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Cowboys hire Brian Schottenheimer as head coach. Jerry Jones raises Dallas’ offensive coordinator to the top post.

Cowboys hire Brian Schottenheimer as head coach. Jerry Jones raises Dallas’ offensive coordinator to the top post.

Here’s why Jones made sense with Schottenheimer.

Even though he can be erratic at times, Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones decided to appoint someone who is familiar with the team’s newest head coach.

The Dallas Cowboys announced Friday night that they had promoted offensive coordinator Brian Scottenheimer to become the team’s tenth head coach, and the ninth since Jones took over the team in 1989. According to The Dallas Morning News, Schottenheimer will have a four-year contract.

According to Jones, “Brian Schottenheimer is known as a career assistant,” as broadcast by ESPN. “He is no longer Brian. He is now the Dallas Cowboys’ head coach.

After joining the club in 2022, Schottenheimer satisfies Jones’ high standards for comfort. Before joining Dallas as offensive coordinator in 2023 after Kellen Moore, who held the position from 2019 to 2022, accepted the same position with the Los Angeles Chargers that offseason, he worked as a consultant throughout that season.

After Schottenheimer served as the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator for first overall pick Trevor Lawrence on Urban Meyer’s Jacksonville Jaguars staff in 2021, Mike McCarthy, the team’s head coach for the previous five seasons, hired him as a consultant. With an average of 14.9 points per game that season, the Jaguars had the poorest scoring offense in the NFL. McCarthy started his NFL coaching career (1993–1998) with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he was coached by Schottenheimer’s father, Marty.

It is important to note that McCarthy assumed the role of offensive play-caller in Dallas in 2023 and 2024 after Moore departed, so Schottenheimer was not in that role. (McCarthy has specialized in calling plays, especially as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers.) In 2023, quarterback Dak Prescott led the NFL in touchdown passes (36), wide receiver CeeDee Lamb led the league in receptions (135), and the Cowboys topped the league in points per game (29.9). Although undrafted running back Rico Dowdle did rush for over 1,000 yards, Dallas’ offense suffered a significant setback in 2024 when Prescott was sidelined for the season in Week 9 due to a hamstring rupture.

Another element that Jones likes greatly is the continuity Schottenheimer gives Prescott. When Jones hired McCarthy as the team’s head coach in 2020, he insisted that Moore remain as the offensive coordinator on McCarthy’s new staff. After three years of that arrangement, McCarthy decided to take the play-caller position again in 2023. Schottenheimer has worked as an offensive coordinator for the New York Jets from 2006 to 2011, the Rams from 2012 to 2014, and the Seattle Seahawks from 2018 to 2020, giving him 12 years of offensive play-calling expertise.

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