The Dallas Cowboys have begun the search for a new head coach after failing to agree to a new contract with Mike McCarthy. Both camps seemed motivated to reach an agreement last week, but neither wavered in their opinion about what McCarthy accomplished in Dallas and what he deserves going forward. And in this case, neither side may be wrong.

The latest reports say that after a long review of the Cowboys’ performance last season and the state of the franchise after five years as McCarthy’s coach, there was a mutual agreement to part ways. At the time of writing, the news is still fairly recent, so there may be more content and possibly commentary from Jerry Jones or McCarthy in the near future. But with the team and coach now trying to figure out what’s next, we may not hear much more about her departure.

So let’s look at it from several angles. First, why wouldn’t the Cowboys want to play with McCarthy again? While his first and last years were tough, he also had three consecutive 12-5 years and two division titles from 2021-2023. It’s arguably the best three-season streak the team has had since the ’90s.

But that run also meant Jones watched his team lose three straight playoff games, two of them at home. McCarthy’s record against winning teams was weak overall, essentially showing that he could bully bad teams with the talent the front office had provided, but rarely gave the impression that he had coached them beyond the sum of their powers .

On the other hand, the roster was weakened at times by the team’s increasingly quiet offseasons, particularly last year. Why would McCarthy want to come back after not only remaining in lame-duck status for 2024, but also not even being given a fair chance due to a lack of free-agent activity and a forward-looking one in the front office draft class?

One might think that this farewell was already a done deal before last week or even at the beginning of last season. But instead of jumping into the Black Monday fray last week while every other team needed new head coaches, Dallas spent last week and the first part of this week talking with McCarthy. There seemed to be a desire on both sides to continue doing business together, but obviously each had their own ideas about what that relationship should look like going forward.

We can only speculate. Did Jones want McCarthy to relinquish offensive control and focus on the head coaching role, as he did with Jason Garrett in 2013? Maybe McCarthy balked at the idea of ​​replacing offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Or perhaps McCarthy wanted more influence over front office operations and was looking for more involvement.

While the two sides reportedly never discussed his contract, a general idea of ​​how long a new deal would last may still have entered into the talks. Of course, if the Cowboys only wanted to give McCarthy a few more years and he wanted more security, that would have come up in discussions about their vision for the team going forward.

Here, too, we probably won’t know what the real sticking points were. But it’s not a wild guess that McCarthy saw more value in his regular-season performances than the front office. When it came to his true mission in joining the Cowboys, to take the team further than Jason Garrett, McCarthy had nothing to show.

Your opinion on this change is no different than that of the parties involved. Where do you place value? If you thought these three straight playoff appearances were a badge of honor, you may be disappointed by McCarthy’s departure. If you found them rather arbitrary, and especially given Dallas’ performance in these playoff eliminations, you’re probably ready for a change.

Nobody is wrong here. Mike McCarthy isn’t wrong when he thinks he deserves another chance in Dallas. The Cowboys aren’t wrong in thinking they can do better as a head coach. You are not wrong in your attitude towards this. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the facts are that the Cowboys will have a new head coach in 2025 and this offseason will be a lot more interesting.