The owner of the Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones has announced that Mike McCarthy will return as head coach despite the team’s historic playoff collapse.

Since the 14-team format was implemented in 2020, the Cowboys became the first team ranked second to lose to the final team to qualify.

After three days of intense speculation about his future, Mike McCarthy will have another opportunity to lead the Dallas Cowboys to a deep playoff run, capping nearly three decades of unsuccessful attempts.

Following a stunning 48-32 wild-card loss to Green Bay, owner and general manager Jerry Jones announced on Wednesday night that McCarthy will return for a fifth season.

Since the 14-team format was implemented in 2020, the Cowboys became the first team ranked second to lose to the final team to qualify. In the last two weeks, Dallas dominated the NFC East and earned the opportunity to host at least two postseason games.

McCarthy’s team, on the other hand, is the first after three straight 12-win playoff seasons to miss out on a conference title game.

“With multiple allusions to the heartbreak of the playoff defeat, there is tremendous benefit to continuing the team’s progress under Mike’s leadership as our head coach,” Jones stated in a statement. “We will commit ourselves, in collaboration with Mike, to translating his record of the highest regular-season winning percentage among all Cowboys head coaches into accomplishing our postseason objectives.”

McCarthy was brought on board to help Dallas advance past the divisional round for the first time since the legendary team’s final five Super Bowl victories, which occurred in 1995.

In his more than twelve seasons as the Packers’ coach, the sixty-year-old coach made it to the NFC championship game three more times and won a Super Bowl with Green Bay thirteen years ago.

In the middle of Green Bay’s second straight losing season in 2018, McCarthy was let go. Before Jones hired him in 2019, he had retired from football. His record with Dallas is 42-25 and overall 167-102-2.

McCarthy’s contract is expiring in one year. An extension was not mentioned in Jones’ statement.

With one year remaining on his $160 million, four-year contract, quarterback Dak Prescott struggled in the first half, leading Dallas to a 27-0 deficit. In quarterback Jordan Love’s postseason debut, the Packers were never slowed by a top-five defensive unit.

Under McCarthy, Dallas fell to 1-3 in the playoffs and gave up the most points in the team’s postseason history. Prescott’s postseason record is 2–5.