Jerry Jones ‘operating out of comfort zone’ in Brian Schottenheimer hiring

Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys surprised the NFL world when they decided to promote offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to become their next head coach.

As the Cowboys opted to keep the hire in-house, Jones disagreed with the prevailing narrative that he wasn’t willing to leave his comfort zone in Dallas’ search.

“I know that Shotty is no stranger to these guys,” Jones said in a 10-plus-minute response to the first question at Monday’s introductory press conference. “I know he’s no stranger to this building. I get my proverbial ass kicked over needing people in my comfort zone. Without this thing being about me in any way, if you don’t think I can’t operate out of my comfort zone, you’re so wrong. It’s unbelievable.

“This is as big a risk as you can take. As big a risk as you can take. No head coaching experience.”

To an extent, the Cowboys’ decision to hire Schottenheimer was outside the box. As Jones mentioned, Schottenheimer has never been a head coach before, and it isn’t typical for teams to promote an assistant to head coach after a losing season, so there’s certainly a risk involved from that standpoint.

However, Schottenheimer was only one of four candidates to interview for the role, as most other teams searching for a head coach this offseason interviewed at least twice as many. Colorado head coach Deion Sanders didn’t interview for the role, but he was contacted by Jones, as three of the five candidates most linked to the job had a Cowboys connection. 

Additionally, Schottenheimer had received head coach interest in the past, with his first interview coming with the Miami Dolphins in 2007. He hasn’t been viewed as a top head coach candidate much in recent years, with the Cowboys being the only team to interview for head coach this offseason.

Schottenheimer also didn’t call plays for the Cowboys’ offense after he was promoted to be the team’s offensive coordinator in 2023, with former head coach Mike McCarthy holding those duties. Jones, though, insisted that he could tell Schottenheimer had head coach qualities when he worked with him over the last few seasons, mentioning his background as he’s the son of former NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer.

“I have a good background in the makeup of what a coach is,” Jones said. “To think that you can make a decision in an interview and if you didn’t and had never communicated or had a visit, I wouldn’t dare have an interview unless I talked to many, many people that knew that person, and had those kinds of life experiences. … Knew their story.

“We know what osmosis is, and we know what Shotty grew up around. … Frankly, from the standpoint of Shotty, those X hairs crossed. Shotty might never had been in our mirror, our view, had he not joined us to be with Mike as a consultant three years ago. … I’ve sat in [a] handful of meetings with Shotty. I’ve listened, I’ve watched him. I’ve watched him have deference to his head coach. I’ve watched him have deference to experienced guys like [defensive coordinator Mike] Zimmer. … I’ve watched him bite his lip sometimes when he didn’t necessarily agree with that direction. But he bit his lip, as his daddy would have told him to bite your lip.”

As Jones is taking a chance on Schottenheimer, the new Cowboys head coach claimed he had previous opportunities to become head coach, but he wasn’t prepared for them.

“I’ve had some opportunities when I was a much younger man that I didn’t feel like I was ready,” the 51-year-old Schottenheimer said. “I’m ready now. I know what I want. I know what it looks like.”

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Schottenheimer has 25 years of NFL coaching experience, noting that his first head coaching opportunity came during his first stint as a play-caller, from 2006-11 with the New York Jets. He said he had “a pause,” and a three-year run as Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator with the Seattle Seahawks almost a decade later played a big role in him believing he could be a head coach, in part from the challenges Carroll presented him.

After helping quarterback Dak Prescott record a career year and finish second in MVP voting in 2023, Schottenheimer is confident that his past and relationship with the quarterback will help him out as he’ll retain play-calling duties. 

“Iron sharpens iron,” Schottenheimer said. “Dak and I have an incredible relationship, just like I have an incredible relationship with all these guys. Dak and I know how to push each other’s buttons, we know how to have hard conversations. I laugh because I think about training camp last year, a ball got intercepted and we kind of had a thing in place where it was like if you throw an interception, you come out. And so I took Dak out and he’s like, ‘What?’ 

“He pushed back. The competitor in him is special.”

Obviously, getting the best of Prescott will be one of Schottenheimer’s biggest duties. Prescott will begin his record-setting four-year, $240 million extension in 2025 after coming off a down season that ended early due to hamstring surgery. To put even more pressure on the Cowboys, two of their division rivals made the NFC Championship Game this season and their streak of 29 seasons without playing in the NFC title game is now the longest in the NFL.

Schottenheimer is expecting that to change.

“We’re going to win. And we’re going to win a championship,” Schottenheimer said. “Otherwise, why are we doing it?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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