Underwhelming doesn't even begin to describe the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer. And while it took a little over a season, the Dallas Cowboys are finally paying the price for their feeble process that led them to promote Schottenheimer from offensive coordinator to head coach.
At 3-5 with multiple inexplicable losses, the Cowboys are one of the NFL's most disappointing teams. Yet Jerry and Stephen Jones have shown zero inclination to move on from Schottenheimer. Stephen even went so far as to suggest that Dallas is "close" to turning its season around. A baffling assessment given what we've seen through eight games.
That doesn't mean frustration isn't starting to build, though.
On 105.3 The Fan, Jones was asked about George Pickens' lack of involvement in the offense, and his response hints at growing dissatisfaction with his head coach.
“He needs the ball coming his way more," Jones said. "What can we do differently that we didn’t do the other day? Get the ball in that direction more, and we pressed that.”
Jerry Jones might finally be growing fed up with Brian Schottenheimer
It's no secret that Schottenheimer meets with the front office every week to review the team's performance. But Jones' use of "we pressed that" suggests he made it a point to emphasize that Pickens needs to be a bigger part of the offensive game plan.
If Jones were satisfied with the state of the offense, would he go out of his way to publicly emphasize that Pickens needs more targets? It's hard to imagine he would, especially after letting it slip that the issue was addressed behind closed doors.
The fact that Jones felt compelled to intervene in how Schottenheimer is deploying one of his best offensive weapons is a pretty damning indictment, don't you think?
Jones' dissatisfaction goes beyond Pickens' usage, too. In pointing out that the defense is still rebuilding, the 84-year-old expressed that the offense is supposed to make up the difference.
"We’ve been doing that [rebuilding] under the premise that we had an offense and we had a head coach that can run that offense extremely well, in my opinion, as well as the people in place — namely Dak — that could give us a heck of a run.
That is the area right there, when we don’t play as well as we should be playing, and if you put in place the theory that your defense is the process of rebuilding. If you miscue there, that can end up like we did with the look we had at the end of that ball game on Sunday.“
More word salad from Jerry, but it's impossible to miss the point he's trying to make. The offense has failed to hold up its end of the bargain.
Jerry Jones' dissatisfaction with the Cowboys' offense speaks volumes
That might sound crazy given it put up 30 points on Sunday, but the loss followed a familiar script for Schottenheimer's unit. Moving the ball felt like pulling teeth. No in-game adjustments. No explosive plays. Conservative play-calling.
Somehow, the Cowboys rank seventh in both total offensive EPA (29.77) and EPA per play (0.06) this season, per Sūmer Sports. For once, though, the season-long numbers don't tell the full story.
This unit has regressed under Schottenheimer's watch. The evolution that was promised is nowhere to be found, and the offense has become painfully predictable. The numbers may suggest a top-10 unit, but the eye test tells a different story. Despite boasting star power at premium positions, this offense is performing well below the sum of its parts.
Jones sees what we see. This is a shell of the 2025 offense that would hit multiple explosives every week. That falls on the architect of the offense.
Does this mean Jones will fire Schottenheimer before the end of the season? Hardly. It would likely take a prolonged losing streak for that possibility to even enter the conversation, perhaps coupled with clear signs that Schottenheimer has lost the locker room.
But we saw a similar progression unfold with Matt Eberflus last season. Votes of confidence amid a sluggish start gradually gave way to veiled criticism, which eventually turned into unmistakable disappointment. By that point, the writing was on the wall for Eberflus.
If Jones' postmortem from Sunday's loss is any indication, Schottenheimer may be entering the early stages of that same unraveling.
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