Dallas Cowboys Officially Name Brian Schottenheimer Head Coach
The Dallas Cowboys are going with an in-house candidate to replace head coach Mike McCarthy. It comes in the form of offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.
Per NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, a team official notes that the deal is done. An introductory press conference has been scheduled for Monday at 11 AM local time. The Cowboys later made it official.
Initially, Schottenheimer just didn’t seem like a realistic candidate for the opening. Most figured that Dallas would go outside of the organization for a fresh face to replace the end of McCarthy’s stale tenure in Big D. Instead, Jerry Jones went against the grain once again.
Schottenheimer became the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator back in 2023, leading the league’s top-scoring offense. This unit took a major step back in 2024, finishing 21st in scoring. Injuries to quarterback Dak Prescott and Co. played a role in the regression we saw. It played a role in Dallas finishing with a disastrous 7-10 record after opening the season with Super Bowl aspirations.
The 51-year-old Schottenheimer does have a wealth of experience. He began his coaching career with the then-St. Louis Rams back in 1997 as an assistant.
He has served as offensive coordinator for the New York Jets (2006-2011), St. Louis Rams (2012-2014) and Seattle Seahawks (2018-2020). In his 14 years as a coordinator, Schottenheimer-led offenses have not enjoyed consistent success. That includes five top-1o scoring offenses, but only two have finished within that range in total yards.
The interesting dynamic here is that one report suggests Schottenheimer was the favorite of Jones’ son, Stephen Jones, the current CEO of the Cowboys.
The older Jones was seemingly angling for a splash hire such as Hall of Famer Deion Sanders. He had talked to Deion the night Dallas decided to move off McCarthy after a half-decade in that role.
Either way we spin this, the Cowboys better ace this hire. They now boast the longest NFC Championship Game drought after the Washington Commanders punched their ticket to Sunday’s title game last week. The last time Dallas was in the title game, Deion was starring for them following the 1995 season.
The hard work now starts for Schottenheimer and Dallas. They have fallen behind top-end contenders in the conference. In fact, two chief division rivals in that of the Commanders and Philadelphia Eagles are set to take on one another in the NFC Championship Game Sunday.
