Dallas Cowboys hire Mike McCarthy as head coach, per reports

A one-year layoff was enough for Mike McCarthy. The Green Bay Packers fired him with four games remaining in the 2018 season, and he sat out 2019 to reflect and gear up for a return to coaching in 2020. Now, he is indeed back in the league, landing one of the premier coaching jobs in the NFL.

According to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports, the Dallas Cowboys have selected McCarthy as their next head coach, replacing Jason Garrett. Dallas made the decision to move on from Garrett this week.

McCarthy was a highly successful coach in Green Bay, leading the Packers to a Super Bowl XLV title and four NFC Championship Games in 13 seasons. In total, he finished his career 125-77-2 in the regular season and 10-8 in the playoffs. That record gave him the fourth-best regular-season winning percentage (.618) of any coach in Packers history with more than 20 games, behind only Vince Lombardi (.754), Mike Holmgren (.670), and Curly Lambeau (.668).

McCarthy also had an excellent record against the Cowboys, as the Packers went 7-3 in head-to-head matchups during his tenure. That included a pair of Divisional playoff wins, one at Lambeau Field after the 2014 season and again in Dallas after 2016. The Packers and Cowboys will not play each other during the 2020 regular season.

In Dallas, McCarthy will inherit a talented team that underperformed relative to both expectations and their overall scoring differential. Dallas finished just 8-8, but outscored their opponents by over 110 points, holding a Pythagorean record of 10.7-5.3. Dallas lost six games by eight points or fewer compared to just one such close win, and appears primed to be a candidate for significant improvement in 2020.

Keep an eye on Dallas to see if McCarthy looks to hire any other former Packers assistants to his staff.