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There has been a lot of hype around Japanese superstar slugger Munetaka Murakami, as he was posted this offseason. With his posting nearing expiration, many are wondering which MLB team might make a move for the first baseman, or if there is a chance that he might not sign at all and stay in Japan for next season.

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On this episode of Baseball Bar-B-Cast, Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman talk about the fascinating posting of Murakami and why teams like the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, and Seattle Mariners, among a few others, could be a suitable fit for his services. They then get into the flurry of transactions that have gone on over the past few days, including Jorge Polanco going to Queens, the Philadelphia Phillies picking up Adolis García and an update to the Scott Boras Scoreboard.

Later, Jake and Jordan take a look at a couple of rosters for the World Baseball Classic, including the superstar power on Team USA and why the Dominican Republic squad is loaded on offense. They then ask a few questions pertaining to each team that could help them figure out which team could come out on top in the 2026 edition of the tournament.

1:14 – The Opener: Murakami signing soon

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31:40 – Predictions for his landing spot

36:36 – Around the League

57:09 – Scott Boras Scoreboard update

1:02:02 – World Baseball Classic: Team USA roster

1:11:09 – A look at Team DR

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

Nick Saban is getting into the NHL.

The longtime former Alabama head coach and current analyst on ESPN’s “College GameDay” purchased a minority stake in the Nashville Predators, the team announced on Tuesday. Saban purchased the share alongside his business partner, Joe Agresti. It’s unclear how much of the team the two own.

“Although I am now retired as a coach, I still possess a competitive nature and a great passion for sports,” Saban said in a statement. “Being involved in a sports team in Nashville has always been a goal and the opportunity to partner in the Predators with a class act like Bill Haslam created the perfect scenario for us. The Preds are a great organization with a fantastic brand, and we are excited to be part of the future success of the franchise.”

Saban retired from Alabama after the 2023 season, which marked his 17th leading the Crimson Tide. He finished his coaching career with seven national championships, all but one of which were with Alabama. Saban has since joined ESPN and “College GameDay.”

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Saban is a noted Predators fan, too. He attended a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Final in a Predators jersey in 2017, and he even showed up for a day at the team’s development camp earlier this summer.

“I am really looking forward to having Coach Nick Saban and Joe Agresti as a part of our ownership group,” Predators majority owner Bill Haslam said in a statement. “Coach is one of the all-time greats in college football history and one of the winningest coaches in all of sports. We are excited to have him join us in our pursuit of championships on the ice in Nashville.”

Haslam, who served as the governor of Tennessee from 2011-2019, purchased the Predators in 2023 for about $880 million. The team is valued at about $1.6 billion, which made it the 24th-most valuable team in the NHL, according to Forbes. By comparison, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the most valuable team in the league at about $4.4 billion.

The Predators will enter Wednesday’s game with the Carolina Hurricanes with a 13-15-4 record, which is the worst in the central division. The team has made the playoffs just once in the past four seasons.

Five days after popular European soccer fans’ group, Football Supporters Europe, accused FIFA of “extortionate” 2026 World Cup ticket prices in a passionate statement that raised serious concerns about the introduction of variable pricing, FIFA announced a “supporter entry tier” on Tuesday.

This new category, according to The Athletic, will offer around 1,000 tickets per game for $60 to supporters of the two participating teams.

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While FSE welcomes the tweak, the organization noted in a statement Tuesday that “the revisions do not go far enough.”

Ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, are the highest in the event’s history. They’re also significantly steeper than what North American soccer officials proposed while successfully bidding for the tournament in 2018, when they, according to The Athletic, estimated group-stage tickets could go from anywhere between $21-$323 and that World Cup final tickets could range from $128-$1,550.

The cheapest ticket to the final is now $4,185, per The Athletic, which also reported last Thursday that the winner-take-all match is already multiple times more expensive than the 2022 World Cup final and any 2024 Paris Olympics final for any sport.

In other words, the 2026 World Cup ticket pricing model is more similar to the NFL’s than it is to that of any other international soccer tournament.

