Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images Brian Schottenheimer’s coaching staff is objectively impressive. The Dallas Cowboys have finalized their first coaching staff under Brian Schottenheimer, and it’s a group that’s received plenty of praise. Schottenheimer plans to call offensive plays, but he filled out his offensive staff with coaches that come with strong track records for player development and also bring unique schematic backgrounds to the table. Elsewhere, Schottenheimer went with experience. Matt Eberflus didn’t work out as a head coach, but his run as the Colts defensive coordinator was really strong, and his Bears defenses were always stout. At special teams, Nick Sorensen has experience in addition to having also been a defensive coordinator. Both coaches will allow Schottenheimer to focus more directly on coaching the offense, similar to the structure Mike McCarthy had with Dan Quinn (and later Mike Zimmer) and John Fassel. What’s lost in all of these staffing decisions, though, is one key factor, and it’s something that separates Schottenheimer’s staff from the rest of the crowd: he chose quality over connections. The NFL is known to be a good ol’ boys league, where coaches get jobs more so because of their connections than whether or not they’re actually good. We saw this most recently with the Sean McVay effect after the Rams saw success under McVay, and some could argue it’s why Schottenheimer has stuck around in the league as long as he has. Whether or not that’s true, Schottenheimer did not take that same approach to building his coaching staff. With his staff completed at 18 total coaches, there are just five coaches who have previously worked with Schottenheimer. Two of those coaches are holdovers from the McCarthy staff: Steve Shimko, who was promoted to quarterbacks coach and had worked with Schottenheimer at both Georgia and Seattle, and tight ends coach Lunda Wells. The other three coaches are Sorensen, his assistant Carlos Polk, and defensive pass game coordinator Andre Curtis. Polk only has one year of crossover with Schottenheimer – the 2021 season in Jacksonville – but that also saw him assisting Sorensen, making that more of a Sorensen hire than Schottenheimer simply bringing in someone he knows well. That’s similar to Curtis, who was there for all three years of Schottenheimer’s years with the Seahawks but also served on Eberflus’ Bears staff, making that more of a reunion with the new defensive coordinator. Speaking of Eberflus, the decision to bring him in as defensive coordinator felt obvious to some because of his ties to the organization. That said, Schottenheimer and Eberflus have never been part of the same staff and have no obvious connections. It would be naïve to suggest Jerry Jones didn’t play any part in bringing Eberflus back to Dallas, but Schottenheimer’s willingness to embrace it – despite knowing a ton of other coordinator candidates from his various experiences – speaks volumes about what he was looking for. This is even more apparent on the offensive side of the ball. Klayton Adams offers plenty of reasons to be excited, but he has zero ties to Schottenheimer. The additions of wide receivers coach Junior Adams and offensive line coach Conor Riley were also out of left field, having no real connection to Schottenheimer or anyone on staff, but rather just being good coaches getting hired because of their merits. The same can be said of pass game specialist Ken Dorsey, a former coordinator who brings plenty of valuable expertise and insight into the room. Dorsey has just over a decade of coaching experience but no ties to Schottenheimer or Adams. The closest you can get to a connection is that Dorsey was QB3 for the 49ers in 2005 under new offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy; that’s really it. Schottenheimer built his staff in much the same way Abraham Lincoln built his presidential cabinet: rather than filling it with party loyalists, as was the tradition, Lincoln sought a diverse group of differing philosophies that would later be coined the Team of Rivals. Schottenheimer doing the same thing in Dallas is significant in today’s NFL. Take a look at the other head coaching hires, for example. Both Lions coordinators – Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn – left for head coaching jobs and filled their staffs with at least three coaches from Detroit. They also each added a couple coaches with ties to Lions head coach Dan Campbell. In Boston, Mike Vrabel reunited with longtime Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and also hired nine different coaches that worked with him on the Titans prior to his firing. And while Kellen Moore has yet to make any official hires to his Saints staff, all reports indicate that he’ll bring Brandon Staley – his former head coach with the Chargers – in to run the defense. Additionally, two of his assistant coaches in Philadelphia have been touted as frontrunners to be Moore’s offensive coordinator. This is just the way things work in the NFL; it’s more about who you know and not about how good you are. That’s why Schottenheimer’s staff, and the process by which he built it, is deserving of such respect. There’s no guarantee that this staff will work out, but Schottenheimer has at least improved his odds by seeking outside voices and infusing his coaches rooms with creativity and new concepts.

Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images Moves the Cowboys can copy from the Eagles. When you look at organizations, the Dallas Cowboys are not the Philadelphia Eagles. They operate very differently, and with the success of the Eagles, it’s hard not to get caught up in wanting the Cowboys to be more like their divisional foe. Call it frustration or call it being green with envy. Whatever it is, fans want something different. So, let’s talk about that. Let’s imagine Jerry Jones is in a cold dark room somewhere steaming over not having what the Eagles have. Pretend he wants to win really bad and would consider changing his approach to give his team a real shot. Whether that’s a hypothetical you can wrap your mind around, that’s what we’re doing today. Without getting too crazy and creating scenarios beyond disbelief, what can the Cowboys do this offseason that would give them a better chance of reaching the Super Bowl? Be active in free agency Free agency is a fickle beast. It’s not the best way to spend cap resources because more times than not, what a team pays for is not what a team gets. If a player is worth their weight in gold, they usually are retained by their original team. If their team doesn’t see it that way, that player will hit the market and go to the highest bidder. In short, free agency is a losing endeavor. That said, it has its place. Some purchases prove valuable. The goal is to make the right purchases. Last offseason, the Eagles’ three most expensive free agent acquisitions were: Bryce Huff, EDGE – three years, $51 million Saquon Barkley, RB – three years, $38 million Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, S – three years, $27 million That’s $116 million for three years of service from those players. It would equate to roughly $39 million per season, but as we know the Eagles will put a lot of that cost on their tab. When you look at what they got compared to what they paid for, this again points to the wasteful investment of free agency, even with the home run signing of Barkley included. But that’s okay. In this hypothetical, we are accepting the losses. Remember, we just want the Cowboys to try harder. And it doesn’t have to be over $100 million thrown at free agency. What about half that? What about one or two semi-pricy outside free agents to add to the roster that would address areas of weakness? If you could cut a check for a couple of those players, who would you sign? Maybe you want to blow it all on one impact player like signing WR Chris Godwin for around $25 million a year and package him with CeeDee Lamb. Doesn’t that sound delightful? Or maybe you want to spread the money around and sign Eagles DT Milton Williams for $12 per year to strengthen the interior defensive line and sign Vikings RB Aaron Jones for $6 million per year to help bolster the running game. What the Cowboys do aren’t likely to be the moves we want them to make, and most free agents signed will come with depreciation, but again, that’s fine. We know that. Right or wrong, fans just want the Cowboys to do something. Retain their own This one is also a little tricky. Every year, the Cowboys watch a new crop of free agents leave Dallas for a bigger payday elsewhere. And in almost every instance, the Cowboys were wise to let that happen. That’s not to say that players like Dalton Schultz, Tony Pollard, Tyler Biadasz, or Dorance Armstrong are bad players. They’re not. They’re solid. But the Cowboys were smart to let them walk. When you look at their cost compared to their replacements, it’s a huge amount of savings compared to what they are getting from players like Jake Ferguson, Rico Dowdle, Cooper Beebe, and Carl Lawson. But instead of just letting a player leave for an overpriced contract, why not pay the overpriced contract themselves? A player like Osa Odighizuwa is a valuable asset. He will be harder to replace than the other guys mentioned above. He should command a hefty deal worth nearly $20 million per season, but so what? Just structure it to push the cap hit into future years so it’s tomorrow’s problem. There are a handful of players the Cowboys should consider hanging on to. Chauncey Golston came on strong last year, Jourdan Lewis is coming off his best season as a pro, and let’s not forget how big of a force DeMarcus Lawrence was when he was on the field. If the Cowboys want to avoid the pitfalls of free agency, then maybe the wise thing to do is to re-up on some of their own guys instead of watching them leave and scrambling to fill the gaps. Re-sign players early The Cowboys front office is heavily criticized for waiting too long to sign their own players. The narrative is that they procrastinate and don’t have a good sense of what players are worth, which ultimately ends up costing them more in the long run. That’s a damaging accusation towards a team that claims to be about saving as much as they can so they can have more pie for others. There is an alternate universe, however, where they actually do know what they’re doing and where agents won’t allow their clients to be undercut just because a team wants to move early. And while most moves happen when they’re supposed to happen, in this hypothetical we want the Cowboys to act with a greater sense of urgency. What this means is the Cowboys should play DaRon Bland’s asking price right now. Whatever it is, just do it. It will have the appearance of saving money because it’s early. If they want to keep Jake Ferguson, better do it now before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2026. And what about Brock

