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Albert Breyer, senior NFL reporter, Monday morning quarterback is joining us.

Let's get right to it.

So there's a story out there that the Cowboys were caught a little off guard with a Mike McCarthy departure.

And I've theorized this a couple days ago, Albert, that I think once he got Don Ye as an agent,

and Mike Vrabel went to the Patriots, that McCarthy viewed himself, as did Don Yee, as the best candidate. And I think he may be, and I think they had a little leverage. And he looked at Dax's contract, he looked at the running back room and went, he went and asked, he went and asked for five years guaranteed. And Jerry's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Jerry from Landman said, no, I'm a wild cat, or I'm not giving you that. And then Mike, I think Mike McCarthy knew that with Dax

contract and that running back room and whiffing on the last two first round picks a little bit,

Albert, Dallas may be a tough place to win. Is that possible? Yeah, I hear you on that. I think this is actually a little bit more deep-seated.

And I do wonder if Jerry Jones has been whistling by the graveyard on this for a while.

I go back to the summer, and I got the sense back then that Mike was really kind of, you know, I'd say not happy with the fact

that he had to go through the situation that he was being put through where it's very unusual

to be in a contract year as a head coach, but not only that, like all of his assistant coaches

were also in contract years. So everyone in the building effectively,

or at least on his side of the building, is, you know, going through the season with this

hanging over their heads. And that was certainly reflected in the way on the days after the season

were handled. There was no negotiation. It never really got to that point. I think what Mike McCarthy was looking

at was like, how do I want to live out the rest of my days as a coach? And I don't think

he was interested in going back into a situation after he just went through that year where

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