Tag: Brian

FRISCO, Texas — They sat in Jerry Jones’ office at The Star. Dusk was settling in, and the two practice fields below sat partially in the shadows.

As the Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager spoke to Brian Schottenheimer, the team’s offensive coordinator for the past two seasons and a 27-year NFL assistant, Jones laid out a vision for the team’s next head coach.

“You know, [you’d be] a first-time head coach, and I believe we’re hanging around the rim. I think we’ve got in place a team that can get there right now. I had other coaches tell me that were wanting the job, ‘[This team is] right there. Right there,’” Jones said, playing coy with Schottenheimer.

“I just can’t take the risk of going with someone that was doing it for the first time.”

Some seconds passed before Jones smiled and told Schottenheimer he was the next head coach of the Cowboys.

“I really couldn’t speak,” Schottenheimer said, recalling the moment. “Immediately, I went to seeing my father’s face. And knowing how proud he would be of me.”

Marty Schottenheimer was a head coach for 21 years with the Cleveland Browns, the Kansas City Chiefs, Washington and the San Diego Chargers. He won 200 regular-season games.

He was his son’s hero and remains so almost four years after he died from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77.

Schottenheimer’s first call from Jones’ office Friday went to his mother, Pat. Sometime after that, he called Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.

A toast was made in the owner’s office, and for the next couple of hours, Jones, Schottenheimer and a handful of others went over what’s to come, while also savoring a moment in Cowboys history.

During the Cowboys’ 12-day search, they conducted three other formal interviews and ignored some higher-profile candidates who had drawn attention from other teams. But Schottenheimer, a career assistant who had no other head coaching interviews this cycle, unexpectedly rose to the top of the pool.

The search concluded with Schottenheimer being named the 10th coach in Cowboys history. Jones hopes the move, promoting from within, will pay off with Schottenheimer delivering what Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer did: win a Super Bowl.

This is how the Cowboys landed on Schottenheimer.

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ON JAN. 13, the Cowboys released a statement from Jones saying he and Mike McCarthy, whose contract as head coach had expired after five seasons, agreed to part ways. That concluded days of meetings regarding the fallout from a 7-10 finish.

While no financial figures were discussed, the length of a proposed agreement was a sticking point. McCarthy was seeking a five-year deal, according to multiple sources, while Jones was sticking with three.

At an impasse, both sides agreed it was time to move on.

From there, Jones had conversations with Hall of Fame cornerback and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, but he never had a formal interview.

“Do you think I need to interview Deion to know what we [have] there?” Jones said. “[It was] just conversations about the team and about where he is, his boys, conversations with his boys. That type of conversation. Again, as I’ve said, I’ve talked to a lot of coaches, and Deion has a job.”

On Jan. 17, the Cowboys had a roughly 90-minute virtual interview with current Philadelphia Eagles coordinator Kellen Moore, who played and coached for the Cowboys. Moore was viewed as a front-runner, in part, because of his relationship and success with Prescott as the Cowboys offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2018 to 2022. Jones and executive vice president Stephen Jones said they saw growth and maturity in Moore, 36, after he left Dallas for the Los Angeles Chargers and Eagles.

The next day, Robert Saleh, the former coach of the New York Jets, was the first candidate without previous ties to the Cowboys to interview, impressing the Joneses in a session that was roughly four hours long.

On Jan. 18, Seattle assistant head coach Leslie Frazier spent six hours at The Star. Stephen Jones called the former Vikings head coach a “unique talent.”

Only then did the Cowboys turn fully to Schottenheimer.

One option was for Schottenheimer to remain as the offensive coordinator and playcaller, but as he spoke to the front office for the first time Jan. 21, the Joneses dug deeper into the possibility of him being a head coach.

As they discussed the other candidates, Jerry Jones Jr. chimed in backing Schottenheimer.

“If we went that way [away from Schottenheimer], as much as we’re going down the path, there’d be some heartbreak there [for us],” said Jones Jr., the youngest of Jerry Jones’ three children and the Cowboys’ chief sales and marketing officer.

