Brian Schottenheimer figured his chance to be a head coach in the NFL had come and gone long before the Dallas Cowboys promoted him a quarter-century into his career as an assistant.
Star quarterback Dak Prescott wasn't even thinking about Schottenheimer taking over the Cowboys when owner Jerry Jones and the rest of the front office sought his opinion following the departure of former coach Mike McCarthy.
Until they clarified that they were talking about the son of the late Marty Schottenheimer, a 200-game winner as an NFL coach, replacing McCarthy after serving as his offensive coordinator for two years.
“And I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, if I’m promoting him so much as the OC, I’m not going to take away everything I just said because you said head coach,’” Prescott said.
Schottenheimer was the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets when he was a hot head coaching prospect nearly 20 years ago. He returns Sunday, all these years later, when the Cowboys (1-2-1) visit the Jets (0-4).
“I learned a lot back then thinking that I had all the answers,” Schottenheimer said. “Here I was a hotshot, 32-year-old coordinator that after one year is getting head coaching opportunities. This is a very humbling business. I think as I look back, those were some great memories and some great experiences. But I never stopped learning.”
He was a 34-year-old calling plays for 39-year-old Brett Favre in 2008, then went to consecutive AFC championship games with Mark Sanchez at quarterback the next two years. Rex Ryan was a first-time head coach for those Jets.
Back then, Schottenheimer didn't think he was ready to be a head coach, even after having a front row seat for most of his dad's 21 years in that position.
Schottenheimer went to the St. Louis Rams before returning to the college ranks at Georgia for a year. His next shot as an offensive coordinator came in Seattle, and the Seahawks had a top-10 offense his second year.
The phone calls didn't come, and then-coach Pete Carroll fired him a year later after a wild-card loss followed a 12-4 record in the pandemic-altered 2020 season, when the Seattle offense faltered late in the season.
“I thought my window had passed me by,” said Schottenheimer, who joined the Cowboys as a consultant in 2022. “Winning divisions in Seattle and you are not getting interviews. The phone is not ringing when you are having success.”
The Cowboys were working on a plan to have McCarthy return as coach despite a crushing wild-card loss that ended the 2023 season, followed by a 7-10 record last year when Prescott missed the final nine games with a torn hamstring.
Schottenheimer wanted to call plays, and was prepared to go elsewhere to do it when the Cowboys and McCarthy decided to part ways. Conversations with Schottenheimer progressed from there.
“I always felt like he was a head coach,” said special teams coach Nick Sorensen, who joined Schottenheimer after working with him in Seattle and Jacksonville. “I thought that way with him in Seattle. I thought that way in Jacksonville. And when he called, I was even more fired up to work with him. You just know. He’s a head coach.”
A reporter jokingly asked how his trip back to New York compared to Micah Parsons' return to Dallas last weekend, exactly a month after the blockbuster trade that sent the star pass rusher to Green Bay.
“Little different,” a smiling Schottenheimer said. “Wasn't as big of a story when I left the Jets.”
It became a big story for him personally, though, considering that the further removed he got from that six-year stint, the more remote it seemed to him that he would follow in his father's footsteps.
Now, he sometimes looks skyward while saying he knows his dad is watching, and he has no regrets over not pursuing a head coaching job just a few years after Marty Schottenheimer last coached in 2006.
Schottenheimer was on his dad's staff with the San Diego Chargers from 2002-05.
“I remember sitting in San Diego and Cam Cameron was our coordinator, and thinking, ‘I’d do it this way or I’d do it that way,’” Brian Schottenheimer said. “And then you get in that seat and you’re sitting there and something comes across your desk and you’re like, ‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to do right now.’ You’re literally learning on the job.”
Plenty of lessons later, Schottenheimer is about to be back at the home of the Jets, finally having upgraded from the title of offensive coordinator.
“It’s truly been no different with him as the head coach,” Prescott said. “It’s easy to say that when me and him have such great communication. He’s the play-caller. But just watching him throughout practice with other players and positions, a guy that’s true to himself and loves the game and gives it everything he has daily.”