Pro Football Rumors
After the Cowboys opted not to renew the contract of former head coach Mike McCarthy, the team made what appeared to be the simplest decision and promoted offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to succeed him. According to Kevin Patra of NFL.com, even if Schottenheimer hadn’t landed the top job, he had an “agreement” with the front office to remain on the Cowboys’ staff in 2025.
While Schottenheimer was an obvious candidate for the job from the get go, the Rooney Rule requires a certain number of minority candidates to be interviewed, so other coaches were considered in Dallas. Patra recalls that Leslie Frazier, Kellen Moore, and Robert Saleh were all interviewed for the head coaching job in addition to Schottenheimer, which reflects what was covered in PFR’s 2025 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker. After the first round of interviews, though, Schottenheimer was awarded the job.
Even if Frazier, Moore, or Saleh were hired instead of Schottenheimer, he claims that he would still have ended up in Dallas last year. As the team was going through the hiring process, Schottenheimer claimed that there were “a number of teams” that were “courting” him and “trying to say, ‘Hey, we want you to come be our coordinator.’” We did not note Schottenheimer as a name to watch for other open coordinator jobs in that offseason, but the Cowboys weren’t going to risk losing him.
“After just talking it over with Stephen (Jones) and Jerry (Jones)…while we figure this out and you guys go through the interview process — which, there’s a thorough interview process you have to go through — we had made an agreement that I would stay here no matter what,” Schottenheimer explained.
It’s unclear who these teams pursuing Schottenheimer were, as nothing was reported at the time, but it seems that, as long as McCarthy was out of the picture, Schottenheimer was going to be a part of the Cowboys’ staff in some capacity. Luckily for him, he did get to stay, and in getting to stay, he received his first head coach opportunity.
