Has the Dallas Cowboys’ recent winning streak helped Mike McCarthy’s case to keep his job?

On Sunday Night Football, the Cowboys secured a shocking victory over the playoff hopeful Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The 26-24 win at AT&T Stadium was Dallas’ fourth win in their last five games and despite being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, the Cowboys have found their groove heading into the home stretch of the season.

Despite losing franchise signal caller, Dak Prescott to hand and hamstring injuries, earlier this season, the Cowboys find themselves with a respectable 7-8 record and have two more chances to play spoiler against playoff teams as they did in Week 16, when they play their NFC East rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders to round out their regular season slate.

With several questions heading into 2025, perhaps the biggest question mark surrounding the club heading into the off-season is the future of head coach, Mike McCarthy.

Everyone seems to have an opinion if McCarthy should return to the Dallas’ sideline in 2025…and add former Cowboys wide receiver turned NFL analyst, Keyshawn Johnson to the list.

The 1996 first-overall pick believes the Cowboys should hang onto McCarthy unless a certain NFL legend becomes available.

“They’ve gone through some things this year,” Johnson admitted while appearing on FS1’s ‘Speak’ morning show. “All I’m saying to you, Michael [Irvin], is the man did go 49-33, he’s 1-3 in the postseason, which is not great, OK, but he’s won two division titles, OK…but there’s coaches around this league that get an opportunity t0 make some mistakes and then refuel the thing back up to where it needs to be. Saquon Barkley’s running wild in Philadelphia, he could’ve been a Dallas Cowboy, Derrick Henry we all see what he’s doing with the Ravens, he should’ve been a Cowboy, those mistakes were made by who? It could’ve been made by Jerry [Jones], it could’ve been a combination of he and Mike [McCarthy], it could’ve been the front office, but all of those things, you got to be serious when you’re thinking about this. If it’s Deion Sanders, you and I, we’re gonna jump up and down on the table. If you’re not getting Prime, who else are you getting?!”

While Johnson was speaking to fellow Cowboys legend, Michael Irvin when making those comments, the ‘Playmaker’ seemed to disagree with Johnson just days ago, saying he believes while McCarthy is a ‘good’ head coach, it’s time to get a different voice in the Cowboys’ locker room.

“You don’t get anything in this profession without earning,” Irvin said. “No one gives you this, so you have to be a good coach to get here, all of them are good coaches. Coaching isn’t the only thing we’re doing here, you have to be relatable, and you have to be able to bring the best out of the guys that you’re coaching.

The Xs and Os, drawing up plays and designs…a lot of them can do that but they all can’t pull the greatness out of the players that they are coaching on the Xs and Os, that’s the difference. They are not organized or channeled enough or focused enough to turn these guys into great players.

What’s wrong with saying we’re going to have curfew, we’re going to do these things, we’re going to tidy up this ship. If you get me a ship tidier that’s then going to use his coaching too…but if I’m going to have somebody that’s going to tighten up this ship, then I may sit down and give you an ear gate to listen to what you have to get out of your mouth. But all that other stuff you’re talking about? Be gone with it.

Coaching is more than just coaching, he’s [McCarthy] is a good coach, but we obviously need more than just coaching, you need somebody that’ll reach down and pull up something.”

The Cowboys look to continue playing the role of spoiler when they travel to Philadelphia for a Week 17 showdown with the Eagles on Sunday afternoon (1:00 pm EDT/10:00 am PDT) on FOX.