Eric Hartline-Imagn Images Micah Parsons wants to see the Cowboys be aggressive in free agency. Once upon a time the Dallas Cowboys were an aggressive team in free agency. That came to an end, though. Any idea that the Cowboys will pounce on this, that or the other player is generated only by national narratives and not by anyone who has been paying attention since Brand Carr’s deal back in 2012 spooked this front office. The Cowboys have been relatively silent in free agency for over a decade now and have chosen to focus on building primarily through the NFL draft. It goes without saying that this method can be effective in building a championship-winning team, but in looking across the NFL, and specifically at its new champions in the Philadelphia Eagles, you would have a difficult time arguing against the merits of free agency. This is how Cowboys fans feel for the most part, and that group also includes a member of the team, Micah Parsons. Parsons spoke on Thursday and noted that he wants to see the Cowboys be more aggressive in free agency and even used the phrase “call to action.” From the Fort Worth Star Telegram’s Nick Harris: Historically inactive with the big players in free agency, the Cowboys seem destined for a similar approach this offseason after Jerry Jones’ comments in New Orleans last week that he sees this offseason to be “in line” with others. However, Parsons is hoping that Jones and the front office finds some aggression in adding talent to the team around him. “The talent is there, we just got to be aggressive the same way [other teams] did,” Parsons said. “I don’t want to sit back and watch other [teams] build and build and us stay the same. Definitely some call to action. I want to see us become aggressive and get some players that will come in and make an impact. I want to see us bring back our own players, that’s just as important. Let’s see what we can do there.” Perhaps the most notable line of Parson’s entire thought is that he doesn’t want to sit back and watch other teams build and build while the Cowboys stay the same. Dallas has been the very last team to sign an external free agency multiple times in the last handful of years. Again, nobody is calling for the Cowboys to go for broke (“all in” if you will) and act irresponsibly. But the idea that they cannot afford to spend or cannot make moves to adjust things is falling on deaf ears these days. People are sick of it and watching the Eagles win another Super Bowl only adds to that frustration. Something that the Cowboys could potentially use as justification for not being active in free agency is the pending contract for Parsons. For what it’s worth, Parsons noted there is no real update there. “There’s been no progress,” Parsons said on an extension. “But I’m pretty confident something will happen. We’ll see.” The offseason kicked off with Parsons meeting with Jerry Jones at the Cotton Bowl to talk about a variety of topics. As the two grow closer professionally, Parsons is confident in what is ahead. “I really have a lot of respect for Jerry,” he said. “We have great conversations all the time. There’s definitely a plan in place to see how everything plays out.” Fans all around the world, along with the best player on the team, are calling for the Dallas Cowboys to wake up and get in on the same game that everyone else is playing. Will they listen?

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images The latest Dallas Cowboys buzz heading into the weekend. Projected price tag for Cowboys breakout free agent revealed – Koby Skillern, Sports Illustrated Jerry Jones and the Cowboys may have to write a pretty large check if they want to bring back Osa Odighizuwa for the 2025 season and beyond. Odighizuwa couldn’t have picked a better time to break out, doing so in his contract year. With a relatively weak defensive tackle class in free agency, teams are primed to open their checkbooks for one of the few standout stars available at the position. Marcus Mosher for the 33rd Team predicted “This Year’s Mega Contacts” and Osa Odighizuwa cracked the list Odighizuwa is projected to earn a whopping three-year, $63 million contract. “Look for Odighizuwa to earn a contract worth at least $20 million per season. Given the lack of depth at defensive tackle in free agency, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he earned significantly more,” Mosher wrote. “We saw Christian Wilkins sign a deal worth upwards of $27 million last year, and Odighizuwa is younger and far more durable.” Dak Prescott: ‘It’s our turn, it’s on us’ to win a Super Bowl – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com Dak Prescott reflected on the Super Bowl-winning division rivals and believes that the Cowboys are within reach. While some would say there’s a gap between where the Eagles and Cowboys are at, Prescott thinks that Dallas is “very close” to winning a Super Bowl of their own. “I feel like we compete with the Eagles and beat them, for the most part, when we play them.” Prescott said at the reveal of models for the 2025 Children’s Cancer Fund gala on Tuesday. “I don’t want to say ‘check the record’ when they’re the guys holding the trophy right now, so credit to them. They earned it and they deserve it, by all means, but yea, very close.” In his nine year career, Prescott is 9-4 against the Eagles, but it’s an accomplishment that is