Brian Schottenheimer’s first season as Cowboys head coach saw triumphs and trials, with an exceptional offense overshadowed by defensive shortcomings.
FRISCO, Texas — In the 59-year history of Super Bowls, only two NFL head coaches have won the championship in their first seasons. The Cowboys’ Brian Schottenheimer will not be the third.
That is a possibility for three others, including two who, like Schottenheimer, are first-time head coaches. New England’s Mike Vrabel, Jacksonville’s Liam Coen or Chicago’s Ben Johnson have led their respective teams to at least 11 regular-season victories and postseason berths in the Super Bowl tournament.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones interviewed none of them before promoting Schottenheimer, who left Dallas at the conclusion of last season expecting Jones would reach terms on a contract extension with Mike McCarthy. In training camp, Schottenheimer shared that he wanted to call plays and that wasn’t possible so long as McCarthy was the head coach. He expected to be coaching elsewhere.
“I figured that they were going to work it all out,’’ Schottenheimer said. “I’ll be quite transparent. I was planning on leaving because I wanted to go call the plays someplace else. And sometimes when your contract expires, you have those opportunities. So, you know, I was planning on,
“OK, Mike, you know, good luck with everything. And I was, you know, surprised when it didn’t work out.’’
Eight days after the Cowboys’ final game of 2024, they finally announced McCarthy would not be returning. The Cowboys conducted an abbreviated search, interviewing four candidates before hiring Schottenheimer, who had not been considered a serious contender for any NFL head coaching positions in years.
But Schottenheimer knew the principles and offered the continuity that Jones has always prioritized. Of the six head coaches hired in the 2025 cycle, Schottenheimer was the only one promoted from within.
“I’m very confident person,’’ Schottenheimer said. “I never shy away from the fact I’m a really damn good coach and great leader. But you put me in a room with people, I usually can sell myself and my vision, and when the meetings went about seven hours the first day, I was like, ‘OK, either they’re bored or like, damn, I really got a shot of this thing.’”
With one game remaining, the Cowboys’ record is 7-8-1, meaning that so far, Schottenheimer has accumulated exactly the same number of victories in his first season as McCarthy in his final season.
Schottenheimer is the third consecutive first-year Dallas coach who failed to make the playoffs. That list includes Jason Garrett and McCarthy.
It has been a season full of unexpected challenges: head coach, offensive play caller, crisis manager for the defense, grief counselor. Schottenheimer has filled all of those roles, most quite capably.
He’s proven especially adept as the offensive play caller for quarterback Dak Prescott, who could become the first Cowboys quarterback in history to lead the NFL in passing yards.
The Cowboys have a 4,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers but were eliminated from the postseason with three games remaining.
Prescott has one less elite season remaining than when the season began.
That seems the fault of the front office and a failure in roster construction more than anything else.
With Schottenheimer calling plays, the Cowboys were first in yards per game and fourth in the league in scoring at 28.4 points per game. But Dallas ranks last in the league in scoring defense while allowing 29.8 points per game.
Schottenheimer could become the only first-year coach since Sean Payton in 2006 with the Saints to finish with the No. 1-ranked offense in the NFL. That’s a nice accomplishment but not the one Schottenheimer considers most important.
Despite rhetoric to the contrary, Jones demonstrated in trading Micah Parsons to the Packers for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two first-round draft choices exactly one week before Schottenheimer coached his first regular-season game that the franchise was investing less in this season than in the future.
It seems hardly shocking that the immediate result is the Cowboys defense allowing the most points in the league and the highest total in franchise history under first-year defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.
Schottenheimer spent countless hours over many weeks involved in defensive meetings seeking solutions, never expecting that to be necessary. He vowed not to be outworked when Jones hired him and honored that promise.
In fact, Schottenheimer boldly predicted in training camp the Cowboys would be among the NFL leaders in creating turnovers. The Cowboys are -8 with only the Commanders and Jets ranking worse. They’ve created just 11 takeaways, including six interceptions, the fewest total in franchise history through 16 games.
I suppose he’s among those culpable of misjudging the quality of the defensive roster.
