Jones family's justifications for Brian Schottenheimer hire just keep getting worse

The Dallas Cowboys fired their Super Bowl-winning head coach and instead replaced him with “a career assistant.”

The Cowboys’ decision to hang onto McCarthy for a week before officially parting ways made it difficult for them to interview many of the top coaching candidates. As the list of potential candidates began to dwindle down, Dallas was left with few other viable options. 

After nearly two weeks of interviews, they simply opted to elevate Brian Schottenheimer, their offensive coordinator, to head coach. The decision to go with Schottenheimer makes it seem like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn’t have a plan coming the offseason, and it only gets worse in each new report. 

Stephen Jones offered baffling explanation for Cowboys HC hire

On Wednesday, Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports asked Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones why the team felt confident hiring Schottenheimer even though he hasn’t called plays since 2020 and hadn’t demonstrated the ability to run a modern office. 

“Andy Reid — wow, what a career,” Jones responded. “But you know he's a guy who did it differently in Philadelphia and he's evolved.”

That’s an interesting answer, especially since Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was already calling plays and developing his offensive scheme when he was in Philadelphia. In fact, Reid’s variation of the West Coast system transformed after he watched Tom Brady pick apart his Eagles defense from a shotgun formation in Super Bowl XXXIX. The Y-Iso tight end role that Travis Kelce has played was sparked during that game.

Epstein also asked Jones about establishing a strong running attack to support Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. 

"It's a must," Stephen Jones said. "It's a must that we marry our run game to our pass game … and roll that into play action. I think all that plays right into Dak's hands and then as he mentioned, the reduced formations and things that do set you up to run the ball even more efficiently as some of these teams have done in our league. [Schottenheimer] embraces all that."

The Cowboys finished the 2024 season with a 7-9 record. They lost several of their key players in free agency last offseason, and injuries exposed the team’s lack of depth across the entirety of the roster. Hopefully, Dallas can restock on some talent this offseason.