Troy Aikman has offered his endorsement for Brian Schottenheimer.
The Dallas Cowboys have finally put their head coaching search to an end on Friday evening by announcing Brian Schottenheimer. Despite the rumors of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, and even former Cowboys great Jason Witten being the next guy, it came down to Schottenheimer and Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who coveted the job as well.
The official introductory press conference for Schottenheimer was on Monday. However, Hall of Famer and former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman gave his thoughts on Schottenheimer taking over as head coach before he was hired.
Well, I like him a lot. I’m familiar with Brian, of course, we go back a little bit, back when he was coaching for his father. He was on the staff with the Chargers, with Hudson Houck. And I had some conversations with him, many years ago, about some offensive philosophy and things of that nature. And, you know, he goes to Seattle. He was the offensive coordinator there. I thought a lot of him when he was with the Seahawks. And then, of course, with Dallas, his role has been a little bit different.
But I like him a lot. Heck of a guy. Been around coaching, of course, his entire life, with his father, Marty. And beyond that, I don’t know that a lot of people know a lot about him. In the last couple of days is when I heard his name being mentioned. That’s probably like most people, and he’s kind of emerged as the dark horse.
Schottenheimer was with the Seattle Seahawks for three seasons (2018-2020). They finished 18th and 17th overall offensively in his first and third seasons there, but he did get them to as high as eighth in total offense in 2019. Former Seahawks and current Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson had two of his top three seasons in terms of passing yards and his top two seasons when it came to passing touchdowns in Schottenheimer’s offense.
Over the past three years, Schottenheimer has been with the Cowboys organization. He was a coaching analyst the first year, and the last two he spent as the offensive coordinator, by title if anything since former head coach Mike McCarthy was calling the plays. That has also allowed Schottenheimer to be around quarterback Dak Prescott a lot, and he’s on record saying that he likes the creativity Schottenheimer could bring to Cowboys offense.
Schottenheimer has been in positions of power before, so to speak. Being the head coach of an organization is an entirely different animal, and then when factoring in having to deal with Jerry and Stephen Jones, Schottenheimer will have a lot to overcome. Things that are working in his favor are his energy, which can be infectious, and the possibility of moving away from the generic scheme of McCarthy to more of an offense that will be more innovative.
One thing is for certain, Schottenheimer’s time as Cowboys head coach will be interesting.
