When the Dallas Cowboys hired Brian Schottenheimer as their tenth head coach in franchise history, it was met with less than glowing reviews. The long-time NFL journeyman and son of the late great Marty Schottenheimer is getting his first shot at being a head coach. Other coaches hired in this cycle will be first-time head coaches, but their names have more buzz on a marquee sign.
NFL Insider Jeff Howe for The Athletic recently conducted a poll with “10 NFL personnel executives and coaches, asking them to assess each coach’s fit and rank their top five hires, with a first-place vote worth five points, a second place vote worth four points and so forth. Votes were not solicited from members of each coach’s new organization to limit subjective balloting.”
Kellen Moore, the last head coach to be hired this offseason, got more points in the poll than Schottenheimer and Liam Coen, who have been employed for a few weeks. Credit to Moore and the goodwill he’s built after his Super Bowl-winning season with the Philadelphia Eagles. Given the lack of hype and excitement of Jerry Jones’ hiring of Schottenheimer, there should be no surprise he finished last in the poll.
Despite the vacancy of optimism, there were some positive reviews from coaches about Schottenheimer as a coach and belief he could have success with the Cowboys.
“He’s a good coach,” a coach said. “The team will improve.”
“He’s underrated,” an executive said. “He has the ability to be a better head coach than coordinator. He’s confident. He has a vision for who he wants to be and how he wants to play, and he’ll be able to communicate that across the team.”
History shows that some head coaches succeed better in the big chair than their time as coordinators and vice versa. Matt Eberflus was not a great head coach for the Chicago Bears, but he is well-suited to be a great defensive coordinator in Dallas, as he was in Indianapolis before his Chicago days.
Nick Sirianni was a good offensive coordinator with the Colts from 2018 to 2020. Still, he never achieved the level of success he experienced with the Eagles. In Philly, Siriani is in more of a leadership role and hasn’t called plays since his first season with the team.
When Siriani spoke after winning the Super Bowl, he touched on the locker room being a close group of men and how the team's culture led to their success this year. If there’s one thing fans can hang their hat on about Schottenheimer, he’s trying to build and fix the team's culture, which he spoke about in his opening press conference.
His coaching staff looks impressive on paper and should theoretically facilitate the transition for the first-time head coach. I can’t believe this is an actual sentence, but if Schottenheimer can achieve Siriani-like success during his first few seasons with the Cowboys, this poll will seem silly two years from now.