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Mike McCarthy is expected to pursue other coaching opportunities when his contract officially expires with the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday night.

Multiple reports indicated the Cowboys and McCarthy broke off contract talks on Monday because they couldn’t agree on the length of a new deal. McCarthy’s contract ended at the end of the season with Dallas holding exclusive negotiating rights until midnight on Jan. 14.

McCarthy spent five seasons in Dallas, including three 12-5 campaigns sandwiched between losing seasons in his first (2020) and, barring a last-minute reversal, final year with the franchise in 2024.

The Cowboys last week denied a request from the Chicago Bears to interview McCarthy, and owner Jerry Jones said in December he expected other teams to show interest because of the coach’s resume and history developing quarterbacks. The Bears drafted Caleb Williams No. 1 overall in the 2024 draft.

McCarthy, 61, said after the regular-season finale that he wanted to return as Jones showed some indecision in public comments that lacked a clear commitment to keeping him.

“I don’t know that I am considering making a change is really what I’m trying to say,” Jones said at the end of the regular season. “Mike’s one of the best coaches that I think there is. He was made the coach here because I thought that, and he’s done absolutely nothing to diminish my opinion of him as a coach.”

This would be the seventh coaching change in the NFL with only one of the vacant spots filled. The New England Patriots fired Jerod Mayo one season after hiring him to replace Bill Belichick and moved quickly to make former Titans coach and Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel their head coach in 2025.

Dallas won four of its final seven games despite a significant run of injuries to key personnel, including a season-ending injury to quarterback Dak Prescott and a month without top pass rushers Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence.

McCarthy missed the playoffs for the second time as head coach of the Cowboys, who also failed to reach the postseason in his first season running the team in 2020.

–Field Level Media