The Dallas Cowboys promoting offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to head coach after moving on from Mike McCarthy in January has been met with scrutiny from the greater Cowboys community, and confusion from the NFL world at large.
But one of Schottenheimer’s former bosses, former head coach and current analyst Eric Mangini, thinks the noise around the hire has led many to miss what the new Dallas boss brings to the table.
“I think people are underestimating what Brian can do,” Mangini said on Tuesday’s edition of “Breakfast Ball.” “Brian was my offensive coordinator in New York when I was with the [New York] Jets. One of the things that I really liked about Brian is that he put a lot of pressure on the defense. We had played San Diego the year before. He was there. He was part of that system, and his offensive system put a ton of pressure on our defense in New England because there were shifts, motions, multiple formations, everything was challenging.
“So then I bring him in for the interview, really smart, had a conviction on what he wanted to do offensively but also very open to other things that we wanted to add. We wanted to add elements of what we did in New England, some things they had been doing in New York, the things he was bringing, so I liked that part of his approach, as well. He was willing to run the ball and be committed to running the football, which I thought was important.”
After several assistant coaching positions, including being the San Diego Chargers quarterbacks coach with future Hall of Famer Drew Brees under center, Schottenheimer was hired by Mangini to be the Jets’ offensive coordinator when the latter became the team’s head coach in 2006; Mangini was previously the defensive coordinator of the Patriots. Schottenheimer would remain New York’s offensive coordinator through 2011 despite Rex Ryan becoming the team’s head coach in 2009. The Jets made the AFC Championship Game in back-to-back seasons (2009-10).
Following three seasons as the offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams (2012-14), Schottenheimer was the offensive coordinator at Georgia in 2015, quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts with Andrew Luck from 2016-17 and the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks from 2018-20. Then, after one season as passing game coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Schottenheimer, 51, joined the Cowboys’ coaching staff as a coaching analyst in 2022 and later became their offensive coordinator for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Last season, Dallas went 7-10 and lost quarterback Dak Prescott after eight games due to a hamstring injury. Still, Schottenheimer’s offense managed to average 328.4 total yards per game, which ranked 16th in the NFL. In 2023, the Cowboys were first in the sport with 29.9 points per game and fifth with 371.6 total yards per game.
“Brian, I know, wasn’t the sexy hire or the exciting hire necessarily for Dallas, but I think it’s an underrated hire because he’s just as capable as any of these other first-time head coaches, and I think he’s going to be excellent,” Mangini said.
The Schottenheimer era for Dallas begins on Sept. 4 with a road bout against the NFC East rival and defending Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles in the 2025 NFL regular-season opener.
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