Late into the night, the Dallas Cowboys made an announcement of their new head coaching hire. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer has now taken over the reins, after being on Mike McCarthy’s staff over the last three years.
Fans and media have watched a weird coaching search play out since the end of the regular season. Dallas had a one-week, exclusive negotiating window with McCarthy, allowing them to deny the Chicago Bears permission to interview him despite his contract’s expiration.
It’s been said one of the reasons McCarthy walked was because Owner Jerry Jones insisted Jason Witten be part of the next coaching staff. Jones reportedly didn’t have any foresight that McCarthy would turn down his offers and walk away, and was left holding the bag, scrambling to execute a last-minute coaching search. He missed his window to interview two well-regarded coordinators, the Lions Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, during the wild-card round, as both took jobs before ever talking with Dallas.
There was a conversation, but no interview, with Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, and former NFL coaches Leslie Frazier and Robert Saleh were brought in for interviews that satisfied the NFL’s Rooney Rule. The club had a virtual interview with former assistant and current Philadelphia OC Kellen Moore, but for the past week, it’s been clear to those in the know that the team was focusing on Schottenheimer.
Frustrated with the process, fans locked in on the Jones’ obvious preference for hiring people they are already familiar with, afraid to go outside the organization for a head coach unless they had proven successful elsewhere. This clear hole in their process is seen as emblematic of the reasons it’s been three decades since the club has seen true success, unable to escape the divisional round of the playoffs, often succumbing in the wild-card round.
And for that reason, Schottenheimer is a frustrating choice for many.
Failure shouldn’t be expected; the things that make a HC successful aren’t necessarily tied into being a savant as OC or DC. The animosity is more about the fact the process in Dallas is ridiculously flawed and everyone seems to know it except for the billionaires making the decisions.
As such, social media reactions have ranged from despair, apathy, laughter and everywhere in between. Here are some of the best responses.
BlueSky
Cowboys fans this morning..
— KD Drummond (@kddrummondnfl.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM
No matter how bad things may seem for the Lions with coaches leaving things could be worse. We could be the Dallas Cowboys.
Imagine though showing this tweet to fans of both teams in the 1990s.
#Lions | #OnePride
— The Majors Detroit (@tmsnxdetroit.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Happy first full day of Brian Schottenheimer being the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys to you and yours
— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 8:57 AM
The Brian Schottenheimer Career Summary graphic is probably a bit unfair but because I feel like Brian Schottenheimer has personally made my life worse I am posting it anyway
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger.bsky.social) January 24, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Convinced that Jerry will outlive us all and continue to serve as Owner/GM in the form of Krang #NFLSKY #DallasCowboys #Cowboys
— LarussoTG (@larussotg.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 1:43 AM
We were promised Prime Time and we got Home Shopping Club. #dallascowboys
— sheridanchambers.bsky.social (@sheridanchambers.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