As for the new “supporter entry tier,” those $60 tickets will reportedly account for only 1.6% of the total tickets available for each match. That’s where The Athletic’s 1,000 tickets per game estimate comes into play, given that most of the World Cup stadiums in the U.S., Canada and Mexico can fit more than 60,000 fans.

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FSE pointed out in its Tuesday statement that this small change extends a more affordable option to the minority of supporters. The majority will still face exorbitant prices.

“There’s also still the question of supporters with disabilities, as no new pricing structure has been announced for them and complimentary companion tickets still seem to be absent,” FSE wrote.

“For the moment we are looking at the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash.”

That backlash came after FIFA’s third sales phase, which will run through Jan. 13 and is the first since the World Cup draw, was opened to the public.

The Athletic’s Henry Bushnell broke it down last Thursday:

[FIFA] hiked some Category 1 ticket prices from $410 or $445 last month to $700 for games such as England vs. Croatia and Scotland vs. Brazil. In total, the Category 1 price rose for 80 of the 104 matches — in some cases by 71% — while it fell for 11 matches, according to data tracked and compiled by The Athletic.

Category 1 tickets are closest to the action. Category 4 tickets are the farthest away, although those have been few and far between and aren’t available to the general public in the current sales phase, per The Athletic. FIFA has reportedly tiered this World Cup’s games in similar categories, with the most enticing group-stage matches yielding the highest ticket prices.

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Essentially, the higher demand for a match, the higher the prices — and vice versa. That’s left loads of fans upset, most notably those overseas who will also have to navigate travel prices.

The distribution of the $60 “supporter entry tier” tickets will be managed by the Participating Member Associations, according to FIFA.

“They are requested to ensure that these tickets are specifically allocated to loyal fans who are closely connected to their national teams,” FIFA said in its Tuesday statement.

Those tickets are a step in the right direction, however, Category 1-3 tickets remain hundreds of dollars.

Former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said that he has been in touch with Sherrone Moore since Moore was fired and charged with felony home invasion and two other misdemeanors last week.

Moore, who succeeded Harbaugh at Michigan after Harbaugh left to coach the Los Angeles Chargers, was fired with cause on Wednesday after the school uncovered evidence of an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. Moore, who is married with three children, then allegedly drove to the woman’s house where he grabbed utensils from the kitchen, allegedly told her that she had ruined his life and allegedly threatened to take his own life.

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Harbaugh was asked if he had talked to Moore in an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Tuesday. Harbaugh said he had texted with Moore, but didn’t divulge any specifics from their contact.

“It’s a tragedy,” Harbaugh said. “One of the worst days of his life. And keep it together and take care of your family, that’s the message — and getting spiritual guidance is really critical.”

Moore was the Wolverines’ offensive coordinator in 2023 as UM won the national title with an undefeated season. He served as Michigan’s interim coach over the course of two suspensions Harbaugh served during that season.

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In 2022, Moore and Matt Weiss were Michigan’s co-offensive coordinators. Weiss was fired in January of 2023 and indicted in March of 2025 on over 20 federal charges for allegedly hacking into thousands of female college athletes and students’ accounts to access their “personal, intimate digital photographs and videos.”

Since leaving Michigan, Harbaugh has been slapped with two separate show-cause penalties by the NCAA relating to recruiting violations and the Connor Stalions’ advance-scouting scandal.

Michigan’s search for Moore’s successor is still ongoing as assistant Biff Poggi will serve as the team’s interim coach for the Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31. Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer was mentioned as a candidate but said Sunday that he had no interest in speaking to any other school about another head coaching position.

The ACC is moving to a nine-game schedule. But unlike the other three power conferences in college football, not every ACC team will play nine conference games every year going forward.

The conference announced Tuesday that it would become the last power conference to add a ninth league game to its teams’ schedules in 2026. But unlike the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, the ACC has an odd number of teams in the league. Thanks to the arrivals of Stanford, Cal and SMU, the ACC has 17 football teams. It’s not possible for every team to play nine games.

