Dallas Cowboys roundtable: Discussions on ESPN rankings, contract disputes and Mike McCarthy’s future (2024)

Every week, we gather the latest news about the Dallas Cowboys and seek our writer’s perspective on each headline. Welcome back to the Roundtable. This week we have Jess Haynie, Brian Martin, RJ Ochoa, Tom Ryle, and Dana Bartholomew giving us their thoughts.

Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland were both left out of ESPN’s top-10 cornerback rankings. Where should they rank, and as a duo where would they rank in the league?

Last week, ESPN asked coaches, general managers and front office staff to rank players at respective positions. The results raised more questions than gave answers when it got to the cornerback position. Neither Trevon Diggs, who led the league in interceptions two seasons ago, nor DaRon Bland, who not just led the league in interceptions last year, he set an NFL record for pick-sixes in a season, were ranked in the Top 10. The result more than anything leads fans to know that a lot of these rankings are subjective, and also certain narratives like leaving out league leading players is a good way to drum controversy and stir up conversation.

Tom: I’ll repeat my lack of interest in ratings at this point, because they rely more on what the players did in their last season than any realistic ability to project the next. Having said that, it is mystifying why neither cracked the top ten list. Diggs has already made the All-Pro team in his second season before teams learned to stay away from him. It is perhaps understandable that he is coming off an injury. But all Bland did last year was set a record for pick-sixes and made the All-Pro list. If Diggs is healthy, they are going to be one of the best sets of corners in the league.

RJ: Honestly I don’t know or really care where they should rank because it isn’t my list. But leaving out the NFL’s interception leader since 2021 is insane. Similarly, DaRon Bland is tied for second on that list. Notably they each have missed basically a full year in that timeline. It is very difficult to be underrated as a Cowboy, but they have sort of done it.

Dana: According to ESPN, the voting was meant for who the best players are “today”. That may have been why Diggs was left off of the list since there is a bit of uncertainty around how productive he will be coming off of his ACL injury. However, that does not explain why Bland is completely absent from the list. He was the league INT leader in 2023, the sole owner of the most pick-6’s in a season, first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler. That should be enough to crack the top 10. As a duo, depending on how Diggs looks post-injury, they could be the best in the league.

Jess: You lost me at “ESPN.” Bland and Diggs have led the league in picks two out of the last three seasons and are both just 25 years old. Yes, they both need to prove something after Dan Quinn’s departure and especially Diggs coming off the injury. But there isn’t a team in the NFL that wouldn’t want at least one of them, if not both. For them to not even make a top-10 list is pure national media clickbait nonsense.

Brian: Both Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland are two of the best ball hawking cornerbacks in the entire league. They should absolutely be in ESPN’s top 10 CB rankings. There’s probably not a better CB tandem in the entire league than the Cowboys duo. Their “risk it for the biscuit” style of play may cause them to give up a few big plays here and there, but they are arguably the best at what they do in the NFL, accumulating the INT’s year after year.

With CeeDee Lamb holding out, Dak Prescott still waiting on news on his contract, could we be seeing the team preparing for a rebuild?

Jerry Jones was asked in the opening press conference at Oxnard about Dak Prescott and his contract situation.

Jerry gave a political answer to the question saying he doesn’t believe this to be Dak’s final year in Dallas, but also mentioned that sometimes the money can be too much to be able to make these deals work.

With both Prescott and Lamb still waiting for a contract, the doomsday clock on the time to get the deal done edges closer to midnight, and if neither are signed you have to ask where the team goes from here.

Tom: I’ll put forth the idea that the ownership is trying to have its cake and eat it too by still working on contracts while keeping the ability to pivot to a rebuild. The latter may be more about the coaching staff than the players. The hot seat talk for Mike McCarthy is obvious. If the Cowboys don’t get further in the playoffs this year, he is gone.

RJ: It seems way too early to make any kind of assumption along these lines in my opinion. I mean, training camp is underway. As much as anybody else I’d like to understand the plan for the future, but unfortunately the situation just sort of is what it is at this point.

Dana: As of right now, I believe that the priority is making sure Lamb and Prescott get their extensions, while a rebuild might need to be the fallback plan if neither of those negotiations are successful. That said, Prescott and the Cowboys seem to be in good communication about his future with the team and the front office has said that contract talks like Lamb’s take time. A holdout from camp wouldn’t be enough to completely throw it all out and start over.

Jess: I’ve had my tinfoil hat on for a while when it comes to Prescott’s future. Extending him is a “win now” decision but nothing else the Cowboys have done this offseason suggests that’s their goal. I think Lamb and Parsons get theirs because they’re cornerstone pieces for the next era, but at this point there’s too much smoke around Prescott to assume he’s coming back.

Brian: How exciting would it be to see the Cowboys actually go through a rebuild? But no, that’s not what’s going on. If it was, we would’ve seen them have a fire-sale of trades for a load of future draft capital. No, this is simply Jerry and Stephen Jones dragging their feet once again in contract negotiations instead of being preemptive.

What does Mike McCarthy need to achieve this season to retain his role as head coach and earn a contract extension?

With the head coaching role in Dallas comes a lot of pressure and media attention. Most critics believe Mike McCarthy is on the hot seat this year having failed to get close to an NFC Championship playoff game. This is his final year under contract and Cowboys fans have to wonder what it takes for McCarthy to get an extension with Dallas. No head coach has ever won a Super Bowl as a head coach of more than one team.

Tom: I pretty much answered that above. If the team doesn’t reach the NFCCG, I don’t see any way he comes back. It will take at least one strong win and more likely two to keep McCarthy going back on the coaching carousel.

RJ: I understand where Tom is coming from, but assuming a chalk sort of season are we really going to throw this regime away if they win double-digit games and reach the playoffs for a fourth year in a row? Obviously the drought is obnoxious and annoying and clouds our ability to judge things properly and objectively, but barring a true and historic collapse (which arguably happened in the playoffs to be fair) I would be hard pressed to move on unless there was an obvious slam dunk solution lying in plain sight.

Dana: I think that the Cowboys would be willing to move on from McCarthy if the team does not reach the NFCCG. That bar has pretty much been set by fans and media, and possibly by the front office. Although, there may be a bit of nuance and leeway there if the team is at least competitive in the earlier rounds of the playoffs. I’m not sure anyone will be able to handle another collapse in the wildcard round.

Jess: Linking back to the last question; if the Cowboys are looking to rebuild then McCarthy isn’t their guy. He was brought in to elevate the team from the Garrett Era and so far has had arguably worse results in the postseason. I don’t even know if just reaching the NFC Championship Game would be enough now. Getting blown out in that game wouldn’t move the needle much. It will need to be a pretty spectacular year, with an inspiring finish, for McCarthy to get another contract.

Brian: Well, if Jerry Jones truly is more interested in selling tickets than he has in winning championships like a lot of people seem to believe, then he’s probably already preparing to usher in the Deion and Shedeur Sanders era as the Cowboys new HC and QB in 2025. That would mean there’s nothing Mike McCarthy can do this season to keep his job. In all seriousness though, Dallas will likely need to have some kind of playoff success this season if not a Super Bowl appearance for McCarthy to earn a contract extension. Otherwise, he’ll probably be out of a job.