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Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones feels quite confident about his choice to hire Brian Schottenheimer as the team’s next head coach.
Jones spoke with Dianna Russini of The Athletic at the NFL Honors and explained that Schottenheimer’s experience and family lineage factored heavily into the decision.
“I looked at 25 years of being on many staffs in the NFL,” Jones said. “I looked at sitting around that dinner table with his daddy, Marty Schottenheimer, and I know what osmosis does. It doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Jones also noted the “ball of fire” he believes that Schottenheimer will have as a new coach, along with his experience and buy-in from the Cowboys players, made the hire an easy choice.
“What an opportunity to get a man, a coach, that’s coming out of the shoot for the first time and the ball of fire that comes with that, and yet at the same time has his experience,” Jones said. “Plus, his greatest rooting section is our players, people like Dak Prescott. So, when you add all of that up, this was risky because it’s a first-time head coach, but we got here by taking risks.”
Schottenheimer’s father served as an NFL head coach for 21 seasons and Brian has served as a coach in a variety of roles since 1997. He has been an offensive coordinator for the New York Jets, St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks and Cowboys and has also worked as a quarterbacks coach, passing game coordinator and a coaching analyst.
He has been with the Cowboys since 2022 and finally gets his first crack at a head coaching job. He takes over a team that went 7-10 in 2024 but was depleted by injuries and had just had three consecutive 12-win seasons.