Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy away from team with back injury

The Dallas Cowboys announced Saturday that head coach Mike McCarthy is away from team headquarters due to a back injury, for which he had a procedure earlier this week.

McCarthy’s absence prevents him from being in person for the Cowboys’ rookie minicamp, but the head coach is not expected to have an “extended absence,” ESPN reported. That said, McCarthy has been able to communicate with the coaching staff and players virtually via Zoom.

Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said McCarthy has still been able to communicate effectively over distance.

“It’s easy because Mike is always very clear and, ‘hey, this is what we’re going to do,’ so we had a real vision of what we wanted to accomplish this weekend with these guys,” Quinn said. “It’s mainly about taking those first steps and I think Mike would agree, we’re not going to miss a single step of their development and we’ll see what we have and how we communicate and testing them and seeing where we’re at. And then we’ll start with Mike .and everyone else here this week to merge all together.

“So if there was a moment to miss for him, there was never going to be a moment where he would feel comfortable, but we all know we’ve picked him up and we’ll have him back soon.”

Dallas is coming off a 12-5 season, which reached the NFC divisional round before losing to the San Francisco 49ers.

In McCarthy’s three seasons as head coach, the Cowboys are 30-20 in the regular season and 1-2 in the playoffs. He was previously the head coach of the Green Bay Packers for 13 seasons (2006-18), winning Super Bowl XLV.

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