Blogging The Boys
Brian Schottenheimer is the new head coach of the Cowboys... and we are trying to be as optimistic as we can.
After days of speculation and a general feeling of inevitable dread from the fan base, the Cowboys made it official: Brian Schottenheimer is replacing Mike McCarthy as the head coach. Needless to say this hire is not popular among fans, and there are very few people who feel good about the process that led to this decision, as well as the decision itself.
That said, Schottenheimer is not entirely without his merits. The son of coaching legend Marty Schottenheimer, one of just seven coaches with 200 career wins to his name, Brian Schottenheimer has some positive attributes. If you’re looking for a moderate amount of copium after the news, here are four reasons why this is a good hire.
The main selling point from the moment Schottenheimer became a public candidate for the job was his standing within the locker room. The players apparently like and respect Schottenheimer, just as they did McCarthy, and Schottenheimer especially has a strong relationship with Dak Prescott.
Obviously the connection between your head coach and quarterback is important, so Prescott’s approval is a big deal. Schottenheimer has also been there for three years, with two of them playing a large role in the formation of the Texas Coast offense when McCarthy took over play-calling. Prescott’s lone full year in that scheme saw him put up the best year of his career and finish second in MVP voting.
That’s nothing new for Schottenheimer, either, as we detailed earlier. He’s been the coordinator for career years from Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, and Russell Wilson before as well. Multiple coaches around the league have described Schottenheimer as someone who gets the most out of his quarterbacks.
The Cowboys are, of course, contractually tied to Prescott for the foreseeable future and the quarterback will be coming off a season-ending injury to start 2025. Keeping some level of continuity for Prescott, and doing so with a coach he already knows and likes, is objectively a positive.
Schottenheimer has been coaching for nearly three decades at this point and worked with 10 different franchises and eight different head coaches. On top of that, he has a long list of connections by way of his father, too. When it comes to building out a coaching staff, Schottenheimer will have plenty of names to call.
Oftentimes the concern with rookie head coaches is just that: their rolodex of names is too limited. One reason that so many Bill Belichick disciples have failed in their own head coaching ventures is because their network of coaches is essentially limited to just one coaching tree. Even Sean McVay owes much of his early success to the arranged marriage of veteran coach Wade Phillips coming on as his defensive coordinator.
That won’t be an issue for Schottenheimer. He has a long...