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In 2026, 12 teams will play nine conference games while the other five play eight conference games. In 2027 and beyond, 16 teams will play nine league games while a rotating member of the league plays eight. The team playing eight conference games will be required to schedule two power conference opponents among its four non-conference games.

“Today’s announcement of our 2026 football league opponents is another significant and intentional step forward for ACC Football,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. “Transitioning to a nine-game conference schedule strengthens our competitive framework, aligns us with the other Power Four conferences and provides greater consistency for our student-athletes, coaches and fans. This phased approach reflects our commitment to competitive equity, scheduling flexibility and delivering a premier football product across all 17 institutions.”

The lopsided scheduling means we could be in for some more ACC tiebreaker chaos in 2026 after Duke won the league title in 2025. The five-loss Blue Devils won a five-way tiebreaker for second place in the conference standings at 6-2 ahead of Miami and three other teams. Duke’s win over Virginia in the conference title game assured that the ACC’s champion wouldn’t make the College Football Playoff, but the CFP committee moved Miami ahead of Notre Dame in the final set of rankings and the ACC wasn’t left out of the playoff entirely.

After Duke’s title win, Phillips said the league would take a look at its tiebreakers going forward. It will now need to take into account tiebreakers for teams that haven’t played the same number of conference games and the league said its updated tiebreaker policy would be “announced ahead of the 2026 season.”

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Cal, Duke, Louisville, Miami, NC State, Pitt, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest will each play nine conference games in 2026 while Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and North Carolina will play eight conference games.

Steve Kerr isn’t worried about the frustrated email Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob sent to a fan earlier this week.

A Warriors fan sent Lacob an email after the team’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday with a quick plea, asking him to “please do something about this team.” The fan, according to SFGate, was 27-year-old Justin Dutari, who also asked rhetorically if Stephen Curry had to score 50 points each night for them to win, among other things. He also brought up the fact he thought the Warriors were playing Jimmy Butler out of position.

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The email address that Dutari found for Lacob ended up being accurate, and Lacob replied within minutes.

“You can’t be as frustrated as me,” Lacob replied. “I am working on it. It’s complicated. Style of play. Coaches desires regarding players. League trends. Jimmy [Butler] is not the problem.”

Lacob signed the email simply, “Joe.”

Kerr was asked about the email Tuesday and said that “it’s not a big deal.” His relationship with Lacob, he insisted, is fine.

“I hate when people are gonna post private emails,” Kerr said, via ESPN’s Anthony Slater. “Imagine if everyone’s emails were just posted publicly, how tough that would be to live our lives.

“Joe supports me 100%, I support him. We have a great connection, and we’ve had so much continuity here and our stable environment in our organization is one of our strengths.”

Though Kerr isn’t bothered by the email, at least publicly, it’s easy to understand why Dutari and other Warriors fans could be upset. The team has lost eight of their last 12 games and fell below .500 on the season after Sunday’s four-point loss in Portland. Curry dropped 48 points in that contest, too. They’ll enter Thursday’s game against the Phoenix Suns with a 13-14 record.

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Kerr shares that sentiment.

“We’re all frustrated,” he said. “Joe is frustrated, I’m frustrated, Steph and Dray, everybody’s frustrated. And this is kind of how the league works.”

As for Dutari, he’s just happy to have gotten his anger about his favorite sports team off his chest.

“I’m not gonna bother him no more,” Dutari said, via SFGate. “My goal was to just get some frustration out of me.”

The NFL playoffs will be without the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time since the 2014 season. The Cincinnati Bengals will miss them for the third straight year. And barring a miracle, the Dallas Cowboys won’t be in them, either.

That’s three big teams with some big-name players missing out. Let’s look at what’s next for each.

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Cowboys have set the stage for a big 2026

Jerry Jones has had a strange season, but he’s put the Cowboys in position to take a major leap back to the top of the NFC in 2026. Trading Micah Parsons away for draft capital was certainly unconventional, but the acquisition of All-Pro talent Quinnen Williams has given the Cowboys a new elite difference-maker on their defensive line.

