I really don't think McCarthy knew what he was getting into as far as the media is concerned. The drama that the head football coach has to deal with in Dallas with Jerry running the show is no cakewalk.
Running the show in the field is McCarthy. McClay and Stephen Jones are the defacto general managers. It has been management by committee for years now. Jerry is a figure head or a talking head, take your pick. It is not so much ego as he is a life long promoter. At 78 he can't handle the load even if he wanted to. If Jerry was completely running the show he would have kept Garrett. McCarthy picked or retained all of the coaches or coordinators. When you have a high profile team you will always have more media attention no matter who is owning the team.
Except for the teams that stayed mostly intact and suffered less injuries this has been a very difficult year to get started. This team has been obliterated by injuries. No normal pre-season, not an ideal time to bond and become a cohesive unit.We know this from our personal lives, there is an aura of estrangement these days and disarray. I think players on all sides of the ball were so invested in Dak that losing him sucked the wind out of them and they will be indifferent to any replacements until success and time changes things.
The worst thing about that nasty, illegal hit on Dalton, with Cowboys players not reacting strongly against the WFT defense, is that Andy Dalton will know the stark reality of this, when he sees the film even before he gets back to quarterbacking.