The Dallas Cowboys’ extensive search for their 10th head football coach ended in their backyard when they promoted Brian Schottenheimer from the offensive coordinator spot he held under his predecessor Mike McCarthy.
Over the course of a week and a half Dallas interviewed Leslie Frazier, Robert Saleh and Kellen Moore and the job was also linked to former players Deion Sanders and Jason Witten. Instead, in Friday’s move owner and general manager Jerry Jones stayed in house with Schottenheimer, who was not the play caller under McCarthy. He was an under-the-radar candidate until his name popped up Thursday. Immediate details of his contract were not announced.
Who is Brian Schottenheimer?
The son of legendary NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer (with 205 wins, the elder Schottenheimer has the most wins of any NFL coach not to win a Super Bowl), Brian Schottenheimer played quarterback collegiately for Kansas and Florida in the early 1990s before going into coaching.
The 51-year-old started as an assistant for the Rams in 1997 and has spent most of his career in the NFL, outside three years at three different college stops (Syracuse in 1999, USC in 2000 and Georgia in 2015). His first offensive coordinator job was with the Rams in 2012-14 and he came to the Cowboys in 2022.
What did Brian Schottenheimer do with the Cowboys?
He was hired as an coaching analyist in 2022 then was promoted to offensive coordinator when Kellen Moore, the other finalist for this Cowboys head coaching job, was let go. While he was coordinator, however, McCarthy took over play-calling duties. Schottenheimer came to Dallas after one year at Jacksonville as the passing game coordinator. That was the year Urban Meyer was head coach and obviously the staff sunk after that one year.
Why was Brian Schottenheimer hired?
He’s affordable and he’ll fit the bill of not stealing the limelight from Jones. McCarthy made $8 million a year, and while immediate terms of Schottenheimer’s deal have not been released, as a first head coaching job, he won’t command a high salary. Also, he wasn’t going to say no. He had no other interviews.
This also represents some continuity. Dallas played better at the end of the year and did have an unsustainable run of injuries that their roster, as Jones constructed it, was not able to overcome. There actually seemed a chance when the season ended McCarthy would be retained, but talks with Jones went nowhere. This is the next closest thing to keeping McCarthy and ended up being much more doable in terms of ironing out details.
Also worth noting, Jones’ eight previous hires were former head coaches and/or had familiarity with the Cowboys. Dave Campo and Jason Garrett were Jones’ previous hires who had no head coaching experience but were promoted from the staff.
Who are the previous Dallas Cowboys coaches?
Tom Landry, 1960-1988
Jimmy Johnson 1989-93
Barry Switzer 1994-97
Chan Gailey 1998-99
Dave Campo 2000-02
Bill Parcells 2003-06
Wade Phillips 2007-10
Jason Garrett 2010-19
Mike McCarthy 2020-2024
Is this the most boring Dallas Cowboys hire ever? .Chan Gailey.
