Morning After: Cowboys Hire Schottenheimer As Next Head Coach
After several weeks of mystery and chaos, the Cowboys stay in-house for 10th coach.
Bob Sturm
Jan 25, 2025
Wow. I guess they really went and did it.
The Jones Boys have hired Brian Schottenheimer as the 10th head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and there will be no more speculation.
It started with a week of “Mike McCarthy will be back,” until the coach decided he preferred to exit the scene rather than accept the terms presented.
Then, we went through three straight weeks of various hot rumors of building belief on the outside. Is it Deion Sanders? Perhaps Robert Saleh? Probably Kellen Moore when he is available, right? Then, early this week, a groundswell of support in the building itself that both Stephen Jones and Dak Prescott were really pushing for Brian Schottenheimer. There was a moment late when it perhaps stretched to Pete Carroll, but there are more than a few insiders that would tell you how unlikely it is that Carroll would be willing to take this job. Rather, more likely, an endorsement for his friend and former coordinator, Schottenheimer?
Absolutely, as he has been endorsing him for a long time.
The decision late in the game seemed to come down to two first-time head coaches who both have a very similar resume. Both are former offensive coordinators for Prescott; Moore and Schottenheimer. And in the end, it appeared that the lean was to the guy they had in their building over the current OC of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now, that could obviously be a stretched narrative, but aren’t they all around here in this moment in time? Do we really think we will every get a clear re-telling of a job search that never felt like one that was intelligent, thorough, or terribly creative?
Of course not. And if you were expecting any of those things, then you are either the most optimistic fan on your block or you have not been paying much attention.
This organization – and more importantly the man who controls every inch and dollar of it, Jerry Jones – prefers familiar and comfortable over sweeping changes and discomfort. And this is seen best in the unwillingness to offer the steering wheel or spotlight to someone new and fresh. The comfort and familiarity with dictating terms and staffs to a head coach who is generally neutered is how things are designed in Dallas and this goes all the way back to when Bill Parcells to the family to take this job and shove it.
The disconnect between the ownership family and an ambitious head coach is a tradition that we all know very well. The family does not subscribe to the autonomy of the head coach and surely showed that 30 years ago as Jimmy Johnson had somehow pushed so far that a back-to-back Super Bowl winning coach would not be respected and left alone. He would be chased off and since then, they would set the terms and eliminate any candidates that either insisted on things a certain way or didn’t have to insist because their reputations preceded them. This Cowboys job is not a fit for just about every name from elsewhere who requires the power and commitment to force change to truly occur.
Instead, because they know specifically who to hire so that everything remains comfortable and familiar, change never truly arrives at Valley Ranch or now The Star in Frisco. As we have said in this space a number of times, “nothing ever changes because nothing ever changes.” This is a top-down sport where the leadership dictates the climate of the organization. When the very top has dug in with a stubborn resolve to alter nothing and only hires slightly different versions of those who will comply, we experience slightly different outcomes from the slightly different coats of paint.
This hire feels very familiar for all of these reasons.
They were never going to hire those with leverage. You might say it is cheap and I cannot argue the oddity of frugalness of the last several years. They definitely seem to be saving their vast storehouses of money for non-football ventures these days and it is rather bizarre given how easily they could “bully the pot” at the high-stakes poker tables in the NFL anytime they please. Instead, they sit out free agency and even more oddly sit out a place where there is no salary cap at all – the coaching staff and front office.
If they wanted to, they could money-whip any number of coaches and executives they wanted and form an Avengers-level super team to attempt to make sure they had all the biggest brains working for them. They could not only employ the best coach in the league with a check, they could get the best five and assemble a staff unlike anything you have ever seen. There is no limit to the resources relative to their competition, so why be cheap in your decision-making if most in this sport will tell you that head coach is probably the most important role in the industry?
Because, to hire those who can demand salaries comes with their other demands. They can dictate terms on their roster authority, their coaching staff, the power to say what will and what will not occur “as long as they are coaching this team.”
Do coaches need this much power? Great question. It assures nothing, except the undivided attention of those they oversee. Football is not that different in its power structure than the military. If you think your superior can control your happiness, you strive to stay on his good side. If you think he can’t really touch you because he is powerless and his boss is your real superior, well, then you know why so many who have leverage decide they won’t take a job like that. A job like that offers all of the blame and only a small-part of the credit. Take too much credit and you get chased off for daring to take the spotlight away from the family that loves it so much.
So, if you demand a big salary, you are just not a palatable candidate because you also demand the authority that is required to be a big-time coach. That won’t fly here. If you require a buy-out, you are not really a candidate because then you have the ability to negotiate attractive terms about “buying groceries” and naming your staff. Why is that important? Because loyalty is everything when things go bad in football and if Jerry hires your staff for you, they are loyal to him, not you. Why would a big-time coach have interest in that?
Heck, we could argue that a coach being in demand allows them to dictate terms, so that could explain why the Cowboys often seem to be looking for coaches that no other team is pursuing. The moment two or three teams want a guy, his leverage goes up and this franchise realizes that he is no longer attractive for their job.
All of this hopefully helps folks understand why they were never really interested in the “hot names” on the coaching circuit. Those guys get to say what they would need to take this job and the money is just one of many non-starters. Power is the real currency and from Chan Gailey to Dave Campo and from Wade Phillips to Jason Garrett, this organization is not about hiring and supporting guys who have leverage to dictate terms to the Jones Boys.
Ben Johnson had too many options and so did Aaron Glenn. Mike Vrabel had options and took them before the Cowboys could even get their act together to pursue him (despite being available for a year). If you have options, you will not find the terms of this situation to your liking. Jon Gruden and Pete Carroll aren’t in for the same reasons that Bill Cowher a few coaching searches back. These guys have options and terms that are required to bring them in. They weren’t desperate enough to sign up for a place that undermines its coach at every turn. They will be blamed for everything (ask Mike McCarthy) and their legacy will be smeared the very first time they face adversity and are assured to meet it soon because the owners will not support them with actually ever being “all-in” and it will remain a massive punchline.
