Blogging The Boys
Our writers provide their opinions on the latest Dallas Cowboys news during our weekly review on the Roundtable
Every week, we gather the latest news about the Dallas Cowboys and seek our writer’s perspective on each headline. Welcome back to the roundtable. This week we have Tom Ryle, David Howman, Brian Martin, Sean Martin, and Jess Haynie.
There was a lot of apprehension when it came to Jerry Jones hiring Brian Schottenheimer and fans were very vocal on the fact. But what Schottenheimer has put together for his staff is really quite interesting. Matt Erberflus joins the ranks as the teams defensive coordinator, Nick Sorensen replaces John Fassel as special teams coordinator, and just recently the team found their new offensive coordinator in Klayton Adams.
The other positional coaches have all been positive and so far have raised the bar and put some optimism in Cowboys fans. On offense, the hires really emphasize a shift to be run-heavy next season, on defense we should expect less stunts and blitzes and more of a shift to becoming a methodical, Tampa-2 defense looking to force mistakes in a bend-don’t-break scheme.
Howman: I think he’s hit home run after home run. Matt Eberflus is probably the least exciting hire to me, only because his scheme is a bit too passive compared to Mike Zimmer or even Dan Quinn, but his track record is strong. I’ve loved every single offensive coaching hire, especially Klayton Adams and Conor Riley. Schottenheimer has done the opposite of what most coaches do, which is hire a bunch of his buddies, and instead looked for coaches that bring creativity and outside-the-box thinking. I love it.
Brian: On paper I really like the way Brian Schottenheimer has filled out his coaching staff. He has a good mix of veteran NFL coaching experience as well as some highly-regarded coaches from the collegiate ranks. I think it’s going to be really interesting to see how this coaching staff gels together and what kind of changes they make.
Tom: Sorry if I’m too predictable, but what has me excited is not seeing any Jerry fingerprints on these hires. It really feels like Schotty is calling the shots - so far. But this is a much better start than I expected.
Jess: I agree with my colleagues here. It’s nice to see less nepotism and more creativity in the hires. The assumed run-game focus could be great for Dak Prescott, but will mean making sure the offensive line has what it needs to function consistently. The onus moves to the front office to to give these coaches what they need to succeed.
Sean: The hires so far all point to a sense of cohesion in what they’ve talked about wanting to achieve. Already this is a step in the right direction compared to not backing up any of their talk - as incoherent as it was anyway - from last offseason’s disaster....