hard to celebrate considering the Cowboys haven’t made an NFC championship game in 30 years, the longest drought in the NFL. In 2024, the Eagles beat the Cowboys by a combined 75-13 margin with Prescott nursing his hamstring injury. With all of that in mind, Prescott knows that if Dallas wants to end the drought and reign above the NFC again, the responsibility falls solely on them. “To see [the Eagles do it] in such a dominating fashion, credit to them,” Prescott said on Philadelphia’s Super Bowl win. “It’s our turn, and it’s on us.” 2025 NFL offseason: Free agency, draft questions for all 32 teams – NFL Nation reporters, ESPN Todd Archer of ESPN outlines what needs to happen for the Cowboys in order to be contenders in 2025. How do the Cowboys close the gap on the Eagles? Brian Schottenheimer will look to do what only Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, Bill Parcells and Wade Phillips did in Cowboys history: get to the playoffs in his first season as head coach. The health of key players (quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, cornerback Trevon Diggs) is a must, but the Cowboys will have to do more than just hope for improvement from within and the draft. They will need a proven pass rusher opposite Micah Parsons, a No. 2 receiver opposite Lamb and help on the offensive line. They need to keep some of their own (Osa Odighizuwa, Jourdan Lewis) and be surgical in free agency. A quick reminder: The NFC East has not had a repeat champion since 2003-04. — Todd Archer Trevon Diggs injury update provided by fellow Cowboys defensive star – Josh Sanchez, SI.com Trevon Diggs update via Micah Parsons. There were reports that Diggs could miss all of the offseason workouts and potentially part of training camp, and now we have an injury update from fellow defensive star Micah Parsons. “He had a successful surgery. I talked to him, and he’s doing real well. He’s in Dallas and he’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to do,” Parsons said, via Patrik Walker of DallasCowboys.com. “He’s the ultimate competitor. He knows when he comes back, and he’ll be back real soon, he’ll be great. “It’s just all about regaining stability and resting.” Diggs, a key defensive player for the Cowboys, has been a cornerstone of the team’s secondary since his breakout season in 2021. Known for his ball-hawking skills, Diggs has earned two Pro Bowl selections and established himself as one of the top cornerbacks in the league. Having Diggs return to the field will be key for the Cowboys secondary for the 2025 season, and hopefully he can return to his top form and avoid another injury setback.

Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Will Johnson is a name to keep an eye on. Just a little over two months stand between the Dallas Cowboys and the 2025 NFL Draft. Dallas has plenty of work to do in that time period as they’ll need to fill plenty of holes on their roster before the draft kicks off on April 24th. Draft talk is in full swing, and many predictions and projections are already being made about which players fit or don’t fit with different teams. With that theme in mind, earlier this week, Bleacher Report published a “Poor Landing Spots for Top 10 2025 NFL Draft Prospects.” The Cowboys were mentioned as the “worst fit” for one of the top 10 prospects. Shockingly, the player they were linked to was Michigan cornerback Will Johnson. Here’s what they had to say about the former Wolverine’s polarizing draft stock. Much like former Wolverines teammate Mason Graham, Will Johnson’s profile generally isn’t viewed as favorably as it was entering the season, even though little has changed in regard to his skill set and status. One big difference does exist between those two, though. Turf toe cost Johnson all but six games this season. Fortunately, turf toe isn’t a lingering concern and shouldn’t affect his status for the 2025 campaign. As such, a team searching for an excellent cover corner should look toward the 21-year-old. Because of the injury and the fact he hasn’t been on the field in over four months, he’s being slept on to a degree despite his previous draft standing. That being the case, Johnson may experience a draft-day slide, especially if he’s not able to put together a strong workout prior to the draft. The biggest concern for him at this juncture is that he’ll take a tumble, thus going lower than expected and signing a smaller rookie contract. Based on his play, Johnson is worthy of being a top-10 selection. Naming Dallas as the worst fit for the talented cornerback makes no sense for various reasons. One, the Cowboys cornerback room is very thin, including veteran Trevon Diggs, who could miss at least half the regular season with a knee injury. Two, you could make a solid argument that cornerback is one of the three most significant positions of need the Cowboys must address this offseason. Even if they do bring back veteran slot corner Jourdan Lewis, Dallas still needs another starting-caliber cornerback to play alongside DaRon Bland. Contrary to Bleacher Report’s belief, Johnson and the Cowboys are actually a great fit. The talented cornerback would give Dallas a reliable option to start in place of Diggs while he comes back from his injury and could prove to be extremely valuable if the veteran struggles or is injured again once he returns. If Will Johnson slips a bit and is on the board at pick 12, the Cowboys would be wise to seriously consider making him their selection.

