Assessing Jerry Jones' decision to hire Brian Schottenheimer as Cowboys HC

A former backup quarterback behind Danny Wuerffel at Florida under Steve Spurrier, Schottenheimer got his start in the NFL immediately out of college. He started his well-traveled coaching career as a coaching assistant in St. Louis before taking the same job under his father, Marty Schottenheimer, in Kansas City. The next two years saw him coach wide receivers at Syracuse and tight ends at USC before returning to the NFL to coach quarterbacks in Washington. He then coached quarterbacks for four years in San Diego before earning his first offensive coordinator gig for the Jets.

After six years in New York, Brian Schottenheimer decided to leave for the same job in St. Louis. He left St. Louis after three years to take the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coaching job under Mark Richt at Georgia. Following Richt’s dismissal, Schottenheimer returned to the NFL as the Colts quarterbacks coach in 2016, staying for only two years before getting his next coordinator opportunity with the Seahawks. Despite relative success in Seattle, Schottenheimer was fired due to “philosophical differences.” He rebounded for a year as passing game coordinator in Jacksonville before arriving in Dallas in 2022.

His first year in Dallas was simply as a consultant, but he was quickly promoted to offensive coordinator when Kellen Moore was dismissed. While he inherited an offense that finished third in scoring and 10th in yardage in 2022, the Cowboys finished as the top scoring offense with the fifth-most yards in Schottenheimer’s first season as the team’s OC. This year’s offense finished 21st in scoring and 17th in total yards, but it’s important to note that Schottenheimer did not call plays during his tenure in Dallas.

Schottenheimer’s history as a playcaller has been rocky. In stints with the Jets, Seahawks and Jaguars where he called plays, Schottenheimer was often criticized for conservative play-calling. The “philosophical differences” in Seattle was externally perceived as a limitation of Russell Wilson‘s athletic and improvisational style with questionable play-calling.

Schottenheimer’s hiring after a quick, short interview process continues what’s been a questionable string of decisions by owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones. While Schottenheimer could certainly work out in the job, Jones’ seemingly lazy handling of the decision not to extend Mike McCarthy‘s contract is a continuance of inaction that saw over-inflated extensions for quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb as a result of rising market costs from extensions that got done earlier. Jones’ tendency to wait on important decisions continues to limit the team’s options and handicap its leverage in negotiations.

In addition to news about the head-coaching hire, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has reported that the team has homed in on former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus as their prime candidate to serve as defensive coordinator under Schottenheimer. Some beat reporters for the team mistakenly reported that Eberflus had been hired to the position, but as Ed Werder of ESPN notes, they are required to conduct interviews before making the final decision to hire a candidate. 

Regardless, at 51 years old, Schottenheimer gets his first NFL head-coaching job, becoming the 10th head coach in the franchise’s storied history. Schottenheimer follows some big names for the position in Dallas, and expectations will be for him to turn around a franchise that has seen continued regular-season success but has not been to an NFC Championship Game in 30 years, the longest such drought in the conference.