The Cowboys have had 4 legitimate head coaches in the Jerry Jones era.
Jimmy Johnson - was a master talent evaluator and motivator. But he was and is an awful person, who selfishly turned his back on Cowboys fans and his own players, and manipulated Jerry into letting him out of his contract, and paying him to leave. I would never want to spend any personal time with the SOB, but he was a genius coach, and he rightfully gets credit for building the team that dominated the mid-90's. But that was BEFORE the salary CAP era. Even Jimmy, with all his genius, wasn't able to build a championship roster in Miami after the Salary CAP was implemented.
Barry Switzer - Fans don't give enough credit to Barry Switzer. He knew he was stepping into a rat's nest, but also a very talented team. Having coached both Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson when they played at Arkansas, he verbally chastised both of them for screwing up what they had in Dallas. Nevertheless, he was egoless enough to let the team that Jimmy built move forward on inertia. Fans like to blame him for missing the Super Bowl after the 1994 season, but the fault for that failure rests squarely on the shoulders of Troy Aikman, who threw 3 interceptions in the first 5 minutes of the NFC Championship game in January of 1995, putting the Cowboys in a 17-0 hole to the 49ers that they just couldn't dig out of. It wasn't a failure of coaching. It was a failure of execution by the on-field leader of the team.
Complaints about Barry's lack of discipline don't hold water with me. The players were already chafing under the rigid discipline of Jimmy Johnson, and needed a lighter touch. Even though Aikman still complains to this day about the lack of discipline under Switzer, is there anyone who really believes that Aikman would have put up with a strong-armed coach after Jimmy left? Well, after Barry left, the Cowboys did hire another strong armed coach in Chan Gailey, and Aikman was front and center in running him out of town, even though Gailey got the Cowboys to the playoffs in both seasons he was head coach. So, Aikman is just full of crap, and a complete hypocrite. If he wouldn't accept a more disciplinarian type coach after Jimmy left, why does he believe the other veteran players on the team would have put up with a more disciplinarian type style from Barry Switzer.
Barry had EXACTLY the right touch to milk two more very good seasons out of the team that Jimmy built. And after Jerry overpaid for ageing stars, and hired Larry Lacewell to lead the Scouting and Drafting department, Barry had no chance to rebuild the roster. The reality is Barry Switzer had already proved his bona fides, winning 3 NCAA football championships with Oklahoma. He didn't need to "prove" himself to anyone, and surely didn't need to impress Troy Aikman, Jerry Jones, or Jimmy Johnson. If anything, he was cleaning up the mess they all made. Switzer was the ideal replacement for Jimmy Johnson at the time, Despite was Jerry said, there were not 500 coaches who could have taken that team to the Super Bowl. There were over 500 coaches who could easily have screwed up the team in 1994 and 1995. Barry was smart enough not to do that, and deftly allowed his veteran players to lead the team, making corrections with only the lightest of touches - which is EXACTLY what was needed in the two seasons after Jimmy left.
Bill Parcells - Bill Parcells was a great coach, and knew how to build a winner. Ironically, he learned a lot from the example and advice of Tom Landry early in his career, and he always gave Landry due credit. Over 4 seasons from 2003 - 2006, he built a championship caliber team. In 2007, I believe a Bill Parcells coached team would have made it to the Super Bowl to challenge the Patriots. But Bill was old, and ran out of gas. He walked away a year to soon for the Cowboys. But if he was truly spent, another season might have put him in the ground. So, it is forgivable, though unfortunate, that he walked away too soon.
Mike McCarthy - Mike McCarthy led the Packers to 4 NFC Championship games, and 1 Super Bowl win in 13 seasons with the Packers. He was consistently a winner, and despite the falling out with prima donna Aaron Rodger (who by the way hasn't been back to a Super Bowl without McCarthy), he was and is a much better coach than he has been given credit for being. Two consecutive 12-win seasons under McCarthy shows that he still knows how to win. Like Jimmy Johnson ditched OC Mike Shula after the 1990 season, McCarthy ditched DC Mike Nolan after the 2020 season 30 years later. If you want to blame McCarthy for hiring Nolan in the first place, then you also have to blame Johnson for hiring Shula. With Mike back to calling play in 2023, he is back in his element, and has full control over the reins of the Cowboys team. He is the first coach since Barry Switzer to get the Cowboys to win 12 games and go to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. Despite the national media hyenas, there is no good reason to believe McCarthy is on the hot seat in Dallas. Dallas is on an upward trend since they finally got another legitimate NFL head coach.
Barry Switzer was not a legitimate head coach. They won in spite of him, not because of him. He went 6-10 on a team with 6 HOFers.