Schottenheimer came in for a second interview Jan. 22. The discussion was centered around the changes he would make on offense, the type of defense he would want, practice schedules, the coaching staff.

“The more we met, the more we wanted to meet,” Stephen Jones said. “I think that was helping us come to a conclusion on what that decision should be.”

Schottenheimer’s message was getting through.

“The continuity through change,” Schottenheimer said. “I know the players. I know the building. I know our strengths. I know our weaknesses. I know our issues. And the more and more we got into conversations, sitting around and just discussing different things, I wanted it even more.”

Jerry Jones spoke to a number of coaches as references for Schottenheimer. Steve Spurrier, his coach at Florida when he was a backup to Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel in the mid-1990s, was one of them. So was Pete Carroll, Schottenheimer’s boss with the Seahawks and someone Jones considered briefly for the head coach job. Carroll is now the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

Schottenheimer spent three seasons as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator under Carroll, one of nine NFL teams for which he has worked since beginning as a St. Louis Rams assistant in 1997. Russell Wilson threw 106 touchdown passes in his run with Schottenheimer in Seattle. Running back Chris Carson had two 1,000-yard seasons under Schottenheimer. Receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett thrived.

Besides his father, Schottenheimer said Carroll has had the most influence on his career.

Around dinner time on Friday, the Cowboys and Schottenheimer’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, first discussed a contract. Two hours later, the framework of the four-year deal was in place.

Minutes later, ESPN’s Adam Schefter posted to social media a quote from Jerry Jones indicating that Schottenheimer was the coach.

The public reaction was less than flattering, including Hall of Famer Michael Irvin expressing frustration that Sanders, his former Cowboys teammate, was not named coach. Many believed Jones was hiring an inexperienced coach whom he could control. Some of the frustration is related to the 29-year drought since the Cowboys’ last Super Bowl win.

Jerry and Stephen Jones heard the criticism but believed Schottenheimer was the person best qualified for the job.

“This is the best way that we can go to the playoffs and win,” Jerry Jones said.

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A LITTLE AFTER 11 a.m. CT on Monday, Schottenheimer walked off the elevator in The Star and passed five Super Bowl trophies representing the organization’s championship past.

The Jones family filled seats in front of one side of the stage, where Jerry and Stephen Jones sat with Schottenheimer in the middle. Schottenheimer’s wife, two children and mother, as well as friends and family, sat on the other.

In the back, Prescott was with teammates Jalen Tolbert, Jalen Brooks, Brock Hoffman, Luke Schoonmaker, DeMarvion Overshown, Tyler Smith and Caelen Carson. Assistant coaches Ramon Chinyoung Sr., Ryan Feder and Steve Shimko stood with vice president of player personnel Will McClay and other staff. The returning strength and conditioning staff, led by Harold Nash, was on the other side of the room.

For more than an hour, Schottenheimer and the Joneses answered questions. Late in the session, Schottenheimer shared a memory from when he was a quarterback at Florida.

“I actually had a card in my wallet that I had written down a goal,” Schottenheimer said. “And it said I wanted to be the youngest head coach in the history of the National Football League.”

That did not happen, but Schottenheimer did have opportunities over the years. He said he interviewed for six jobs, with his first coming in 2007 on the jet of former Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga.

“I thought for a while it might not happen,” he said, “but it’s been a lifelong dream.”

Now at age 51, Schottenheimer’s dream has become reality. Brian’s voice cracked as he spoke Monday, and his eyes filled with tears.

“My father was a legendary coach. A great man. But he’s an incredible father. And he’s impacted me more than anyone in this profession,” Schottenheimer said. “I know he’s looking down on me.”

The family that gave Schottenheimer this opportunity knows a lot about the intersection of football and family. Schottenheimer always wanted to be a head coach because of his dad, and he thought of him Monday, knowing that being the Cowboys’ head coach was not a culmination but a beginning that will give way to intense scrutiny.

“I know he’s proud and I miss him very much,” Schottenheimer said of his dad. “But I know what he’d say to me. He’d say, ‘Brian, the easy part is over. It’s time to get to work.’”