On Jan. 24 the Dallas Cowboys promoted Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to head coach.
Schottenheimer has been with Dallas since 2022 when he was hired to become the coaching analyst. He was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2023 after now-Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore was let go in 2022.
Though Schottenheimer was hired to be the Cowboys offensive coordinator he did not take any role in calling plays. Former head coach Mike McCarthy had assumed the duties after Moore left in the aftermath of the 2022 season. According to Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, Schottenheimer will call the cowboys offensive plays. “We wanted Brian to call the plays,” Jones said.
Before Schottenheimer was in Dallas, he was a coach for multiple years. He started his professional coaching career in 1997 as in assistant for what was then the St. Louis Rams. He has coached many veteran quarterbacks with multiple Pro Bowl appearances. He coached quarterbacks Philip Rivers and Drew Brees from 2002-2005, Andrew Luck from 2016 to 2017 as the Colts quarterback coach and Russel Wilson as the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2020. That’s when Wilson arguably had his best stretch in his career throwing for 35, 31, and 40 touchdowns in those years as Schottenheimer assuming the primary play calling role.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was said to have an important role in the hiring of Schottenheimer as he very much encouraged the hiring. Speaking to the press, Prescott said he’s proud of Schottenheimer and that he’s looking forward to working with him. He mentioned that the consistency with Schottenheimer will help the team improve. Ultimately, the familiarity of Schottenheimer’s system and working together over the past couple seasons was essential to his hiring.
Schottenheimer expressed immense confidence in the soon-to-be- 32-year-old quarterback. Prescott, in his introductory press conference, said “he’s gonna play elite level football” then following up with “he’s gonna lead us to championships. We got the right guy. We’re gonna win. We’re gonna win a championship.”
The Cowboys have not won a Super Bowl since the 1995-96 season and have also not made it to the conference championship game since then. That’s the longest drought in the NFC. Schottenheimer will look to stop the Cowboys somewhat underwhelming playoff record of 5-13 since there last Super Bowl victory.