That unit is in good shape, and the offense can score in bunches, but the rest of the defense … phew. That’s where there is still a lot of work to be done.

Williams’ presence has given Dallas the chance to at least add some variance and disruption up front, which can help the porous secondary. His presence alone hasn’t been enough. The Cowboys are still one of the worst defenses in the league and just made the hapless Vikings offense look like a top unit on Sunday. Their group of corners and safeties need to get better or else it won’t matter how much pressure Williams and the rest of the defensive line get. They’re still allowing too many chunk plays that make it difficult even for one of the best offenses in the league (which needs to re-sign George Pickens; Jones has given every indication he plans on it) to keep pace with what they’re giving up on the other side.

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[Get more Cowboys news: Dallas team feed]

At the very least, Jones has left the Cowboys in a flexible spot to upgrade significantly in the offseason, given he still has an extra 2026 first-round draft pick in his back pocket from the Parsons trade. Whether or not the Cowboys package their extra first into something else remains to be seen, but they have the draft assets to stay flexible. They currently have major salary cap issues, ranking 32nd in projected cap space for 2026, according to Spotrac, with a figure of -$36 million. But they have some easy decisions, like moving on from Trevon Diggs and Terence Steele, that can immediately give them cap relief.

Jerry Jones stumbled into a solid plan. Time to see if he can keep making moves to take advantage of a very good offense.

Chiefs almost had a blessing in disguise

A reset is not the worst thing in the world for the Kansas City Chiefs after running on fumes for the past two seasons, but it came with a huge cost when superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes went down with a torn ACL in the fourth quarter of their loss against the Chargers, which officially eliminated them from the playoff hunt.

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Mahomes had surgery to repair his ACL, and reportedly his LCL too, so he should be able to make a clean comeback, but the Chiefs clearly have major issues to address outside of him. Their offense improved, but their luck in one-score games took a major downturn, resulting in them sitting out most of January football. Even though the offense was better, it was clear that was mostly a product of having one of the greatest quarterbacks ever, and they need to restock this roster with premium talent.

Health on the offensive line was a killer for the Chiefs this year, but the talent can’t be just in the same position next year. Xavier Worthy hasn’t lived up to his first-round billing, Rashee Rice has been inconsistent and the running back room has needed a legitimate investment for several years now. It’s been said ad nauseam, but offense should not be played on this level of difficulty with a first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback in his prime.

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KC’s defense needs a blast of talent on the back end, with a shaky group of defensive backs that hasn’t panned out like the Chiefs thought they would since the first Super Bowl against the Eagles a few years ago. Steve Spagnuolo is still a great defensive coordinator, but they’re really feeling the talent strain on this unit.

This is a lot to accomplish in one offseason, but as long as they get better at just a handful of spots they’ll be back in the Super Bowl hunt next year. Mahomes should be fine. If he’s fine, the Chiefs will be fine.

Bengals still need the same things they always have

The Bengals are going to run it back with the same offensive core in an attempt to go on another Super Bowl run before this window closes. This season was filled with familiar struggles, including injuries to Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins, inconsistent play from the offensive supporting cast, and another putrid performance from the defense. Cincinnati hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2022 season and that streak will extend to another year following their official elimination at the hands of the Ravens.

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It’s undoubtedly frustrating for them to keep finding themselves in this spot, but figuring out what to do next is puzzling because they’ve attempted the plan most people would suggest.

Cincinnati has paid out big contract money for its big-time players on offense and supplemented that effort by pouring high-value draft picks into its defense. Ultimately, the Bengals have missed so many times. Their defense is littered with recent top-100 picks, including multiple first- and second-rounders, but they haven’t gotten these selections right. It’s not like they haven’t tried to take a responsible approach to stocking the defense considering where their cap allocation is going, they just haven’t picked the right players.

Fortunately, for the upcoming season, the Bengals will have a chance to really be aggressive in the offseason to upgrade their defense. According to Spotrac, they’re projected to have more than $110 million in cap space to spend. NFL free agency isn’t as robust as it used to be with big-name players hitting the open market, but the Bengals can easily find upgrades for what is arguably the least talented defense in the league.

