Blogging The Boys
Dallas Cowboys head coaches have had all sorts of first seasons across franchise history.
Brian Schottenheimer, the Cowboys’ rookie head coach, is the tenth in franchise history. Like each one before him, Schottenheimer’s run starts with a unique set of circumstances. How challenging is 2025 for him compared to 1960, 1989, and other points when a newly hired coach began his time in the big chair?
It’s rare for a new head coach to inherit a good situation. Generally, it takes a bad one for the last guy to get fired or want to quit. But there are exceptions to that, and the Cowboys have had more than one instance where a coach left for reasons other than disappointing performance.
In terms of how challenging certain seasons were over others, some obstacles don’t come until the games start. Poor ol’ Dave Campo lost QB Troy Aikman and WR Joey Galloway to injuries in the first week of his inaugural season. For today’s exercise, we’re focusing more on the overall strength of the team going into the year and obstacles that were well-known before September.
From the best situations to the worst, here’s a ranking of the ten years when Dallas debuted a new head coach.
Was there any doubt which one would top the list? Switzer inherited a ready-made champion after Jimmy Johnson’s abrupt exit, fresh off two-straight Super Bowl wins. To his credit, Switzer did enough to help make it a dynasty with an NFC Championship Game appearance in his first year and then the third championship in 1995. While it quickly fell apart from there, leading to Switzer’s resignation after 1997, the team was so good that it may not have mattered who the head coach was those first few years after Johnson. Indeed, Switzer may have walked into the best situation in NFL history, not just this franchise.
While he didn’t inherit a proven winner like Switzer did, Wade Phillips benefited from Bill Parcells’ work of restoring Dallas from a laughing stock to a playoff contender. That 2007 team was arguably the best of the decade, with Tony Romo, Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware, and many others beginning their primes and Terrell Owens still playing at a very high level. The results were immediate with a 13-3 season and Dallas’ first division crown and playoff win in about a decade. The political divide with then-offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was sabotaging, especially given Phillips’ softer demeanor, but only Switzer took over a more talented, win-ready team.
Phillips and Switzer made an easy top two for this list. They’re the only coaches who took over when Dallas was either riding high or on the rise. The rest dealt with more immediate adversity, and the debate gets interesting when balancing what they had to work with the expectations they were up against.
Even as the 90s dynasty was crumbling, the pieces were still...
