Cowboys 2022 NFL preview, schedule: Mike McCarthy and his final shot in Dallas
With less talent than last season at his disposal, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy will still be expected to lead his team to the NFC Championship.
There are head coaches entering the 2022 NFL season with the pressure of winning weighing on their shoulders, and then there’s Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy.
Despite going 12-5 in his second season in Dallas, McCarthy and the Cowboys were eliminated in the Wild Card playoffs by the 49ers. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones subsequently issued a veiled warning to McCarthy ahead of the 2022 season.
“I want to be very clear. [McCarthy] wouldn’t be sitting here today if I didn’t think he’s the guy who can lead this team to a Super Bowl and I have options. And I don’t mean to be insensitive to anyone. It’s a fact,” Jones said at the start of the Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, California.
One of those options is former Saints head coach Sean Payton, who will serve as an analyst for FOX this season, a job that could last exactly half a year: if McCarthy doesn’t lead the Cowboys to at least the NFC Championship, Jones will lilely turn to Payton as his eighth head coach since 1994 following the departure of Jimmy Johnson, with whom he won two Super Bowls in the early 1990s.
McCarthy is an offense-oriented coach and in Dallas he has what every team needs to compete in the NFL: a franchise quarterback.
Dak Prescott had 4,449 passing yards in 2021 and set a franchise record with 37 touchdown passes. In addition, he was third in the league with 104.2 rating points.
Prescott facing season without Cooper
Prescott, however, will try to replicate those numbers without Amari Cooper, his most reliable target since the middle of the 2018 season when the Cowboys acquired the wide receiver in a trade with the Raiders.
Cooper left via free agency for Cleveland and now CeeDee Lamb is the top receiver in Dallas and, as things stand, the only one following injuries to Michael Gallup and Michael Washington.
Since arriving in the NFL in 2016, his average yards per game has dropped from 108.7 to 58.9 in 2021. “Zeke” is no longer thate dominant running back and is now more of a complement to o to o
Since arriving in the NFL in 2016, his average yards per game has dropped from 108.7 to 58.9 in 2021. “Zeke” is no longer the dominant running back he was and now serves more as a complement to Tony Pollard, who set a career-high last season with 1,056 combined yards.
Gone are the days when the Dallas offensive line was one of the best in the NFL, and that’s not good news for Prescott.
Rookie Tyler Smith, a first-round pick in the 2022 Draft, is a tackle but is projected to be the starting left guard, taking over from Connor Williams. Center Tyler Biadasz was inconsistent last year and tackle Tyron Smith has missed 20 games due to injuries since 2020.
Cowboys defense offers hope
On the other side of the ball, expectations are high in Dallas and it all starts with Micah Parsons, the versatile linebacker who was named Defensive Rookie of the Year last season.
Parsons led all rookies with 13 sacks and three forced fumbles, and was third in the league with 20 tackles for loss.
Trevon Diggs was the other bright spot on the Cowboys’ defense in 2021. In his second year in the league, the cornerback led with 11 interceptions, the most by a single player since 1981. He was also second with 21 passes defensed and became only the second player in the Super Bowl era with at least one interception in the first six games of the season.
Sam Williams, a second-round pick this year, could play opposite DeMarcus Lawrence following the departure of Randy Gregory.
The rest of the defense is less well-recognized, other than linebacker Leighton Vander Esch, a 2018 first-round pick who has signed a one-year contract extension.
Dallas’ special teams are in good hands with KaVontae Turpin, the USFL MVP, who ran two punt returns into the end zone in the preseason game against the Chargers.
The Cowboys are underdogs in the NFC, but Jones hopes to see his team back in the Conference Championship at the very least. Anything less and he will not hesitate to send McCarthy on his way.
If that is the case, a new era could begin in Dallas in 2023 with Super Bowl-winner Payton installed as the Cowboys’ new head coach.