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Cowboys Outline Winning Strategy Under Brian Schottenheimer

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Adam Schultz | Last updated Jun 11, 2025 9:06 AM ET

Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer has given a hint of how he wants his team to play in 2025.

He wants his unit to play a tough, physical brand of football and control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The free agency additions and draft selections all help with that.

But as minicamp begins and the details of Schottenheimer's offense come to light, he knows it starts with the most essential thing that determines a team's success.

“It starts with taking care of the football,” Schottenheimer said. “It's never changed, you got to win the turnover battle, own the line of scrimmage, attack with your playmakers and you have to be multiple. The best way to win in this league is to take care of the football, have an incredible set of offensive and defensive linemen to control the game, then we have some really good pieces.

"We have to move those pieces around and make them hard to find. If we can make them have any indecision at all about what's potentially coming as a blitz or as a formation run, if we have any advantage because they're not sure and they're confused, then that's good for us.”

So those are the three key areas the Cowboys will be focusing on this offseason, and with a desire to run the football, establishing the line of scrimmage is a big point of emphasis here.

Plus, having CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens as a tandem for Dak Prescott will make his life easier in the passing game, and using shifts and motions will help open up advantageous opportunities for the offense.

Defensively, having Micah Parsons, Dante Fowler Jr., Marshawn Kneeland, Sam Williams, Payton Turner, and Solomon Thomas to rotate along the defensive line, being multiple will see them line up at different spots and make the offense unsure of what's coming and from where, disguising packages to look like one thing, but are something else.

Granted, wanting to do this is great, but executing it in the regular season is another thing entirely.

However, we've just gotten the blueprint for how Schottenheimer's Cowboys will win games of football in 2025.

And it starts with three key things.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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