Here is a look at Brian Schottenheimer’s career to date.
The Dallas Cowboys are searching for a new head coach and one name that is picking up steam is Brian Schottenheimer, who has been the team’s offensive coordinator the past two seasons. Today, we’ll look at Schottenheimer’s coaching journey and how his various squads have done with him calling the plays.
Schottenheimer started coaching in 1997. He spent his first nine years in the league split up between being an assistant in the NFL, a position coach in college, and a quarterbacks coach where he worked with his father, the great Marty Schottenheimer. After five years as a QB coach, he finally got an offensive coordinator position and started calling plays in 2006.
New York Jets (2006-2011)
One might think coaching for the Jets would be a nightmare, but Schottenheimer had some success in Jersey. In six seasons with New York, he worked under two head coaches, Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan. When transitioning from Mangini to Ryan, Schottenheimer was considered for the head coaching job in New York, but the Jets opted to go with Ryan. Schottenheimer stayed on as the team’s offensive coordinator.
The Jets only had one losing season in those six years and went to the playoffs three times, twice advancing to the AFC Championship game. His quarterbacks were Chad Pennington, Brett Favre (for one season), and Mark Sanchez. Thomas Jones was his most successful running back as he put up seasons of 1,119 yards, 1,312 yards, and 1,402 yards during his three years with the Jets. Schottenheimer also had LaDanian Tomlinson for a couple of years, but he was north of 30 years of age.
The Jets had a few years where they were a strong rushing team thanks to Jones, but weren’t much of a passing threat. A big part of that was due to his lack of weapons. At receiver, the Jets had guys like Jerricho Cotchery, Laveranues Coles, Braylon Edwards, and some former Pittsburgh Steelers in Santanio Holmes and Plaxico Burress.
St. Louis Rams (2012-2014)
After six seasons with the Jets, Schottenheimer joined Jeff Fisher in St. Louis. The Rams were terrible. Fisher spent five years as the Rams head coach, all losing seasons. He was fired late in the 2016 season and replaced by interim coach John Fassel.
Schottenheimer got out after three years as the Rams didn’t have much talent around them. Their quarterback was Sam Bradford for a couple of seasons followed by a split between Austin Davis and Shaun Hill (both terrible). The rushing attack featured an older Steven Jackson, followed by Zac Stacy and Tre Mason. Their best receivers were Danny Amendola, Chris Givens, Kenny Britt, and Tavon Austin.
Just as he did with the Jets, the running game was decent while the passing game left something to be desired, but both units were a step down with the Rams. In 2015, he called plays for the Georgia Bulldogs and from 2016-2017 he was the quarterbacks coach of the Indianapolis Colts under Chuck Pagano.
Seattle Seahawks (2018-2020)
He returned to the offensive coordinator role in 2018 with the Seattle Seahawks, working under Pete Carroll. Right away the Seahawks offense moved inside the top 10 in points scored. Seattle won 10+ games in each of his three seasons with the team and made the postseason each time.
In Seattle, he had a lot more talent to work with. Chris Carson was his featured running back. He ran for over 1,100 yards in back-to-back seasons. He also had a good receiving duo featuring Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett, and then Lockett with D.K. Metcalf.
And just like his previous two stops, the Seahawks were better at running the ball than passing. They finished top 10 in rushing all three seasons and were middle of the road in passing. Despite his early success in Seattle, things flattened out during his final season. Schottenheimer failed to make adjustments and didn’t offer much creativity. He was fired after the Seahawks were bounced from the playoffs.
Dallas Cowboys (2023-2024)
After some sleepless nights in Seattle, Schottenheimer joined the Jacksonville Jaguars passing game coordinator for one season where they finished dead last in points scored. He joined the Cowboys staff as a consultant in 2022 before taking over as co-offensive coordinator with Mike McCarthy after Kellen Moore left.
In Dallas, it’s been a mixed bag. In 2023, the offense started terribly but started putting things together after their bye week. They ended up finishing as the top-scoring team in the league. They had a healthy Dak Prescott for a full season, the only instance of that over the last five years. CeeDee Lamb was a star and Brandin Cooks helped give them a nice one-two punch. This past season, the passing attack again struggled early, but it never got better largely in part due to a season-ending injury to Prescott midway through the season.
The running game wasn’t good in either year. Last year they had Tony Pollard, but he didn’t look like the same player he was before his foot injury suffered in the playoff game against the 49ers. And last year the running game was a hot mess. They didn’t know what they wanted to do early on, but then things finally started to come together later in the year when Rico Dowdle became the workhorse back.
Rankings as Offensive Coordinator
Overall, his teams weren’t very good early on as the talent with the Jets and Rams wasn’t the same as what he had with the Seahawks and Cowboys.
Schottenheimer has had good rushing teams for the most part. Sadly, his two years with the Cowboys were one of his weaker seasons.
His passing game hasn’t looked nearly as strong as he’s finished outside the top 10 in every season except one during his time as offensive coordinator. The good news is that one time was recently with the Cowboys.
What type of head coach he’d make is a big unknown, but we can get a sense of what he’ll bring to the table as the team’s top offensive mind.
