A couple weeks ago the New York Giants made the asinine decision to retain their head coach / general manager combo of Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen for another season. On Thursday, Jerry Jones said, "Hold my beer."
The Dallas Cowboys announced late on Friday night that their new head coach is Brian Schottenheimer, who has 14 years of NFL experience as an offensive coordinator, but has never produced impressive results. A look at Schottenheimer's coaching history since he initially landed the Jets' offensive coordinator job in 2006:
• Jets offensive coordinator (2006-2011): The Jets had some good teams during this span, mostly on defense, but the offense always held them back from something bigger.
• Rams offensive coordinator (2012-2014): The Rams never had a winning season during Schottenheimer's tenure in St. Louis, and his offenses never cracked the top 20 in yards or points.
• University of Georgia offensive coordinator (2015): Georgia's points per game the last 12 seasons (Schottenheimer season bolded in red):
| Season | Georgia points per game |
| 2024 | 31.5 |
| 2023 | 40.2 |
| 2022 | 41.6 |
| 2021 | 37.4 |
| 2020 | 32.3 |
| 2019 | 28.3 |
| 2018 | 37.3 |
| 2017 | 35.8 |
| 2016 | 24.4 |
| 2015 | 24.5 |
| 2014 | 40.2 |
| 2013 | 36.0 |
• Colts quarterbacks coach (2016-2017): The Colts went 8-8 with Andrew Luck still at QB in 2016, and 4-12 under Jacoby Brissett in 2017.
• Seahawks offensive coordinator (2018-2020): The Seahawks had productive offenses under a prime Russell Wilson, but they only won one playoff game during this span and Schottenheimer was fired after Seattle sputtered offensively down the stretch in 2020.
• Jaguars passing game coordinator (2021): The Jags finished 30th in passing DVOA, and head coach Urban Meyer was fired in-season.
• Cowboys coaching analyst (2022), offensive coordinator (2023-2024): The Cowboys' offensive DVOA finishes under Schottenheimer:• 2022: 15th
• 2023: 9th
• 2024: 25thThey were 6th in 2021 before he got there.
The Cowboys' most recent head coach was Mike McCarthy. During his five-year tenure, the Cowboys had a 49-35 record.
• 2020: 6-10
• 2021: 12-5
• 2022: 12-5
• 2023: 12-5
• 2024: 7-10
Starting quarterback Dak Prescott suffered season-ending injuries in each of McCarthy's two losing seasons. In his three other seasons, McCarthy presided over a lot of regular season wins, only to have Super Bowl hopes quickly extinguished in the playoffs in spectacular fashion.
A week or two ago, if you were to poll the average Eagles fan over whether they would have preferred the Cowboys retain McCarthy as their head coach a while longer, the majority of them would have likely said yes. However, it is worth noting that the Cowboys and Eagles split during the McCarthy era, 5-5. Comparatively, the Eagles had a 14-7 record cumulatively over the Giants and Commanders during that span.
The Cowboys won the NFC East in 2021 and 2023, and have been the Eagles' biggest threat for the division during the McCarthy era. While perhaps not a coach likely to win a Super Bowl (he did win one with Green Bay, but only one despite 13 years with Brett Favre and prime Aaron Rodgers), he did at least bring a certain level of floor competency to the Cowboys on gameday.
As we noted when the Cowboys and McCarthy parted ways a week ago, it was no guarantee the Cowboys' new head coach would be an upgrade. And really, a downgrade felt like a decent probability, which could further plunge the Cowboys into the free fall they experienced this past season.
Schottenheimer, in my opinion, is indeed a downgrade, and a pretty significant one at that.
More alarmingly for Cowboys fans, the Cowboys interviewed fewer people for their head coaching job than a summer ice cream parlor might have for a part-time teenager to work the register. Schottenheimer aside, they reportedly only interviewed Eagles OC Kellen Moore, Seahawks AHC Leslie Frazier, and former Jets HC Robert Saleh for the job. They seemed to have simply landed on hiring a warm body already in the building who is likely inexpensive.
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