After a relatively short search, the Cowboys have officially made the decision to promote offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer into the role of head coach, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Schottenheimer, 51, was one of only four candidates who interviewed for the position and will now be working his first-ever head coaching role. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that the deal will be for four years. Although this marks the second straight narrow HC search for the Cowboys, Schottenheimer was not a candidate anywhere else — and has not been for several years. He was believed to be vying for the role with OC predecessor Kellen Moore, after the likes of Deion Sanders and Jason Witten surfaced as unorthodox candidates. While Schottenheimer supplies far more experience in coaching, his hire may not be too much less surprising than a Sanders or Witten appointment would have been.
Brian Schottenheimer, the son of former standout HC Marty Schottenheimer, has been with the Cowboys for three years now. His first was simply as a consultant, but he was quickly promoted to offensive coordinator when Moore was dismissed. While he inherited an offense that finished third in scoring and 10th in yardage in 2022, the Cowboys finished as the top scoring offense with the fifth-most yards in Schottenheimer’s first season as the team’s OC.
The 2024 Cowboys offense finished 21st in scoring and 17th in total yards, though it’s important to note that Schottenheimer did not call plays during his tenure in Dallas. Dak Prescott also went down midway through the season, gutting the team’s chances at a rebound. While Prescott still stumped for Mike McCarthy to be retained, an unexpected half-measure of sorts is taking place via the Schottenheimer promotion.
This week’s two Schottenheimer interviews and steady rumors notwithstanding, it marks a stunning rise for the second-generation NFL coach. Schottenheimer has, however, been an NFL assistant dating back to the late 1990s and has enjoyed three OC opportunities in the league. He has served as an NFL OC for 11 combined seasons, doing so with the Jets, Rams and Cowboys.
A former backup quarterback behind Danny Wuerffel at Florida under Steve Spurrier, Schottenheimer got his start in the NFL immediately out of college. He started his well-traveled coaching career as a coaching assistant in St. Louis before taking the same job under his father, in Kansas City. The next two years saw him coach wide receivers at Syracuse and tight ends at USC before returning to the NFL for the Washington gig. He then coached QBs for four years in San Diego before earning his first offensive coordinator opportunity for the Jets.
After six seasons in New York, Schottenheimer received walking papers midway through Rex Ryan‘s tenure. Schottenheimer ended up as Jeff Fisher‘s first OC in St. Louis (in 2012), leaving after the 2014 season to take the same job under Mark Richt at Georgia. Following Richt’s dismissal, Schottenheimer returned to the NFL as the Colts’ quarterbacks coach in 2016, staying for only two years before scoring his next coordinator opportunity with the Seahawks. Despite relative success in Seattle, Schottenheimer was fired due to “philosophical differences.” He rebounded for a year as passing game coordinator in Jacksonville before arriving in Dallas in 2022.
Schottenheimer’s history as a play-caller has been rocky. In stints with the Jets, Rams, Seahawks, and Jaguars where he called plays, Schottenheimer was often criticized for conservative play-calling. The “philosophical differences” in Seattle was externally perceived as a limitation of Russell Wilson‘s athletic and improvisational style with questionable play-calling. That said, Wilson’s Hall of Fame case will certainly hinge on his post-Legion of Boom work in Seattle; Schottenheimer played a big part in that period of the decorated QB’s career. Criticism toward Seattle’s then-OC aside, the Seahawks ranked as a top-10 offense in each season and went 3-for-3 in playoff appearances in that span.
Any method to spin this in a positive direction, however, may be difficult due to another odd HC transition under Jerry Jones taking place. Schottenheimer’s hiring after a quick interview process continues what’s been a questionable string of decisions by the Cowboys’ owner/president/general manager.
While Schottenheimer could certainly work out in the job, Jones’ seemingly lazy handling of the decision not to extend McCarthy’s contract is a continuance of inaction that saw over-inflated extensions for Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb as a result of rising market costs from extensions that got done earlier. Jones’ tendency to wait on important decisions, as he did when waiting to drop Jason Garrett after the 2019 season, continues to limit the team’s options and handicap their leverage in negotiations.
In addition to news about the head coaching hire, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has reported that the team has homed in on former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus as their prime candidate to serve as defensive coordinator under Schottenheimer. Some beat reporters for the team mistakenly reported that Eberflus had been hired to the position, but as Ed Werder of WFAA notes, they are required to conduct interviews before making the final decision to hire a candidate. The Cowboys must meet with at least one external minority candidate before an Eberflus hire can take place.
Regardless of the unusual route the Cowboys took to make this happen, Schottenheimer becomes the 10th head coach in the franchise’s storied history. Schottenheimer follows some big names for the position in Dallas, and expectations will be for him to turn around a franchise that has seen continued regular-season success but has not been to an NFC championship game in 30 years — the longest such drought in the conference by a significant margin.
Sam Robinson contributed to this post.
