Brian Schottenheimer Explains Why Cowboys Haven’t Started Giants Preparation

FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys have not begun game-planning for the New York Giants, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday, 18 days before the season opener in East Rutherford.

The staff is on what Schottenheimer called cleaning the shed, and the personnel decisions in front of the building are the reason.

“Right now we’re focusing on cleaning our shed, if you will, sweeping the shed and figuring out who we want to be from an identity standpoint,” Schottenheimer said. “The personnel part of it is big for us. We don’t take any of these decisions that we have coming up lightly because they’re important decisions and they affect our football team, but also people that we love and care about. Each coach is doing a little stuff on their own for their area. But we know they’re a good football team. A ton of respect for Coach Harbaugh. That football team’s got a lot of really good players, and it’s going to be an electric deal. But that’ll start as we get into a little bit next week.”

Why Brian Schottenheimer Will Not Start Early On New York Giants

Schottenheimer has over-prepared for an opener before and ended up doing the work twice.

“Sometimes over-prepare, and that’s a real thing. And I’ve done it where, like, next week you do a bunch of the Giants stuff and then you come back and what ends up happening is you do it all again,” Schottenheimer explained. “So what’s different than what we looked at? There’s no new film to watch. There’s nothing new about that. It’s a new scheme. It’s a new defense with Dennard Wilson and Coach Nagy. And so we won’t overdo it. We’re going to focus on us first, make sure we’re in a good spot.”

What Dallas Cowboys Are Walking Into In Week 1

John Harbaugh is in his first season with the Giants after 18 years in Baltimore. He owns eight road playoff wins, the most in league history. Fifteen of the coaches he retained or hired in New York worked under him with the Ravens.

Matt Nagy runs the Giants offense. He was the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year in 2018 after his first season with Chicago and returned to Kansas City in 2022. Brian Callahan, the former Tennessee head coach, is the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Dennard Wilson is in his first year as the Giants defensive coordinator after two seasons in the same role with Tennessee. The Titans allowed 311.2 yards per game in 2024, second lowest in the league, and 177.3 passing yards per game, also second lowest.

Wilson’s 2025 Titans ranked among the top 10 in sacks per pass attempt at 8.2%, the highest rate by a Tennessee team since 2005. Chris Horton is the assistant head coach and special teams coordinator after 12 seasons on Harbaugh’s staff in Baltimore.

New York used the No. 5 and No. 10 overall picks on Arvell Reese and Francis Mauigoa in April and took wide receiver Malachi Fields in the third round. Jaxson Dart is the quarterback Callahan was hired to coach.

The NFL scheduled the opener for Sunday night. Dallas finished 7-9-1 last season and second in the NFC East.

Dallas closes the preseason against New Orleans on Friday at 7 p.m. CT at AT&T Stadium, on CBS locally. Rosters must be at 53 players by 5 p.m. CT Sunday, Aug. 30. The opener is Sunday, Sept. 13, at 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.