No one could have predicted the bizarre chain of events that led to Brian Schottenheimer taking over as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. This team is no stranger to drama, so of course, the transition had to include a messy divorce from former head coach Mike McCarthy and a puzzling search for the team’s new leader. When things first went down, it felt like a safe, uninspired fallback option to acquire another Jerry Jones “yes man” coach. Honestly, we have no idea how this script is going to play out, but we are at least starting to get a clearer picture about how things began.
That’s because the Cowboys coach recently appeared on a podcast and dropped a few candid details about how he ended up sticking around. He admitted that he was always planning to stay with the organization in some capacity, even if it was only to take over the play-calling responsibilities. Deep down, he openly stated that he wanted the head coaching job. Of course. Who wouldn’t? Based on this new information, we can start to piece together how things might have gone down last year when this crazy head coach saga began.
To understand why the front office pivoted, we must first acknowledge that the Jones family actually liked Mike McCarthy. When Dak Prescott was healthy, the team was winning games in the regular season, and that wasn’t to be tossed aside. Three straight 12-5 seasons will always be the biggest hook for him to hang his hat on in Dallas. The leadership group respected his successes, which made their ultimate decision to let him walk even more of a head-scratcher to some.
At the same time, the Joneses also had some doubts. They preferred to keep McCarthy around, but also wanted a quick escape hatch if things blew up in their face and they wanted to go a different direction. This resulted in a conflict over the length of the terms of McCarthy’s would-be new contract. McCarthy wanted a long-term deal. The Joneses did not.
The plot twist to all of this is that they also deeply valued Schottenheimer and knew he was generating interest around the league. The Cowboys had just recently lost one sharp play-caller by letting Kellen Moore get away, and all he did was help lead the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl-winning season. Doh! Because the ownership was already thinking ahead, they refused to offer McCarthy a secure, long-term contract extension, and that lack of commitment created a standstill, ultimately resulting in both sides parting ways.
With their original plan ruined, the front office moved to their contingency strategy while still pretending to run a wide-open coaching search. The Cowboys interviewed a couple of defensive-minded candidates, Leslie Frazier and Robert Saleh, who, as we now know, would have been forced to inherit Schottenheimer as their offensive play-caller. It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that these other guys were defensive guys.
But then there’s the aforementioned Kellen Moore, who was also interviewed for the Cowboys’ head coaching job and was actually a finalist. However, hiring him meant there was absolutely no shot at keeping Schotty. What is a little murky here is that we actually don’t know how their one virtual meeting with Moore went. The Joneses already knew him well, and they liked him, but was the feeling reciprocated? Or were there vibes that triggered the Joneses into thinking that Moore might not be a great fit with them?
Honestly, we don’t know that part. Maybe if Moore does a podcast one of these days, we’ll learn more about how that went down, but for now, we’re left speculating. What we do know is that the Joneses did the one thing they could think of to keep a guy they wanted in the building, and that was to make him the new head coach of the Cowboys. Trust the gut.
Fast forward a year, and the ultra-communicating head coach has already secured himself an ultra-communicating defensive coordinator to match his style. His specific stamp on the team continues to grow with each passing month. More importantly, he remains a Jones-whisperer type of leader who can successfully work under the unique, hands-on management of this specific organization while still quietly building his own locker room culture. Finesse the ownership.
The management style in Dallas is always confusing, often sloppy, and sometimes even a little toxic, but these are the cards that are dealt. We cannot change how this franchise operates from the top down. The Joneses will always be Jonesing. But as cringy as it can be sometimes, the team might at least have the right head coach playing the hand.