They might use the Cowboys to help their leverage elsewhere, but they aren’t seriously interested. They can go some place where the celebration for their hire is built around the bosses stepping back and showing the public that this man is now our full and total leader.
Get a load of how Chicago welcomed Johnson this week to see how you get him signed and get out of his way and let him get his message out to the public. This is about a new day, not another version of the same thing.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the story here. The story here is that the Cowboys operated without regard for the league’s view on who was in demand, without regard for the timeline of a proper job search, and without regard for – in any way – changing their long-standing approach to the office of head coach. They don’t believe it matters that much and they really haven’t in 30 years. The only time they hired a coach with strong and stubborn beliefs, they needed a stadium vote to be approved by the public. So, the Jones Boys decided to make a temporary arrangement with Bill Parcells that lasted as long as it took for the new stadium to get the green light. Then, before long, they were back to their ways and so were the results.
Which, of course, asks the biggest question: When the Cowboys hired Brian Schottenheimer as their head coach, when we could ask if any other team in the NFL was even considering him to be an offensive coordinator, how is anyone around here even slightly surprised?
This is as on-brand as Jerry Jones could possibly muster and the only reason I would have never guessed this Schottenheimer hire as a potential outcome is proof that I expected Jerry to someday see the light and resolve to do something different than he always has. That is on me. I still expect him to turn from his idiocy. But, to be fair, why would we blame him for doing what he has always done? Like anger at a dog for barking, what did I actually expect? What signs have we seen that suggest he doesn’t believe he is the smartest guy on his planet? He believes he is a self-made billionaire a dozen times over and you are not. He owns the Dallas Cowboys. Perhaps you have heard of them, the most valuable sports franchise on the planet every single year of valuation since 2016.
If you think that is losing, then you don’t see the world like the Jones Boys.
So, here we are almost 2,000 words into an essay about the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer without discussing the man who has finally attained what is certainly his lifelong dream of being a head coach, like his father before him.
I do regret that. It is a shame that a guy who has spent his professional career chasing a chance finally gets hired and seemingly nobody is filled with any optimism for what might lie ahead. From what I can tell, Brian knows ball at a very high level and is very well respected throughout the profession. Perhaps he can get the offensive run game squared away, find solutions for Dak Prescott, and build a culture of belief. Also, maybe in conjunction with Matt Eberflus, this group of guys can find answers that have eluded the braintrust much too often recently. It would be fun to see Brian gain some approval from the starving fanbase who has had enough.
Schottenheimer has paid his dues for a long time and has put in his 10,000 hours several times over to prove he is not just a hire because of his last name.
Of course, if he was, he would fit in as so many other Cowboys head coaches had fathers who Jerry Jones also knew personally very well. He likes familiar faces and names. He insists on familiar. So, Brian knows the deal and has been in the facility for three seasons. He understands what is allowed and what is not. He will do perfectly for this demand.
Of course, when there was concern about Mike McCarthy’s future in midseason, there was the claim by many that there was nobody attractive on the staff to even be an interim. Interesting conclusion, because Schottenheimer was standing right there. Has something changed since losing 47-9 to Detroit? Or are we being told this only happens because McCarthy decided to leave of his own accord?
It isn’t that Schottenheimer doesn’t know ball. It isn’t that he can’t be a solid hire in the right instance. But, this feels like a compliant and agreeable hire who understands that he will be a head coach if he agrees to this pay, this staff, and this amount of power. His messaging might allow him to flourish under these parameters, but I suppose flourishing here means the Garrett-era which managed to last ten compliant years, none of which included even consecutive playoff appearances.
Garrett was happy to coach like this, partly because he didn’t mind the terms and partly because he didn’t wish to go elsewhere. He earnestly wanted the Cowboys to succeed and wanting to be with the pretty girl can sometimes cause a man to agree to all sorts of terms that make his friends goof on him.
Schottenheimer might just be a newer version of Wade, Garrett, or McCarthy and we say that because the process was the same and the terms also appear to be the same. You are a coach who does not have autonomy. And you will work with a VP of Player Personnel in Will McClay who also does not have the power to act as he wishes. Together, they are asked for input, but the family will do what they want, when they want, and you can either follow the rules or head towards that door.
This is the Cowboys as we know it both today and for decades. I met a guy today that is 43 and was in middle school for the last taste of glory for his team. He is one of millions. Any belief that his favorite team was ready to look at the last 29 years and alter their narcissistic paths is again, our fault for giving the benefit of the doubt when none is earned.
In the weeks to come, we will learn more and more about what Brian Schottenheimer wants to do and whether he will be allowed to do it. I vow to give him a clean slate and a very fair chance to sell us on his vision and to be judged on his own merits. As I said, there are many in the football world that think he will do a nice job and I am willing to see what that might look like.
But, the process of the search and the logic of those running it continues to baffle. The hubris overflows.
The occupation continues. And the reality is that “Schotty” might just be the new face for blame when everyone gets tired of blaming the man who sits on the actual throne.
There are clear ways the strongest sports franchises we know handle things like power structures, resource allocation, and coaching searches and it appears the Cowboys disagree with almost all of them.
The definition of insanity is said to be doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I used to think the Jones Boys might be insane for this clear premise. Now, I kind of think they don’t want different results very badly.
They have nine straight years of their definition of sitting on top. The incentives for them to change have never been as important as that and this coaching search has done very little to convince anyone otherwise.
Perhaps we will remember that, instead of blaming the next coach who cannot win under these terms.
Good luck, Schotty.