The Cowboys’ season was lost when they went 3-5-1 between the Micah Parsons and Quinnen Williams trades. Schottenheimer’s offseason seems increasingly likely to include being involved as the Cowboys hire a fourth defensive coordinator in four years.
McCarthy confronted the same challenge after his first season in Dallas, firing Mike Nolan and hiring Dan Quinn. Perhaps the head coach should decide who is on his staff.
The Cowboys are exceptional in one phase of the game and among the league’s worst in the other two. The offense is consistently elite. The defense and special teams are weekly liabilities, not including Brandon Aubrey.
In addition to play-calling, Schottenheimer has excelled in building relationships in the locker room. He expertly guided the team through the most uniquely difficult experience of all — grieving the loss of defensive end Marshawn Kneeland, a second-year player who took his own life during the bye week.
“He cares a ton about the team,” defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa said. “He’s doing a great job of making sure we know that, making sure that the team is connected, making sure that we’re leaning into our strength, which is our connection and our brotherhood.”
Schottenheimer demonstrated compassion and leadership that seemed authentic and defined his first season.
“I’m a compassionate person,” Schottenheimer said. “I love people. (Kneeland’s death) has really impacted me. It reminded me of how blessed I am to be in this role and how much I love these young men and how fortunate I am to sit in this position. I’m not afraid to cry in front of the guys when I’m sad. I’m not afraid to yell when I’m mad. I stay true to my emotions. I have a lot of energy and juice and that’s always going to be on display. But probably just be authentic. I think that’s why the guys will follow, because I am who I am. I’m not going to be somebody I’m not. I never will be. I’ll always be honest with them. That’s probably the biggest thing I would say is a lot of people change when they get into this position, that’s leading a team or being a head coach. I’ve seen it first hand. And I’ll never do that. It’s not the best way to be successful.”
This has never been an easy job. It has always been the exact opposite of that.
Schottenheimer speaks often of accountability, of an enforcing a standard of behavior and performance. I sometimes wonder if he’s too close to his players considering their interactions at practice, on the sideline during games and in the locker room afterward.
But he did discipline both CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens when the wide receivers broke team rules in Las Vegas, withholding both for the first offensive series as punishment.
He also was unyielding with cornerback Trevon Diggs, refusing to activate him from injured-reserve until fully satisfied with his practice work. That was all reinforced this week when the Cowboys released the 2021 NFL interceptions leader for failing to fly home from Washington on Christmas Day after Schottenheimer denied his late request to stay over.
There were periods of success but they were temporary, the flaws of the roster inevitably revealed. The highlight: The Cowboys becoming the first team in NFL history to beat both of the previous season’s Super Bowl participants — the NFC champion Eagles and the AFC champion Chiefs — in a span of five days or less.
“It’s been amazing,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said of Schottenheimer at the time. “And I just credit him for being the same, being consistent, and it’s something that he talks about, but to actually watch him be consistent and be the same man through the adversity and now through some success, right? He’s a hell of a leader. He’s the right guy for the job. We’re all following him.”
Since losing their embarrassing, soul-crushing 2023 playoff loss to the Packers, the Cowboys are 14-18-1 under two different head coaches, missing the playoffs both times.
They are now 30 seasons removed from their most recent NFC Championship Game appearance. They still seem far from serious contention, although three teams this season – New England, Chicago and San Francisco – have made the playoffs after finishing last in their divisions the previous season.
The Cowboys will finish second in the NFC East, where the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles became the first team in two decades to win consecutive division titles.
The Cowboys lack players capable of defeating high-quality opponents. Schottenheimer’s first team finishes 1-4 against opponents that finished with 11 or more wins. They’re 1-5-1 against playoff teams if the Panthers advance in NFC South and 1-4-1 if the Buccaneers make the playoffs.
“At the end of the day, the consistency has not been there,” Schottenheimer said. “Ultimately, when I judge myself, it’s going to be based on winning first and then the culture second. I think we’ve done a better job right now with the culture piece than we have the winning. We’ve got to get that corrected.”
As the season ends, Schottenheimer continues to emphasize winning, even though it won’t result in the postseason opportunity to join Baltimore’s Don McCafferty and San Francisco’s George Seifert as first-time head coaches who won Super Bowls.