Blogging The Boys
It is hard to not wonder what could have been with Deion Sanders.
The Dallas Cowboys hired Brian Schottenheimer as their new head coach. The team spent a few weeks turning over every rock they wanted to turn over and then enthusiastically deciding that it was Schott’s time to shine. Only time will tell whether or not that ends up being a good decision, but for now, he’s their guy.
Over the years, the Cowboys’ organization has struggled to find the right guy to lead this team. They caught lightning in a bottle when Jerry Jones hired his old roommate Jimmy Johnson in 1989, but have been firing blanks ever since. In the Jones era, he’s had seven coaches take a shot at it with the mid ‘90s team the only group with any real postseason success.
One might say that Jones isn’t very good at finding a head coach. It’s not that all of his choices have been terrible per se, but it’s been a long time since the Cowboys have made it past the divisional round. Whatever they’re doing, it’s not working. Jones has approached it several ways, but nothing has worked. Breaking them down into categories, which types of coaches have had the most success?
Scottenheimer was an offensive coordinator for 14 years between the Jets (six years), Rams (three years), Seahawks (three years), and the Cowboys (two years). He joins three other former coordinators who were promoted to head coach of the Cowboys.
Jason Garrett is the most notable, spending three and a half years as the team’s offensive coordinator from 2007 until Week 10 of 2010 when Wade Phillips was fired. He is the longest-tenured head coach of the Jerry Jones era spending nine-plus seasons at the position.
Dave Campo spent five years as the team’s defensive coordinator from 1995 to 1999 before being promoted to head coach in 2000. Campo lasted three seasons, finishing 5-11 in each one.
Chan Gailey spent four years as an offensive coordinator between the Broncos and Steelers. He was hired to replace Barry Switzer in 1998 but only lasted two seasons despite making the playoffs both years.
Mike McCarthy was the Green Bay Packers coach for 13 seasons, making the playoffs nine times, including a Super Bowl win (in AT&T Stadium) in 2010. He was fired after Week 13 in 2018 and took the 2019 season off to regroup. The Cowboys hired him in 2020 where he coached the team for five years, three times advancing to the playoffs before Jones moved on from him a couple of weeks ago.
Wade Phillips spent most of his coaching career as a defensive coordinator, but at different times his success would lead to head coaching opportunities. He was the head coach of the Broncos for a couple of years (1993-1994), the Bills for a few years (1998-2000), and then the Cowboys for almost four years (2007-most of 2010). Phillips got off to a hot start his...