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Spend on defense, pray for health on offense. That’s really all they can do unless they’re ready to break up their plan on offense and change things around. That probably isn’t necessary given the production they had on offense a year ago — a stroke of good fortune is really the most important thing here.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty was put on hold last weekend, with a loss to the Chargers and a torn ACL and LCL for Patrick Mahomes. Not only will the real-life playoffs move forward without the Chiefs for the first time since 2014, but the fantasy football playoffs move along without Mahomes, the first time we can say that in eight years.

So, today’s assignment was to shine a spotlight on Mahomes’ history in the fantasy football playoffs, his Decembers to Remember. The funny thing is, he hasn’t been that dynamic in the fantasy playoffs through the years. He’s been good, but usually something short of a league-decider.

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The aggregate monthly stats, while not a perfect overlap for fantasy playoff games, tell some of the story. Mahomes has a 95.8 career passer rating in December, a 7.41 YPA and 57 touchdown passes (4.68 touchdown rate) in 34 games. Those are all the lowest monthly outputs for his career. Perhaps it’s a statistical fluke, maybe it’s tied to bad weather here and there; you decide. It’s not a major step back from his career norms (7.7 YPA, 100.8 passer rating, 5.7 touchdown rate), but it’s a reduction.

Let’s go through the years of the fantasy playoffs and see how Mahomes has performed.

2018: QB3 for Weeks 14-16 (QB6, QB8, QB6)

Mahomes rarely had bad games during his breakout 2018 season, en route to his first MVP award. The Chiefs defense was pushing him to keep up that year — Kansas City had the top-scoring team in the league (565 points, the best offense in team history) but the 24th-ranked scoring defense. Throwing to peak Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce was a blast that season, and Kareem Hunt also popped at age 23. That trio combined for 37 of the team’s 66 touchdowns. The fun finally stopped in the AFC Championship Game, with the Patriots outracing the Chiefs in overtime, 37-31.

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Deshaun Watson was QB1 for the fantasy playoffs that year, Aaron Rodgers QB2.

2019: QB6 for Weeks 14-16 (QB20, QB5, QB5)

The Patriots held Mahomes to 14.9 points in Week 14, but Mahomes did his thing against the Broncos and Bears the next two weeks. He was merely the QB8 for the season, in part because he missed two games and his touchdown rate fell from 8.6% to 5.4%. All was good come playoff time, as the Chiefs rolled through the Texans, Titans and 49ers and won their first Super Bowl in the Mahomes era.

Drew Brees finished QB1 for the fantasy playoffs in 2019, collecting 12 touchdown passes against zero picks. Breakout star Lamar Jackson was QB2, and the Jameis Winston carnival slotted at QB3. Winston’s three games in this segment were joys to behold — 1,249 passing yards, nine touchdowns, eight picks. One-of-one, man.

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2020: QB8 for Weeks 14-16 (QB9, QB9, QB13)

After throwing just two picks in the first three months of the year, Mahomes had some wayward moments down the stretch, intercepted four times in this segment. Kansas City had a broken offensive line for most of that year but the tax didn’t come due until the Super Bowl, when the Tampa Bay front seven harried Mahomes into a blowout loss.

Mahomes charted as the QB3 for the full season, finishing behind Kyler Murray (imagine that) and Josh Allen. Allen, Jackson and Jalen Hurts scored the best in the fantasy playoffs that season.

2021: QB3 for Weeks 15-17 (QB2, QB5 QB8)

The longer season didn’t hold Mahomes back, as he rolled up 927 passing yards and eight touchdowns in the fantasy playoffs. Kelce and Hill both had nine touchdown catches that year, but I bet you can’t recall who was next on the list, catching five touchdowns. Kansas City rotated a bunch of backs that year but nobody made it to 600 yards rushing; as a result, Mahomes threw a career-high 658 times. Kansas City eventually lost in the AFC Championship game, taken down by the Bengals in overtime.