Tim Heitman-Imagn Images It will be interesting to see if the Cowboys bring Cooper Rush back in 2025. The 2025 offseason is well underway for the Dallas Cowboys, who’ve just gone through a sweeping change in their coaching staff. But the moves that really get us excited, in good and bad ways, come when they start dealing with the players. Over the next two weeks, we’ll get you ready for this year’s potential roster changes with our position preview series. Today, we start at the top with the quarterbacks. While movement may be relatively slow here compared to other positions, its importance and spotlight will still command attention. Given that Cooper Rush started 13 games in the last three years, and with Prescott turning 32 this spring, how Dallas handles its backup spots will be a significant talking point. Under Contract Dak Prescott, Will Grier Potential Departures Cooper Rush, Trey Lance As far as Cowboys’ offseason topics go, the quarterback position is an odd one. While there’s no question who the starter will be, Dak Prescott is coming off a down year and still has the biggest contract in NFL history. It keeps him in constant conversation, whether on how his play will affect the team on the field or how his money will affect other offseason business. For better or worse, the Cowboys are still married to Prescott for at least a couple more seasons. 2027 is the first year that offers significant salary cap relief if Prescott is released, and that’s only if they don’t do any restructuring to the deal between now and then. So for all the debates about Prescott’s ability to win or which tier of NFL passers he falls on, it doesn’t change that he’s QB1 in Dallas for now. The more tangible uncertainty comes further down the depth chart. Cooper Rush and Trey Lance are both approaching unrestricted free agency, leaving Will Grier as the only other passer currently signed for 2025. We know Dallas is fond of Grier, but enough to make him the next man up should Prescott suffer another injury? That would seem brazen given how often they’ve had to turn to Rush in recent years. There’s also the question of when the Cowboys start planning for life after Prescott. The Lance trade was the first forward-thinking move we’ve seen at quarterback during his tenure, albeit without the desired results. Now that the organization appears disinterested in Lance, do they look to add a new prospect from this year’s draft class, or some other source, to the QB pipeline? Free Agency Other than potentially re-signing one of their own in Rush or Lance, the Cowboys aren’t likely to do much here. Top names on the market like Sam Darnold and Justin Fields will be looking for starting opportunities or at least competitions. Maybe you consider guys like Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota as upgrades for QB2, but will Dallas spend more for it? They both made nearly double what Rush did in 2024. Another thought; will Brian Schottenheimer, Klayton Adams, and Steve Shimko like a chance to work with Trey Lance for a year? Maybe Mike McCarthy was part of the problem as to why Lance didn’t find traction in Dallas. If the front office agrees, perhaps they give Lance a one-year deal to return and see what happens. You know they’d love to feel like they got more for that fourth-round pick, even if it was just a solid backup. 2025 NFL Draft Outside of trading for Lance two years ago, the only other investments Dallas had made at QB during Prescott’s run were drafting Mike White (fifth round) in 2018 and Ben DiNucci (seventh round) in 2020. These were at very different points in Prescott’s career with only the backup job in view. It would be perfectly reasonable for the Cowboys to take a different approach now. Prescott’s entering his 10th year and, more concerningly, has missed significant portions of three of the last five seasons. While it’s a little too early to compare him to Tony Romo in 2016, we’re far enough down that road that having a potential replacement in the wings is worth considering. This is a weak QB class overall in 2025, so maybe it’s not the year to strike. The Cowboys have so many other needs throughout the roster that they should probably focus on stronger position groups and save QB for a better class. But you never know how Will McClay’s crew might feel about a certain prospect, and if the value presents itself on Day 3 then it’s certainly possible that they’ll get them into the system. Final Thoughts As it should, your opinion of Dak Prescott drives most of your overall feelings regarding the QB position and even the team as a whole. For those who’ve given up on him, this isn’t going to be a fun offseason. And even if you still believe that he can be the starter for a contender, there’s no denying that the Cowboys will have to do some significant work to put sufficient talent around him. When it comes to those offseason tasks, figuring out QB2 is no small matter. Re-signing Rush seems the most likely move for both price and continuity, but he should have some suitors in free agency given his win-loss record. Whether Dallas looks to him or another seasoned veteran, or goes younger with Lance or a drafted rookie, may tell us something about their perceived shelf life for Prescott.