Bobby Belt has been teasing his report on the tension in the building during Mike McCarthy's time in Dallas, and he delivered today. Check out his intel on the tension between McCarthy and assistant coaches like Dan Quinn & Kellen Moore, how he was a driving force in the Amari Cooper trade, and how petty firings became a trend later in his tenure.
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00:00A lot of these, I think can be explained ways. First year, lack of communication, things
00:19like that, but it sets the tone for them. They get into 2021. And I think a lot of people
00:24with the Cowboys felt like, all right, Mike, we, we did it your way. Some of these staff
00:28hires. Some of this is going to be our recommendation now, because this didn't work out the way
00:33it needed to. They, the, the Cowboys brass really pushes for Dan Quinn, not Mike McCarthy.
00:40That's a hire that Mike McCarthy, to be clear, gets along with Dan Quinn, likes Dan Quinn.
00:45Those are all true things. Doesn't dislike Dan Quinn at all. Dan Quinn was a figure that
00:52like when we talk about the Jason Witten thing here, Dan Quinn was a big figure hanging over
00:56Mike McCarthy shoulder for three years. That was not media narrative. That was a very real
01:00thing that Mike McCarthy, everyone McCarthy called the rich eyes and show. Yeah. But that
01:05was really bad by Jerry. Jerry was like acting like Dan Quinn could just take over the job.
01:10Yeah. And that was, that was senior bowl. I think the year after it was after his first
01:14year here where he said, yeah, Dan would be a great coach to the Dallas Cowboys, but that's
01:18something where the Cowboys said, look, your defensive coordinator, buddy hire that the
01:21Saints were apparently happy letting leave as their linebackers coach.
01:26That didn't work out. So you're, you're taking on Dan Quinn. I don't care if that's uncomfortable
01:30for you. We're trying to win games here and that's, what's going to happen. And so I think
01:34that that became a, not, I think, I know that became a tension issue that Mike expressed
01:39to people where he would say that he was hearing all that noise and that was distracting for
01:45him and that he didn't, he didn't like necessarily having somebody of Dan Quinn's prominence
01:49who could easily take over his job being oversold. I think that existed with Zimmer.
01:52I think when Zimmer got hired here, I don't know how much Mike loved that idea. Um, where
01:57that was not his call. No. And you can hear Zimmer in some of the interviews this off
02:02season. You know who Mike wanted? Um, no, I don't know. Did he go to DC? Yeah, no, I,
02:08I don't think that he, I think that there's somebody on staff. He probably could have
02:12all that. I don't know. I can't say with certainty who he would have wanted. Cause it sounds
02:15like him and Zim get along now. Yeah. And again, I don't think he has any personal issues
02:19with these guys. I think it's more just what they represent to his own job. Sure. Um, well
02:23that created, that created a tension point when coupled with my, with Kellen Moore, there's
02:28two of his coordinators now that essentially run both sides of the ball. He's a CEO just
02:32kind of supposed to oversee culture. And he's honestly, a lot of people feel like too distracted
02:38to oversee culture. He's too distracted by his assistant coaches to effectively oversee
02:42what's happening with the culture here. And he's, he's too hyper aware of what's being
02:47discussed. Um, he has people in his circle that will report back to him on what's being
02:52said in the media and what the speculation is and what those things that exist. Um, and
02:58that's, that's not a healthy place to be. Now you can make the argument as I'm sure
03:00a lot of people would. Well, that's the, the front office's fault for putting him in that
03:04unhealthy position. The regardless of that, he agreed to the terms of the deal, understanding
03:10that's what the offensive coordinator position was. And then the other stuff he was given
03:13autonomy over, he really didn't handle very well in terms of making those coaching hires.