The Cowboys went with continuity at head coach by bumping Brian Schottenheimer up from offensive coordinator, but they won’t be bringing back the rest of the offensive staff.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien is set to leave the team. Tolzien’s contract is up and his next stop is not known.
Tolzien joined the Cowboys as a coaching assistant in 2020 and he took on the quarterbacks coach role in 2023. He has also coached at Wisconsin, which is where he played quarterback before embarking on an NFL career.
Tolzien started two games for the Packers in 2013 and he made two more starts for the Colts later in his career.
For most teams, the length of a head coach’s contract isn’t all that important: Successful coaches routinely get extensions before their contracts are up. Unsuccessful coaches routinely get fired before their contracts are up. Most coaches never complete a full contract.
The Cowboys are different: Their last head coach, Mike McCarthy, coached the entire length of his contract. The coach before McCarthy, Jason Garrett, also coached the entire length of his contract. Garrett initially became the Cowboys’ coach when he was promoted from offensive coordinator when Wade Phillips was fired mid-season. In Dallas, Jerry Jones has established the precedent that coaches don’t leave because they’re fired or resign. They stay until their contract is up.
So it’s newsworthy that new Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer got a four-year contract, according to Nick Harris of the Star-Telegram. That means he’s under contract through the 2028 season, which is also the last year that quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb are under contract.
It’s not a guarantee that Schottenheimer’s job is safe for four years regardless of the results, but it’s a strong indication that Jones plans to have a team run by Schottenheimer, building the offense around Prescott, for the next four seasons. Four seasons during which Cowboys fans hope they can figure out a way to do something they haven’t done in three decades, and advance past the divisional round of the playoffs.
Tom Landry, the first head coach in Cowboys’ history, served in that role for 29 years. Jerry Jones just hired his 10th head coach since buying the team in 1989 and firing Landry.
The Cowboys made the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer official Friday night.
They will introduce him at a news conference on Monday at 11 a.m. CT.
Schottenheimer, 51, was an assistant on Mike McCarthy’s staff the past three seasons, including as offensive coordinator the past two. McCarthy, though, called the plays for the Cowboys the past two seasons.
Schottenheimer interviewed for the job over two days this week and convinced the team to give him his first head coaching job. Schottenheimer had no other interest elsewhere.
The Cowboys also interviewed Seattle assistant Leslie Frazier and former Jets head coach Robert Saleh, and they had a virtual interview with Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who Schottenheimer replaced as offensive coordinator before the 2023 season.
Schottenheimer has some catching up to do as four Cowboys assistant coaches already have found new jobs. Former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus is the front-runner for the defensive coordinator job, though the Cowboys have to comply with the Rooney Rule before hiring him.
Former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus could return to Dallas.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that the former Bears defensive coordinator is a “prime candidate” for the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator job under Brian Schottenheimer.
Eberflus spent seven seasons with the Cowboys, arriving in 2011 as the linebackers coach. He was promoted to defensive passing game coordinator/linebackers coach in 2016, a role he kept for two seasons until leaving to become the Colts’ defensive coordinator.
Eberflus was with the Colts for four seasons before the Bears hired him.
He was 14-32 in two-plus seasons with the Bears, who fired him after a sixth consecutive loss dropped Chicago to 4-8 this season.
The Cowboys plan to promote offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to head coach, NFL Network reports Friday night.
The report follows one from Clarence Hill of All City DLLS on Thursday that the Cowboys were negotiating to hire Schottenheimer.
Schottenheimer, 51, will replace Mike McCarthy.
His hiring is not a surprise based on Jones’ eight previous hires. Since Jones bought the team in 1989, his previous coaches had familiarity with Jones (Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Dave Campo, Jason Garrett) and/or were former head coaches (Johnson, Switzer, Chan Gailey, Bill Parcells, Wade Phillips, McCarthy). Schottenheimer has never been a head coach but the Cowboys were comfortable with him after having him on staff the past three years.
Schottenheimer follows Campo and Garrett as assistant coaches on the Cowboys’ staff who Jones has promoted to head coach.
Schottenheimer’s hiring allows Jones, who doubles as General Manager, to maintain control and remain the face of the franchise. Schottenheimer also should come at a lower salary than any of the coaches hired this hiring cycle as he had no other suitors.
His hiring, though, is not likely to bring back hope to fans of a franchise that now has the longest drought without a trip to the NFC Championship Game. The Cowboys won the Super Bowl to end the 1995 season, which was their last appearance in the championship game.
Schottenheimer, the son of longtime NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer, joined the Cowboys in 2022 as a coaching analyst and earned a promotion to the OC job when the Cowboys and Kellen Moore parted ways before the 2023 season. Schottenheimer did not call plays under Mike McCarthy, who left the team when his contract expired Jan. 14.
The Cowboys also interviewed Seattle assistant Leslie Frazier and former Jets head coach Robert Saleh, and they had a virtual interview with Moore, now the Eagles offensive coordinator.
