The Dallas Cowboys still have at least 11 games left in their 2024 season. The mood, however, is pretty grim as the club exits their bye week. Sitting at 3-3, the club will return to the safety of the road for their next contest, a remarkable turnabout from how things have been the last two seasons. Somehow, the pressure of being at home has become too much for the organization, falling woefully behind in four contests (dating back to the wild-card game) and only making one of them competitive.
This is the mark of a team without leadership, and the most likely result with the way things are trending is that head coach Mike McCarthy will not earn a new contract and will be cleaning out his office in early January. That will likely set off an intriguing search that if the front office is worth anything (debatable at this point), they are already doing the leg work to form a list of candidates. We’ll do similar work, putting together a watch list of potential replacements; checking in periodically throughout the rest of the regular season.
The rankings are obviously subjective, so reader’s shouldn’t get to adjusting their drawers just yet.
Honorable Mentions:
Dan Pritchard, Cincinnati Bengals OCRyan Grubb, Seattle Seahawks OCAdam Stenovich, Green Bay Packers OCEjiro Evero, Carolina Panthers, DC
13. USC HC Lincoln Riley
The luster may be off Riley as USC is struggling mightily so far in 2024 at 3-4, after regressing in 2023. The Oklahoma run is goated, the initial year in 2022 with the Trojans was magical, but nothing recently has gone according to plan
12. University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart
The best collegiate head coach since Nick Saban.. he likely makes way too much ($13 million per year) coaching at his alma mater to move, but there’s no process that is sane without at least kicking the tires on the possibility.
11. Saints OC Klint Kubiak
The Saints started the season ridiculously hot, with back-to-back 40-point outbursts. Things have fallen off badly since then, with five straight losses including three consecutive blowouts. Losing Derek Carr at QB has hurt, but Kubiak’s system is certainly something to keep an eye on, especially if the Saints can recapture some magic.
10. Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith
Grabbing from a fruitful tree is always a wise idea, and snatching Smith from under Mike McDaniel as part of the Kyle Shanahan limb system seems like a wise call. Dallas rarely uses motion at the snap and isn’t particularly good at it; and that’s literally the forte of Smith. Doesn’t currently have play-calling duties though, which could be seen as a knock.
9. Former NFL head coach Mike Vrabel
Vrabel is a defensive-minded head coach who was able to achieve strong levels of success in Tennessee with a veteran QB who wasn’t well regarded (Ryan Tannehill) prior to their time together. Known as a disciplinarian, pairing him with Dak Prescott would require finding the next big thing as offensive coordinator.
8. Former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick
For better or worse, the clubhouse leader. Belichick is a huge Prescott fan, Jerry Jones is a huge supporter of retreads and it would be interesting to see if given a competent front office… oh wait.
7. Lions DC Aaron Glenn
Glenn obviously has ties to Dallas, playing two of his 15 seasons with the organization, but the growth of the Lions’ defense under his tutelage has been impressive on its own. In 2020 they ranked 32nd in defensive DVOA. Since Glenn joined they moved to 29th, 27th, 13th and ranked 4th going into Week 7’s action. He’s consistently being highlighted by their players as a phenomenal leader of men.
6. Comanders OC Kliff Kingsbury
It appears that Kingsbury’s time away after the disaster in Arizona has done him a ton of good. The offense he’s put together in DC for rookie Jayden Daniels is quite impressive and a stark contrast to what he was doing with Kyler Murray in the desert. That transformation should lead to him having a second opportunity not always afforded.
5. Colorado HC Deion Sanders
After great success at Jackson State with back-to-back SWAC championships, Sanders has quickly brought Colorado from obscurity to relevancy. 1-11 the season before, Sanders brought them to 4-9 in Year 1 and is now 5-2 to start the 2024 season.
4. Bills OC Joe Brady
After the strong work at LSU with Joe Burrow, Brady has been throwing haymakers in the NFL the last three seasons coordinating the Josh Allen Buffalo Bills. The Bills finished second in offensive DVOA in 2022, third in 2023 and are currently third again in 2024.
3. Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken
The evolution of the Ravens’ passing attack, and the under-center autonomy placed on Lamar Jackson’s shoulders over the last season and a half have been incredible. He’s one of one as a QB, but Monken deserves a ton of credit for recognizing how to unlock this team.
2. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson
What Ben Johnson’s offense and tutelage has been able to do for Jared Goff has been amazing. In the Stafford trade, Goff was expected to be a placeholder until the Lions drafted their guy. Now the clearly limited passer is running one of the league’s best and most innovative offenses. Johnson’s the IT guy right now, but he’s second fiddle in our rankings solely because…
1. Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik
Slowik is immensely intriguing for several reasons. One, the offense he was able to coordinate for rookie CJ Stroud was amazing and he’s continued to add to it in Year 2. Slowik is from the Shanahan coaching tree that has had ridiculous success at the NFL level and maybe most importantly, he used to coach defense. That combination just feels like he’d make a tremendous hire.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Top candidates to replace Mike McCarthy as Cowboys HC: Week 8 edition
