After about two weeks the Dallas Cowboys finally made a move at head coach on Friday night and chose to hire Brian Schottenheimer, their offensive coordinator over the last two seasons. Schottenheimer was also on staff for one year prior to that.
To say that the Schottenheimer thing came out of nowhere for the Cowboys would be to put the situation quite mildly. It all began on Monday morning when he appeared as the betting favorite by one oddsmaker and by that day’s end he had been scheduled to interview formally with the team. Yes, he was the betting favorite before an interview even happened.
As the week wore on Schottenheimer would gain a second interview, the only candidate to do so, and on Friday night at just about 10pm ET the news was made official.
Schottenheimer was indeed the only candidate to formally interview twice, but three others did so once apiece: Kellen Moore, Robert Saleh and Leslie Frazier.
This time last week it really felt like Moore might be the top choice by Cowboys brass, but obviously opinions changed. Whether opinions were impacted by Moore’s current team in the Philadelphia Eagles still being active in the playoffs and him therefore unavailable for activities that have to get underway or any other reason, there was seemingly a pivot.
In the aftermath of the Schottenheimer news becoming official, there were many pieces of information reported by various insiders. Among the thoughts that ESPN’s Todd Archer offered was that Moore reportedly coveted this job.
Coaches, executives and industry people I spoke to were shocked that Schottenheimer rose to the top of Jerry Jones’ list above seemingly more qualified candidates. Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, a former Cowboys player and the former OC in Dallas, was believed to covet the job and there is surprise in league circles that Dallas didn’t wait to explore that possibility more fully.
There are two ways to read the report from Archer here.
The first is obvious in that an assumption can be made he is saying that Moore coveted the job this cycle and wanted the job and is therefore upset that he did not get it. There is certainly logic to that idea.
Another perspective though is that the belief that Moore coveted the job could have been one held by many prior to the process unfolding. Maybe everybody in question believed that Moore long coveted the job, but that he individually ultimately felt differently. There are a number of possible realities here.
That the Cowboys job is or was a coveted job at any point this cycle by Kellen Moore or anyone else is an idea that another former quarterback of the team would seemingly disagree with. You will recall that on the day that Dallas and Mike McCarthy officially parted ways that Troy Aikman blasted the team’s process and specifically said that he did not believe the job to be a coveted one. He used that exact word.
Troy Aikman on the Dallas Cowboys: "I thought Mike McCarthy would be the head coach, so this is a bit of a surprise for me today... It suggests that there's not a real plan... To say that it's a coveted job, I'm not sure I would necessarily agree with that."
Maybe Moore really wanted the job and is bummed out that he did not get.
Perhaps Moore thought he wanted the job and things ultimately changed for him or the team.
Whatever the case the job officially belongs to Brian Schottenheimer, whether it was coveted or not at any point in recent history.
