Remember when Jerry Jones stated after the Dallas Cowboys decided to move on from Mike McCarthy that he would conduct a broad search to find the team's next head coach?
When the sun set on Dallas' search, Jones interviewed just four candidates. Kellen Moore appeared to be the initial favorite, but that was either a smokescreen or Dallas panicked and pivoted to Brian Schottenheimer, whom they officially promoted on Friday night after he interviewed for upwards of 10 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday.
It is unfair to Schottenheimer the sheer backlash that will result from his promotion. However, the Cowboys could not have made a more underwhelming hire if they tried.
Cowboys hiring Brian Schottenheimer as head coach proves they're a laughingstock
The #Cowboys are hiring their own OC Brian Schottenheimer as the new head coach, per me, @TomPelissero and @SlaterNFL.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 25, 2025
Out of nowhere, Schottenheimer interviewed this week twice and now takes over for Mike McCarthy. More than a decade as an OC, Schottenheimer is an HC. pic.twitter.com/5TaiWzhTZ4
They knew they could be players in the 2025 coaching cycle the second they decided last January to bring McCarthy back for the final year of his contract. It is malpractice in every sense of the word that Jones only interviewed Schottenheimer, Moore, Robert Saleh and Leslie Frazier.
It is clear now, by the way, that Saleh and Frazier were only involved to satisfy the Rooney Rule requirement. That alone is highly disturbing. Maybe those conversations involved Saleh as defensive coordinator and Frazier as a mentor of sorts for Schottenheimer being that he's never been a head coach, but this team does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
By dragging his feet with McCarthy, Jones screwed himself out of interviewing Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, arguably the two hottest names of this coaching pool. Johnson, who was hired by the Bears, and Glenn, who got the Jets job, are both perceived as home-run hires. The Cowboys seemingly did not have a single conversation with either of them. That is the inaction of a laughingstock organization.
Schottenheimer has almost exclusively a poor track record of leading offenses. Meanwhile several in-demand offensive coordinators have taken interviews with other teams, including the Bills' Joe Brady, the Ravens' Todd Monken and the Buccaneers' Liam Coen. Coen has since taken the Jaguars job.
The NFL is moving in the direction of empowering innovative play-callers. Pairing Dak Prescott and CeeDeeLamb with any of those OCs would have been a slam-dunk hire. Jones, though, champions experience, familiarity and control above all else.
That is how we arrived at this decision.
If it is any silver lining, the Schottenheimer hire may finally unite Cowboys fans in a fashion that has not been seen in years. Seriously, what was the last thing that the vast majority of the fan base was in unison on the way it is opposed to hiring Schottenheimer? Trading away Amari Cooper is the only thing that springs to mind.
Jones had an opportunity to really galvanize fans in what could be his last head coaching hire as owner of the team. Everyone expected him to make the safest and dumbest hire imaginable and they were right.