Blogging The Boys
The last week has hardly been ideal, but then again, few things have been this offseason. When the Cowboys wrapped up a disappointing 7-10 season, one that featured terrible defensive performances and a season-ending injury to Dak Prescott, most assumed that Jerry Jones would work out a contract extension with Mike McCarthy. The embattled head coach had coached into the final year of his contract, finished by winning four of seven games despite all the injuries, and received multiple statements of support from his players.
Then, after several days of deliberation with Jones, McCarthy decided to walk away from the organization. A seeming unwillingness from Jones to commit fully to his coach led to a changing of the guard. By all accounts, Jones was caught off guard without a list of candidates to start interviewing. And then, after several days of speculation, Brian Schottenheimer came into focus.
The pivot was out of left field, to put it mildly. Schottenheimer hadn’t called plays since the end of a disastrous 2021 season with the Jaguars, when he did so on an interim basis following Urban Meyer’s firing. He was also part of the Cowboys coaching staff for the past three seasons, thereby denying fans of a true fresh start with an outside hire.
Expectations started out low, but Schottenheimer won over a lot of fans with his introductory press conference. He won more over with his coaching staff, which featured a heavy dose of coaches from other NFL coaching trees, as well as from the college ranks. Many of the team’s offseason moves and rhetoric seemed to back up the idea that things would truly be different under Schottenheimer.
Any such optimism was blown to pieces by the Micah Parsons trade.
Willingly giving up a player like Parsons – one of the few players who actually meets the definition of the overused phrase “generational talent” – is a move so rarely seen that it defies logic. Trading him to the Packers, a franchise that has historically been a thorn in the Cowboys’ side regardless of coaches and players, added insult to injury.
Doing so this close to the start of the season felt like waving the white flag before a down of football has even been played.
Much of the discourse heading into last season centered around McCarthy’s contract status, and how the offseason moves felt like the organization was setting their coach up to fail. Unfortunately, that feeling hasn’t quite gone away, with many fans feeling unprecedented levels of apathy for this time of year.
In a way, though, that’s the perfect setup for the start of the Schottenheimer era. His approach all offseason has centered around changing the culture in Dallas, trying to make the Cowboys a more physical team that plays with grit and resolve no matter who they’re facing. It’s a Herculean feat after decades of the team seemingly playing down to their opponent’s level, but it’s a feat Schottenheimer is eager to embrace.
What better way to...
