Strictly talking, the Dallas Cowboys bought their man.
After 10 days of uncertainty and unpredictability, they made it official late Friday night. They started a brand new regime by agreeing to phrases with the offensive coordinator from the previous regime, confirming Brian Schottenheimer because the tenth head coach in franchise historical past.
At his introductory press convention within the coming days, Cowboys officers with the final title Jones will rave about Schottenheimer’s pedigree, his preparation and his readiness for the second. With that trademark glint in his eye, crew proprietor and common supervisor Jerry Jones will probably reference Schottenheimer’s relationship with Dak Prescott, and the way necessary that’s to the Cowboys’ success transferring ahead.
Sure, with very actual enthusiasm, the Cowboys will guarantee their fan base and the NFL world that, after parting methods with Mike McCarthy, they bought this rent proper.
The query for the remainder of us is, why ought to anybody else imagine them?
That is what’s left hanging within the air as a weird teaching search concludes. The Cowboys have been all the time certain to do issues their very own manner, however this feels completely different even for them.
That most likely ought to have been apparent from the best way this began. Nothing in regards to the finish of Mike McCarthy’s tenure in Dallas steered the Cowboys have been prepared for a prolonged search. In any case, in the course of the week they weighed his future, they each blocked him from interviewing with the Chicago Bears and missed their league-mandated window to interview coveted candidates like Lions coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn.
So, by the point McCarthy did trip off into the sundown on Jan. 13, the group was each not less than per week behind each different crew with a gap, in addition to hamstrung by who it might have interviewed.
The Cowboys would probably reply that such issues by no means factored into their equations. It is a completely different job than most, and that truth was hammered residence shortly after McCarthy’s departure when Deion Sanders was one of many first names linked to the opening. Sanders, after all, is a extremely profitable school coach, one of many best gamers in NFL historical past and a former Cowboy, so the curiosity was as believable because it was intriguing.
However that intrigue shortly gave option to a extra acquainted Cowboys playbook. Their first official name was to Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who has a seven-year historical past in Dallas and a powerful relationship with Prescott. When Moore’s interview wrapped, in got here the previous head coaches. Former Jets head coach Robert Saleh interviewed per week in the past, whereas longtime defensive assistant and former Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier interviewed only a few days in the past.
That was the extent of the Cowboys’ official legwork till Schottenheimer entered the image — an concept that began as a mere rumor final weekend and step by step crystallized into actuality.
That is the extent of it. The Cowboys interviewed two former head coaches who took two mixed interviews with different groups — each of these going to Saleh, who spoke with Jacksonville and Las Vegas about their openings. Moore made three candidates. The fourth and last one was Schottenheimer, whose workplace on the Cowboys’ facility is roughly 200 ft and one flight of stairs away from possession’s.
For comparability’s sake, the Bears interviewed upward of 15 candidates before landing Johnson. The Jets interviewed as many as 17 candidates earlier than deciding on Glenn.
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To be clear, this is not to say that the variety of interviews straight correlates to the standard of rent. Head teaching success tales have come from each angle conceivable on this league. But it surely does illustrate that the Cowboys have been hardly thorough within the seek for their subsequent chief.
And it does make you marvel: Because the Cowboys get set to start their thirtieth season since their final Tremendous Bowl championship, what are the percentages?
Schottenheimer has by no means been an NFL head coach. He had not been given critical consideration for a head teaching job since 2010, when he was the offensive coordinator of the New York Jets. He didn’t name performs for the Cowboys within the two seasons he labored beneath McCarthy; Moore had that job in 2022 earlier than McCarthy himself took over playcalling duties in 2023. Schottenheimer acquired little interest in some other head teaching vacancies this cycle.
What are the percentages the answer to the Cowboys’ decades-long drawback was sitting two doorways down from McCarthy this complete time?
With that glint in his eye, Jerry Jones will counsel that the percentages are good. He’ll promote hope for the longer term. A veteran workers is already in the works, as former Bears head coach and longtime Cowboys assistant Matt Eberflus is the early favourite to change into Schottenheimer’s defensive coordinator.
The Cowboys’ imaginative and prescient can be vivid, relaxation assured. Schottenheimer may have the help of the entrance workplace. He’ll have succesful assistants round him and the total backing of Prescott. To be truthful to him, he has his personal experience to lean on. He has coached within the NFL for 23 years, experiencing some success as a playcaller for each the Jets and Seahawks. Maybe the lengthy anticipate this chance may have ready him in simply the best manner.
Written in simply the best manner, it begins to change into convincing. Little doubt that is the Cowboys’ hope. With sufficient grit and teamwork, this might change into the NFL’s subsequent shock success story.
That is the place we come again into play, as a result of somebody should keep in mind that these choices aren’t made in a vacuum.
The identical decision-makers who employed Schottenheimer on Friday night time are those who’ve botched 5 of their previous seven teaching hires relationship again over 30 years; who’ve overseen simply 4 playoff wins since that victory in Tremendous Bowl XXX; who’ve now endured the longest drought with out reaching the convention championship sport in your complete NFC.
In the end, that is the problem at hand: course of versus outcomes.
The rent relies upon upon the make-up of the coach — his temperament, his management, his decision-making, his thoughts. Maybe the consequence can be that Schottenheimer proves himself a greater coach than most anticipate.
Proper now, we all know the Cowboys’ course of was neither thorough nor formidable. It is a course of that requires a good quantity of religion that they know higher.
Truthful or unfair, the primary query as we get set for Brian Schottenheimer’s tenure in Dallas is straightforward: Who nonetheless trusts the Joneses?
David Helman covers the NFL for FOX Sports activities and hosts the NFL on FOX podcast. He beforehand spent 9 seasons overlaying the Cowboys for the crew’s official web site. In 2018, he received a regional Emmy for his function in producing “Dak Prescott: A Household Reunion” in regards to the quarterback’s time at Mississippi State. Comply with him on Twitter at @davidhelman_.
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