Blogging The Boys
There are not a ton of Cowboys fans who are excited about the idea of Brian Schottenheimer.
Brian Schottenheimer is the current frontrunner in the Cowboys’ search for a new head coach. After two years in Dallas as offensive coordinator, and another 25 years of coordinating and assistant coaching around the NFL and in college, Schottenheimer would bring plenty of experience to the role. But that’s far from enough to make this an inspiring choice, and it’s left even the most optimistic of fans struggling to get excited.
It’s been a wild ride since Dallas and Mike McCarthy finally announced their divorce. We started with the ideas of Deion Sanders and Jason Witten being his replacement, then came to a much more traditional prospect in Kellen Moore. But the dust appears to be settling around Schottenheimer, and even some of the biggest dissenters to those other options would prefer them now.
What makes Schottenheimer such an unpopular choice? For one, there were mixed results during his two years with the Cowboys. While they had a top-five offense and were first in scoring in 2023, there were situational struggles and they generally did not show well against their better opponents. And then, of course, this year, even before Dak Prescott’s injury, there was a significant decline in the offense’s performance.
One of the struggles is knowing where Schottenheimer’s influence ended and McCarthy’s began. When Moore left in 2023, Schottenheimer was promoted from a one-year role as a consultant to coordinator while McCarthy took over play-calling duties. A big reason for Moore’s departure was rising hostility with McCarthy over offensive strategy, so we know that he held a much bigger say in things the last two years.
Still, that shouldn’t absolve Schottenheimer from blame. He’s approaching almost 30 years of coaching and has seen it from so many angles with different franchises. He grew up in the business. Either he wasn’t performing well enough or didn’t challenge McCarthy enough. In either case, that’s not a good sign for what he’ll do with even more authority.
Frankly, it’s hard to see Schottenheimer as much else than a guy who’s gotten by on a strong last name and not rocking anyone’s boat. Being Marty’s son got him into the NFL and some early college jobs with Syracuse and USC. His hottest period as a commodity was in the mid-2000s as the Jets’ OC, when he reportedly was considered for head-coaching vacancies with the Dolphins and Ravens.
From there, it’s just been a quiet, unimpressive series of stops around football. He was Andrew Luck’s QB coach for a couple of years with the Colts, though in one Luck was injured and the other was just an average season. Then he became OC for Seattle and they had a strong first year, especially running the ball, but things declined from there with Russell Wilson’s play and the offense as a whole. He also one year in Jacksonville in the disastrous Urban Meyer situation, and that did...