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Joe Burrow and Josh Allen nudged out Mahomes in the fantasy playoffs. For the regular season, Mahomes charted QB4, behind Allen, Justin Herbert and Tom Brady.

2022: QB1 for Weeks 15-17 (QB4, QB7, QB4)

This was one of the cleanest Mahomes seasons in fantasy, as he was the QB1 for the full season and the playoffs. And he did it despite the loss of Hill; Kelce (12 touchdown catches) and journeyman Jerick McKinnon (nine touchdown catches) helped offset the loss.  Mahomes also ran in four touchdowns that year, a personal best at the time.

Allen and Hurts were behind Mahomes on the seasonal board, while Brady and Kirk Cousins were the other podium-position quarterbacks in the fantasy playoffs. The Chiefs won another real-life championship, holding off the Eagles, 38-35.

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2023: QB16 (QB14, QB16, QB25)

This was the start of things flipping in Kansas City, as the Chiefs ranked 15th in scoring offense but second in scoring defense. Mahomes only cracked the top 10 among fantasy QBs in one of his final nine games. Lamar Jackson, Joe Flacco (from his couch to the Browns!) and Jordan Love ruled the fantasy playoffs, while Allen, Hurts and Jackson had the regular-season podium finishes (Dak Prescott was fourth).

Despite the somewhat disappointing 11-6 finish, the Chiefs got their house in order in the playoffs, winning four straight and eventually beating San Francisco in the Super Bowl, a 25-22 decision in overtime.

2024: QB7 for Weeks 15-17 (QB15, QB4, QB7)

A slog at Cleveland in Week 15 might have eliminated some fantasy managers, but if you survived that, Mahomes answered the call against Houston and Pittsburgh. The Chiefs again were carried by their defense (fourth in points allowed) over their offense (15th in points scored). Mahomes steered the team back to the Super Bowl, but the Eagles romped to a decisive win on Super Sunday.

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Jackson, Allen and Burrow held the podium for the regular season. Rookie sensation Jayden Daniels was QB1 in the playoffs, followed by Jared Goff and Jackson.

2025: QB24 in Week 15 (and injured)

Mahomes ended his first losing season with QB25 and QB24 finishes, but let’s not miss his overall success this season. He’s currently the QB2 in cumulative scoring, helped significantly by the most rushing production of his career (64-422-5).

But the competitiveness of the Chiefs was supported by the defense — the team ranks fifth in points allowed but just 15th in points scored. Kelce has started to look his age, Rashee Rice missed six games, the other wideouts were inconsistent and Kansas City had an ordinary rushing game all year.

The Chiefs have a lot of difficult questions to answer as they enter an uncertain offseason.

Just a few weeks after his wild botched field-goal attempt, Younghoe Koo is out in New York.

The Giants waived the kicker Tuesday, ending his short run with the franchise this season. Koo spent five games with the Giants, and marked the third kicker the team has used this campaign.

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While a waived kicker isn’t the biggest news, especially for a Giants team with a 2-12 record that is currently on pace to receive the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft next spring, Koo’s exit came just weeks after a ridiculous missed field-goal attempt.

Koo, in the first half of the team’s 33-15 loss to the New England Patriots on Dec. 1, went to kick a 47-yard field goal. He completely missed the ball, and kicked just the turf instead. Holder Jamie Gillan had to scramble with it before getting tackled well behind the line of scrimmage.

It was the type of mistake rarely seen in the NFL.

“As I was driving to it, the bottom of the ball was slipping, so I pulled up on it,” Koo said after the game.

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Koo missed two field-goal attempts, both from longer than 50 yards, in the team’s 29-21 loss to the Washington Commanders on Sunday. The 31-year-old, who started the season with the Atlanta Falcons, is 6-of-9 on field goals this season and 13-of-14 on extra points.

The Giants will turn to a fourth kicker to close out the season. They had Graham Gano start the year, but had to turn to Gillan briefly due to injury.

