Many of the biggest names on the head coaching market came up when the Dallas Cowboys and former head coach Mike McCarthy agreed to part ways.
Dallas could have gone after Deion Sanders or Pete Carroll, or lured Bill Belichick from North Carolina. The Cowboys also could have gone after coaches with recent head coaching experience such as Robert Saleh or at least someone such as Leslie Frazier, who has prior head coaching experience in the last 15 years.
Instead, the Cowboys promoted from within for a new head coach from a family with a legendary football name. That’s new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who previously served as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator from 2023 to 2024.
The son of late Hall of Fame candidate head coach Marty Schottenheimer, Brian Schottenheimer has much to live up to besides coaching “America’s Team” now. Marty Schottenheimer had a 200–126–1 career record as a head coach, and he won NFL Coach of the Year once in 2004 and AFC Coach of the Year twice in 1986 and 2004.
The Kansas City Chiefs chose him for the franchise’s Hall of Fame for his successful 10-year tenure that included a deep playoff run in 1993 with Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. The late coach was named a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame class for 2025.
Whether or not Brian Schottenheimer can follow suit remains an unknown, which many Cowboys fans moaned over via social media. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones turning to a first-time head coach hasn’t sat well overall with the fan base since the team made the hire official on Friday.
Schottenheimer coached under his father multiple times as an assistant with the Chiefs in 1998, then-Washington Redskins in 2001, and then-San Diego Chargers from 2002 to 2005. A former Florida quarterback, Schottenheimer has served as a position coach, offensive assistant, or offensive coordinator in the NFL or major college football since 1997.
While Schottenheimer has already worked with the Cowboys offense, he didn’t call plays under McCarthy in 2024. That said, Schottenheimer coordinated an explosive Cowboys offense in 2023 that averaged 29.9 points per game, and he led a Seattle Seahawks offense in 2020 that put up 28.7 points per game.
Schottenheimer has successfully worked with numerous top quarterbacks along the way, including Cowboys star Dak Prescott. The Cowboys had a career year from Prescott in 2023 when he threw for 4,516 yards and 36 touchdowns versus nine interceptions.
Schottenheimer also helped develop Drew Brees with the Chargers, which included a Pro Bowl appearance, two seasons of more than 3,500 passing yards, and two seasons with 24 or more touchdowns.
Former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson also elevated his game with Schottenheimer from 2018 to 2020 amid 3,923 yards and 35 touchdowns per season in that span.
Not every offense and quarterback turned out that well for Schottenheimer, who coordinated a league-worst offense with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021. He had Trevor Lawrence as a rookie quarterback, and the team averaged 14.9 points per game.
Schottenheimer’s offenses from 2006 to 2014 were all 13th in the league or worse except for the 2010 New York Jets, which were eighth for scoring. Since then, his offenses have been top-10 with the exception of 2024 when the Cowboys finished 17th amid injury.
Jones has hired first-time head coaches often in his tenure. With 10 head coach in Cowboys history, Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Dave Campo, Jason Garrett, and Chan Gailey were all first-time NFL head coaches. Johnson build the 1990s dynasty, Switzer added to the dynasty with one Super Bowl win, but the rest of fallen short in the past 29 years.
Time will tell if Jones made a strong hire in Schottenheimer that will move the team closer to a Super Bowl win for the first time in nearly three decades or if it turns out to be a mistake as many fans are viewing it at the moment.
