When the Dallas Cowboys promoted Brian Schottenheimer from offensive coordinator to head coach after moving on from Mike McCarthy, fans were confused. He hadn't even called plays in three years, yet Jerry Jones was investing a lot of trust in him, but it didn't take long for him to prove that trust was well-placed.
After watching the Cowboys field one of the best offenses in the NFL in 2025, fans quickly came around on the Schottenheimer hire, and are seeing a real future for him in Dallas. The offense is humming as Dak Prescott is playing his best football, and everyone should be happy, which isn't the case.
While ranking all non-first-year coaches, NBC Sports' Patrick Daughtery ranked Schottenheimer 21st out of 22 coaches, with only Aaron Glenn ranked below him. So you're telling me the only guy we see as worse than the 53-year-old is the coach who's in the process of digging his grave with the New York Jets?
The Dallas sky did not fall during Brian Schottenheimer’s first year on the job. It did not brighten, either. If the initial reaction of “why didn’t they just let a fan coach the team” was a little over the top for an assistant with 25 years of NFL experience, it was still directionally accurate. Schottenheimer exceeded expectations only because there weren’t any.
A team that used to dream of Super Bowls now seems content to break parking and concessions records. If you’re wondering, “what does any of that have to do with Brian Schottenheimer,” the answer is nothing. That’s because this project is no longer really about football. It used to be the only Cowboy who was graded on a curve was ownerJerry Jones. "
The Dallas Cowboys are lucky to have Brian Schottenheimer
If you can control yourself, hold off on punching air, because Daugherty wasn't finished.
"The 2025 squad might have gone 7-9-1, but Dak Prescott stayed healthy. They won theGeorge Pickenstrade. And yes, last but not least, they didn’t hire the very worst coach in football. Congratulations. To whom, we aren’t exactly sure."
It’s hard to find a more misguided assessment of an NFL head coach, let alone a Cowboys coach. Are we really supposed to believe Dallas was grading Brian Schottenheimer on a curve last season, when the team had legitimate playoff expectations for most of the year and only fell short because of the defense?
You cannot tell me with a straight face that Kellen Moore accomplished more in one season Schottenheimer, let alone Zac Taylor, Todd Bowles, and Dan Quinn. All three of those on are on the hot seat with talented rosters, while Schottenheimer has Dallas knocking on the door of the playoffs.
There's no world where Daugherty truly believes that the Cowboys had no expectations last season. They traded for George Pickens and Quinnen Williams, and looked plenty talented. They only went 7-9-1 because the defense was unable to stop a nosebleed, which is a blame that falls on Matt Eberflus, and Jerry and Stephen Jones for hiring Eberflus to begin with.
I understand that too many people in the NFL world hate on Jerry Jones and the Cowboys because it's easy, but at least make your point make sense. This was a hit piece on Jones that had nothing to do with any of Schottenheimer's accomplishments in Year 1.
Grouping Schottenheimer in with a group of coaches who is about to get fired is not only complete nonsense, but his analysis (if you can even call it that) was not well thought-out in the slightest. It does not matter what expectations were for him entering the season, but he very obviously exceeded them.
All these rankings accomplished was raising the blood pressure of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as Glenn and Schotty do not even belong in the same sentence.