Brian Schottenheimer is, apparently, a real possibility for Cowboys head coach
The Dallas Cowboys head coaching search was rocked on Monday with the sudden appearance of Brian Schottenheimer, current offensive coordinator, as the odds-on favorite to be the next head coach in Dallas. Tuesday morning brought news that the coach, who doesn’t call plays, will in fact interview for the job.
So what does this mean? Schottenheimer’s candidacy has seemingly come out of nowhere, but it suddenly feels like a very strong possibility. Let’s take a dive into Schottenheimer’s background and what his head coaching tenure might look like.
NFL royalty
As has been pointed out many, many times throughout Schottenheimer’s coaching career, he’s the son of legendary coach Marty Schottenheimer, who sits seventh all time in career wins, just 50 wins behind the great Tom Landry.
The elder Schottenheimer coached for roughly three decades with four different head coaching stints. He led the Browns for five seasons, the Chiefs for ten seasons, Washington for one season, and the Chargers for five seasons. His tenure with both the Browns and Chiefs saw at least four consecutive playoff appearances and a combined three trips to the conference championship game, though Schottenheimer never managed to win a Super Bowl.
It was Schottenheimer’s final season running the Chiefs that saw his son join the staff as an assistant. The quarterbacks coach at the time was none other than Mike McCarthy, which served to form a bond that later led to Schottenheimer finding his way to Dallas in the first place.
Schottenheimer later went on to serve on his father’s staffs with both the Commanders and Chargers before striking out on his own. The last name Schottenheimer means a lot to those who have been around for a while, and it’s played a part in the younger Schottenheimer’s career, too. Not only as it relates to connections, but Schottenheimer has been around the game quite literally his entire life.
Loads of experience
Schottenheimer has been around for a long time and gained a ton of experience. Going back to his playing days, Schottenheimer attended the University of Florida and was the backup quarterback for three years. Head coach Steve Spurrier would later refer to Schottenheimer as the assistant quarterbacks coach during that time.
After coaching quarterbacks under his father for the Chargers, Schottenheimer was named the offensive coordinator of the Jets by new head coach Eric Mangini. The Jets would go on to post winning seasons twice in three years, the final one working with Brett Favre at quarterback.
Mangini was fired nonetheless, and new head coach Rex Ryan retained Schottenheimer. The next two seasons, Schottenheimer’s ground-and-pound offense helped lead the Jets to consecutive AFC Conference Championship games, falling short both times.
Schottenheimer parted ways with the team after three years with Ryan as head coach, with the Jets wanting to embrace a more pass-happy offense for quarterback Mark Sanchez. Schottenheimer then joined the Rams as the offensive coordinator under new head coach Jeff Fisher. Schottenheimer’s first season saw career numbers for Sam Bradford, but the quarterback suffered devastating ACL injuries each of the next two years, ultimately leading to Schottenheimer’s departure.
Schottenheimer spent a year as the offensive coordinator at Georgia before taking the quarterbacks coach job with the Colts, working to reinvigorate the offense around Andrew Luck. Two years later, he was hired as the Seahawks offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll, which kicked off a three-year span wherein Seattle ranked sixth in EPA/play and ninth in offensive success rate. It also included the best years of Russell Wilson’s career, statistically speaking.
Schottenheimer was fired in Seattle, reportedly at the request of Wilson, and spent a year on the ill-fated Urban Meyer Jaguars staff before coming to Dallas as a coaching consultant. Reports indicated that he had been tapped as Dan Quinn’s top coordinator candidate when interviewing for the Broncos job, but Quinn ultimately remained in Dallas for another year, by which point Schottenheimer was promoted to coordinator in Dallas.
Familiarity with Dak Prescott, others
One of the biggest motivators for Jerry Jones in considering Schottenheimer, according to reports, is his familiarity with Dak Prescott and other players on the roster. Schottenheimer is said to be well-liked within the locker room, and his relationships with players is believed to make for a smoother transition than hiring an outside candidate.
Of course, the counterargument to this notion is that the Cowboys should have just done what it took to retain Mike McCarthy if the concern was having a coach the players like. After all, Prescott and several other players publicly voiced their support for McCarthy.
Nevertheless, Schottenheimer’s hire would likely serve as a continuity hire. This may allow the team to hold on to Mike Zimmer at defensive coordinator, as well as Al Harris and several other promising assistants on the coaching staff.
Offensive continuity
In that same vein, Schottenheimer would almost certainly be hired with the idea of offensive continuity in mind. While he didn’t call plays the last two years, Schottenheimer was heavily involved in crafting the offensive game plans with McCarthy and therefore would likely keep things more or less the same offensively.
It’s unclear if Schottenheimer, who hasn’t called plays in four seasons now, would look to call plays as a head coach or bring in someone as a coordinator to call plays for him. Either way, though, don’t expect a Schottenheimer coaching staff to introduce a ton of change offensively.
In some ways, that’s a good thing. The Cowboys finished the 2023 season second in EPA/play and third in offensive success rate, and Prescott was the MVP runner up in his lone full season running the Texas Coast offense. Even this year, with so many injuries on offense, Rico Dowdle hit 1,000 rushing yards and CeeDee Lamb topped 1,000 receiving yards for the fourth straight year despite missing the final two games.
In other ways, offensive continuity is another black mark against Schottenheimer’s candidacy. Many fans wanted McCarthy gone specifically because of his offense, which has been described as stale and overly simplistic.
The darkest of dark horse candidates
The Cowboys have already come under fire for not talking to the top names on the coaching circuit, notably Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, before they took other jobs. Promoting Schottenheimer to head coach would only further exacerbate that outrage.
The other three candidates the team has interviewed at least make some sense. Both Kellen Moore and Robert Saleh have interviewed elsewhere, while Leslie Frazier is a former head coach who’s received serious interest in previous cycles.
Schottenheimer hasn’t been requested by any team this cycle. In fact, he hasn’t interviewed for a head coaching gig since his days running the Seahawks offense under Pete Carroll. The feeling that no other team views him as head coach material is already driving fans crazy.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Schottenheimer would necessarily be a bad head coach. The Eagles’ last two hires, Doug Pederson and Nick Sirianni, were hired without interviewing anywhere else. Between the two of them, the Eagles have a 90-57-1 regular season record, 8-5 postseason record, and a Super Bowl victory. They’ve also reached the big game twice, and are one game away from making a third.
Given how bad the NFL at large is at hiring coaches, whether or not your coach was heavily pursued by other teams can’t be used as a barometer for their potential success. That said, it’s fairly unusual to hire a coach that no other team is looking at.
Almost as unusual as forcing a head coach to work into the final year of his contract.
