Garrett Podell of CBS Sports recaps covering Mike McCarthy in Dallas

42.338 - 54.658 Garrett Podell

Thank you so much for having me on this Friday. I survived the snowstorm in Dallas this past weekend, and now it's okay to be out and about again. We got 40-degree weather, the sun's shining, life is good.

55.111 - 79.937 Pomp

Man, I'll never forget the ice storm in Dallas when the Steelers were there for a Super Bowl and they haven't been back since. And there's mixed reaction here to the Mike McCarthy hire, whether he'll get them back anytime soon. I wanted to ask you, Garrett, from your time covering the Cowboys, how would you grade Mike McCarthy's tenure there and where did it go wrong and why?

82.145 - 100.313 Garrett Podell

That's a great question, Joe. I think I would give Mike McCarthy's tenure with the Dallas Cowboys over five seasons, give him a B to B plus because when he walked in there after over a decade of Jason Garrett, I mean, this was a team that, uh, was in and out of the playoffs, not really consistently making it.

100.333 - 121.496 Garrett Podell

2020 was kind of a weird year with the pandemic, and he hired Mike Nolan, who he used to serve under as a coordinator, as a defensive coordinator, and they were one of the worst defenses in football. But, you know, he cut bait immediately, brought in Dan Quinn in 2021, which also coincided with the first-run draft pick of Michael Parsons. Boom, three consecutive 12 win seasons.

121.556 - 143.728 Garrett Podell

Dak Prescott was the NFL MVP runner up in 2023. You could argue statistically, maybe should have won that award over Lamar Jackson that year. And three straight 12 win seasons for the first time in Dallas since their 1990s Super Bowl glory years. They only won one playoff game in those three trips, which is what a lot of people in Cowboys land wrung their hands about.

454.677 - 476.061 Joe

Do you think the ownership approach that Jerry Jones had made it more difficult for McCarthy to do his job? I mean, we know how outspoken Jones is and how he wants to take over every situation. Do you think it made it more difficult for McCarthy and really anybody who has to coach the Cowboys?

477.357 - 504.575 Garrett Podell

I think that's undeniable. I mean, I love him as a media member. He'll talk to us after every home game in the hallway during the head coach's press conference. And so, you know, head coaches, they like there being one voice, right? Being the culture center and that being him. Jerry kind of... overrules pretty much anything that the coach says because his voice is the loudest. He's the owner.

504.956 - 528.892 Garrett Podell

He's also the general manager. And so not having that untraditional general manager situation, you know, leads to what we saw with Micah Parsons, where Jerry kind of skirted around negotiating with David Mulligetta in those negotiations and sat Parsons down. And once Jones felt, okay, there's a handshake agreement here. Micah said, hey, I want to go back and talk to Mulugeta.

528.912 - 546.362 Garrett Podell

Let's look over the fine print here, make sure everything's all good. Jerry took umbrage to it because he wanted to obviously just negotiate with Micah because he has a leg up on negotiating with a player over a contract. And then from there on out, it was a stalemate and he gets traded. So,

546.342 - 570.409 Garrett Podell

I don't think many general managers would have gone through a contract negotiation with someone like Parsons, talked to the agent, and eventually dealt them in their prime like that. So I would say that if you're the head coach in Dallas, very different experience than anywhere else, which maybe has equipped McCarthy to be better this time around in Pittsburgh.

763.726 - 784.485 Garrett Podell

Dalton Schultz leaves, another Pro Bowl caliber tight end is developed. And the players absolutely love Linda Wells. For media access after practices during the week, we'll be standing outside the hallway, the locker room, and you'll see assistant coaches, Schottenheimer players, jog into the locker room after practice.

784.465 - 809.916 Garrett Podell

almost every single time you see linda wells walk down the hallway there's at least one or two players who he's got his arm around them or they have their arm around him and they're deep in conversation about what just happened at practice getting feedback so he's somebody who definitely gets the buy-in of the players and is one of the assistants who i've just observing tangentially in small moments like that who seems to really

809.896 - 833.608 Garrett Podell

be comfortable getting in players ears and players have uh no issues listening to him and i asked him what how would you feel about you know working with mike mccarthy again and he said he loved uh that opportunity and said it would be a great opportunity and he found out he was gonna be a candidate for the job uh last saturday and uh he's gearing up for those interviews limits

834.736 - 854.158 Austin

Garrett, when we talk about Lunda Wells and just some of his experience, you talked about it with the tight ends. What's one thing that you think that he can bring as a coordinator type with McCarthy? We talked about all the familiarity. The Steelers are bringing in a lot of guys with McCarthy that he's either worked with in Green Bay or in Dallas.

854.719 - 864.49 Austin

How important do you think that familiarity is with a guy like Wells compared to a young up-and-coming guy that McCarthy might not be that familiar with but is trying to break on the scene?

1088.931 - 1102.258 Pomp

Yeah, kind of low key because there's been a couple of other things happening since the end of the season. Mount Washington had a really like breakout year. He's an interesting player moving forward. He became an important player for them.

1102.407 - 1127.453 Joe

It's nice that they have been able to use a player of that size and stature and find a way to make him dynamic in their offense. Because it did seem concerning the first couple of seasons for him that, man, are the Steelers really going to fail to find a way to utilize this guy in some sort of downfield passing game? But they did.

1127.804 - 1145.993 Pomp

And Garrett Padel was interesting with the McCarthy era in Dallas as well. Put a little context around that Packers disaster, for instance, where his offense only had one touchdown in the first half and they got blown out. Tony Pollard was lost in that game. And then the other losses. Yeah, it's true.

1146.053 - 1161.488 Pomp

No doubt they faced a very good 49er defense, but that's what you're going to face in the playoffs. So these high-powered Cowboys offenses under Mike McCarthy fell flat on their face, no matter the context, in the playoffs. That's a fact.

1161.508 - 1186.252 Joe

We also have seen the best seasons of Dak Prescott under Mike McCarthy. And I think it's pretty good to note that something Garrett brought up early in the conversation was that Dak absolutely credits McCarthy with taking that next step. Because, yeah, when he had Jason Garrett... looked like a pretty good young player. And he was a mid-round quarterback.