Why is Mike McCarthy not coaching in 2025 NFL season? Exploring reasons for Super Bowl-winning HC's massive decision

Mike McCarthy has decided not to return to coaching in the NFL for the 2025 season. League insider Tom Pelissero reported this. McCarthy, a former Super Bowl winner with the Packers, will not return to the sidelines in the coming season.

As someone who has been in coaching for more than two decades now, it marks an abrupt departure. In addition to winning the championship in Green Bay, he led the Cowboys to three straight playoff seasons before falling short this year. It is an interesting decision and we explore why he might have taken this step.

Why is Mike McCarthy not coaching in NFL in 2025?

#3 - Salary-capped Saints only remaining vacancy

As the end of January approaches, teams that fired their head coaches have already named their replacements except one team. The Saints vacancy remains open and Mike McCarthy was expected to be a serious contender for that opening.

However, the situation is not ideal in New Orleans. The NFC South team has the worst salary cap situation in 2025. To put it into perspective, they are the only team who are expected to be more than $50 million above the threshold. Even the Browns, who gave a guaranteed contract to Deshaun Watson, are predicted to be more than $20 million better off.

Not only are they significantly over, but their quarterback Derek Carr has refused to take a pay cut. This means that he will probably be the starter in the upcoming year without a chance to get some new weapons that might help his middling performance.

If Mike McCarthy had gone there, he would have been struggling with an average roster that might have tanked his stock further, which has already taken a bruising last year after he ended 7-10 in Dallas. Therefore, it makes sense that he chose to wait out and try again next year.

#2 - Cowboys 2025 season might elevate his status

The Cowboys' losing season this year tarnished Mike McCarthy's reputation. Not only did they not make the playoffs, it came on the back of a postseason where they were dumped out by his former team at home in the Wild Card round.

He became a target for many commentators who thought he was responsible for the malaise in Dallas. With Jerry Jones moving on with Brian Schottenheimer, hardly a choice that others were pursuing, there is a chance that the franchise could do even worse than last year.

If that happens, it will help Mike McCarthy's reputation rebound. That might get him in with a better team than the Saints, where he can try to show what he can do with a better roster.

#1 - Pete Carroll, Sean Payton, Bill Belichick et al models to follow

There is precedent for what the former Packers and Cowboys coach is trying here. Bill Belichick has gone into college football after a year out of coaching. Pete Carroll has just returned to the league with the Las Vegas Raiders after sitting out the 2024 season. Sean Payton took the Broncos to the playoffs this year after his second season in Denver, a job he took after a year-long sabbatical.

Both Carroll and Payton have the same number of Super Bowl wins as Mike McCarthy. Their stocks went up after they sat out for a year. If there is one guarantee in the NFL, it is that there will be firings in January next year and there will be owners and general managers who will look at Mike McCarthy's resume and find that his record is impressive. Hence, it makes sense that he is biding his time for the perfect opportunity to arise.