The Giants will enter Sunday’s game with the Minnesota Vikings on an eight-game losing skid with the worst record in the league. They have already been eliminated from the playoffs for a third straight season.

Jerry Jones is at a crossroads. The longtime Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager is desperate for better defensive play, but he also understands the importance of continuity at the defensive coordinator position.

Even though Matt Eberflus has struggled mightily in his first season on the job — the Cowboys are allowing 30 points per game, the second most in the league at the moment — moving on from him would mean a fourth DC in four seasons. Dan Quinn left to become the Washington Commanders’ head coach after the 2023 season. Mike Zimmer didn’t return when the Cowboys parted ways with Mike McCarthy following the 2024 season. Then Eberflus joined Brian Schottenheimer’s staff.

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Jones was asked Tuesday on Dallas’ 105.3 The FAN if Eberflus’ job status is going to be determined by how the 6-7-1 Cowboys perform defensively over the final three games of the regular season.

“I think that should be a big criteria because these three games are vital to us,” Jones said. “We don’t play a game that’s not important to us. … But yes, how we play over these next few weeks will be a big criteria because I think, really, we’re at one of the peaks of our healthiness right now. … If we can step out there and have three good games, then I think that should go into the decision making.”

Dallas rounds out its schedule with games against the 10-4 Chargers, the 4-10 Commanders and the 2-12 Giants. The final two of those matchups are road games for the Cowboys, who now have less than a 1% chance to make the postseason, according to both NFL.com and The Athletic’s playoff simulator.

Dallas’ postseason odds took another hit on Sunday night when the Minnesota Vikings came into AT&T Stadium and dealt the Cowboys a sobering 34-26 defeat.

“In the case of Minnesota, we let their quarterback have a big day on us. That wasn’t the plan,” Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The FAN. “Could have used more pressure without a question at different times, and the result was that we let him make some pretty significant plays out there. Plus, he played pretty well.

“But seemed like we’re always saying that about these quarterbacks, some of ’em that hadn’t played as well, but when they play us, they play better. I think that’s telling, too.”

Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy bounced back from an interception on his first throw of the night to string together his second straight impressive outing during what’s been a turbulent sophomore season.

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McCarthy completed 15-of-24 passes for 250 yards, 2 touchdowns and that 1 interception. He also “griddied” into the end zone while rushing for an additional score.

He was pressured on only nine of his 26 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus, which notably lists his season completion percentage under duress at just 47%.

Blitzing helped the Cowboys cause McCarthy’s game-opening pick, but Dallas once again appeared to drift away from its pressure packages as the night wore on.

To Jones’ point, McCarthy is the latest quarterback to enjoy head-scratching success against the Cowboys. Giants QB Russell Wilson threw for 450 yards and three touchdowns against Dallas before his benching earlier this season. Jets QB Justin Fields was sat down this year as well, except not before he sliced and diced Dallas for 283 yards and a pair of scores through the air. Jacoby Brissett, replacing the injured Kyler Murray for the Cardinals, lit the Cowboys up with 261 yards and two touchdowns passing during a “Monday Night Football” win — the Cardinals’ lone victory since Week 2.

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No team has given up more passing yards per game (254.8) or passing touchdowns per game (2.21) than the Cowboys this season.

“So candidly, to just be very upfront about it,” Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The FAN, “I think if we could have gotten this defense in better shape earlier, we could be sitting here with the kind of wins that would’ve not had us in this tight spot.”

What Jones described as a “hodgepodge” of injury-related issues has certainly made Eberflus’ life harder. Even so, Jones expected more from a group he’s made over with a pair of high-profile trades, the first of which sent away star edge rusher Micah Parsons and brought in three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark. The next added fellow three-time Pro Bowl DT Quinnen Williams before the deadline.

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Still, slowing opponents on the ground has remained difficult for Dallas on occasion. Against the Vikings this past Sunday, the Cowboys didn’t generate the pressure they needed.

With a potent offense, Dallas has been held back by its deficiencies on the other side of the ball. Jones is well aware and trying to fix the issue — a solution could come at the expense of the staff continuity he desires.