Jason Witten isn’t part of Cowboys coaching plans after all

If you told Dallas Cowboys fans that the team would watch Mike McCarthy walk out the door and the team would hire offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer as the new head coach, they'd look at you like you have multiple heads sitting on your shoulders. But that's the reality in Dallas. On late Friday night, the Cowboys announced that they promoted Schottenheimer to head coach.

The Cowboys got a late start to the head coaching search, but after interviewing names like Robert Saleh and Leslie Frazier, and floating around Deion Sanders as a potential candidate, the Jones family decided to stay in-house and promote Schottenheimer. One name that did come up early in the search after McCarthy left Dallas on an expiring contract was the team's fondness of former tight end Jason Witten.

Despite his lack of coaching experience, Jerry Jones believes that he could make a great head coach. So much so, that Jones wanted McCarthy to place Witten on his coaching staff as an "heir apparent," which he declined, per NFL Network's Jane Slater. With the hiring of Schottenheimer, Cowboys fans may have feared Witten being part of the coaching staff.

According to Slater, Witten joining Schottenheimer's coaching staff was "not part of their considerations."

Jason Witten reportedly not part of Cowboys' considerations for Brian Schottenheimer's coaching staff

"While Jerry Jones has maintained a relationship with [Witten] and they have talked in recent months it appears my sense of him being part of the plan are unsubstantiated at this point and haven’t been discussed in fact," wrote Slater.

Witten is an all-time great for the Cowboys, becoming a reliable part of the team's passing offense for the better part of a decade and a half, as evidenced by his 11 Pro Bowl nominations. But Witten has no professional or even collegiate coaching experience. He is, however, currently the head coach of Liberty Christian School in Argyle, Texas, where he won two state championships. He has been in that role for four years, holding a 38-11 record overall, and a 27-1 record the past two seasons.

As for Schottenheimer, he has been a career-long assistant coach since 1997. He's been the offensive coordinator for the Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks, the then-St. Louis Rams, and New York Jets. Since taking over as offensive coordinator in Dallas in 2023, Schottehiemer didn't call plays, with that duty belonging to McCarthy. Now, with support in the building, chottenheimer gets his first gig as a sideline boss. Now, he has to put together a coaching staff, with former Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus emerging as a leading candidate for defensive coordinator.

As of now, don't expect Witten to be on the sidelines with the Cowboys as a coach.