Mike McCarthy may be on the verge of leading the Dallas Cowboys to a third straight 12-win season, but that might not be enough to earn a fifth year in Big D.

McCarthy’s Cowboys finished 12-5 in both 2021 and 2022, but that regular season success only mounted to one playoff victory: A blowout over the 8-9 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in last year’s Wild Card Round.

And according to a report from Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, McCarthy might lose his job in Dallas if the Cowboys fail to go on a deep postseason run this month:

“Most folks would tell you Mike McCarthy has had a really good year in Dallas. But count this as another year during which he probably needs to look good in the playoffs to be safe, especially with the prospect that Dan Quinn could actually bolt this time around.”

Breer floated the idea of Quinn, in his third season as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, leaving for the Los Angeles Chargers or even the Seattle Seahawks if Pete Carroll retires. Thanks to his success as the DC under McCarthy, Quinn has been a hot target in the last two head coaching cycles.

Mike McCarthy announced Cowboys CB Jourdan Lewis is the team's 2023 Ed Block Courage Award winner. "Just the applause he received in the team meeting clearly shows what teammates think about him as a man."

Here is context. His career could have ended. https://t.co/aDmsbXrw1j

— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) January 4, 2024

Ultimately, Quinn wound up staying put both years. But with Dallas fielding a top-10 scoring defense for the third straight season under Quinn’s guidance, 2024 might be the year where he finally lands a third head coaching position.

Of course, all of this McCarthy-getting-fired talk will be put to rest if he can lead Dallas to its first deep postseason run since 1995, the last year they a) played in the NFC Championship and b) won the Super Bowl.