According to the Sports Grid, the Dallas Cowboys officially announced Brian Schottenheimer of Denver, Colorado as their new head coach. Schottenheimer replaces Mike McCarthy, who was fired on January 13. Despite high expectations heading into the season, the Cowboys missed the playoffs at seven wins and 10 losses.
You can pinpoint three reasons for Dallas’s poor season. A contract dispute forced CeeDee Lamb to miss training camp. He had a fine season (1194 receiving yards), but saw a dip in receiving yards by 555 receiving yards from the previous year. The bottom line is Lamb was not producing to the worth of his contract which saw him make $34 million last season. Second, Dak Prescott tore his hamstring on November 3 against the Atlanta Falcons and was gone for the year. Third, the Cowboys defense was awful all year long as they gave up 468 points. Only the Carolina Panthers (534 points) gave up more.
It is interesting that the Cowboys hired internally. Schottenheimer had been the Cowboys coaching analyst in 2022, and the Cowboys offensive coordinator in 2023 and 2024. His other NFL jobs have been the assistant coach of the St. Louis Rams (1997), assistant coach of the Kansas City Chiefs (1998), quarterbacks coach of the Washington Redskins (2001), quarterbacks coach of the San Diego Chargers (2002 to 2005), offensive coordinator of the New York Jets (2006 to 2011), offensive coordinator of the Rams (2012 to 2014), quarterbacks coach of the Indianapolis Colts (2016 and 2017), offensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks (2018 to 2020), and passing game coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars (2021).
Brian Schottenheimer is also the son of former NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer. A native of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Marty Schottenheimer coached the Cleveland Browns, Chiefs, Redskins and Chargers.
