused everybody about his team’s line of thinking.

It was strange to say the least.

Jerry Jones says he purposely left things vague regarding Mike McCarthy to help keep Dan Quinn around

You likely assumed that Quinn was a lock to leave the Cowboys this offseason as everyone else did generally. It seemed inevitable that he would be a head coach elsewhere in 2022.

Quinn’s return seemed to breathe life into a Cowboys unit that most are relatively down on given the way that the season ended. That high lasted for less than 24 hours as Jerry Jones offered his “explanation” for what has happened with head coach Mike McCarthy when he jumped back on 105.3 The Fan.

The “what happened” is of course how Jerry Jones has let McCarthy dangle in the wind ever since the season ended. Despite being presented multiple opportunities during his appearances after the season was over Jerry Jones not once officially noted that he would be bringing McCarthy back for a third season in Dallas.

It didn’t help McCarthy’s cause (not sure how many are rallying behind it right now) when Sean Payton left the New Orleans Saints this week and effectively threw his hat in the ring to pull off the greatest return of characters since Spider Man: No Way Home.

Jerry Jones said on Friday that all of this was rather purposeful. He noted that he intentionally did not confirm that Mike McCarthy would be back in 2022 so as to improve the team’s chances at retaining Dan Quinn, who himself was on the market to be a head coach elsewhere. Seriously. He said this on the radio and said it through the Dallas Morning News while he was on air.

The fact that Jerry called in to 105.3 to relay this message and pushed it through the DMN shows that he is rather passionate about this idea being out there. He really wants people to believe that dangling Mike McCarthy’s fate was part of his master plan to keep Dan Quinn. The problem with this idea is that it doesn’t make any bit of sense.

How could projecting instability for the head coach that Dan Quinn would be returning to help the cause for keeping Quinn? Obviously Quinn is returning so results suggest it worked, but the presentation to outsiders could have only been, at best, that Quinn had a chance to be the head coach in Dallas given that McCarthy did not have a seal of approval from Jerry. That seems like a rather inconsiderate thing to do to Mike McCarthy and a weird thing to brag about after the fact. Jerry did say that McCarthy was working behind the scenes with him to keep Quinn, which suggests McCarthy knew what was going on the whole time.

Even if you buy this warped logic, Jerry Jones immediately contradicted himself. While it is already known that Quinn is returning the status of offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore, who Jerry said he wants back during Friday’s interview, is still to be determined. He will interview for a second time with the Miami Dolphins and will do so after Jerry Jones confirmed that Mike McCarthy will be back in 2022.

If Jerry purposely left the loop open with McCarthy to prevent Dan Quinn from being hired as a head coach elsewhere then why is he not applying that same logic to Kellen Moore since he could still leave? By confirming that McCarthy is back he is, by his own line of thinking, opening the door for someone he wants to leave.

All of this was by design from Jerry Jones. Even if that is hard to believe. Sometimes that is the way that things go.