Tag: Jerry Jones

Should Cowboys fans root for the Eagles in the Super Bowl to drive point home to Jerry Jones?

It’s a tough question, but which world would Cowboys fans rather live in come Sunday night?

On one hand, there’s no more hated franchise than the Philadelphia Eagles. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Eagles were the NFC East afterthought. While the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Washington franchise were winning up all the championships, the Eagles were the one competitor unable to cash in.

That all changed as the millennium set to change, and since that point it’s been the Eagles’ world in the division. While the Giants have won two more Lombardis, it’s been Philadelphia that has maintained dominance year after year after year, winning one chip and now appearing in their third Super Bowl in eight seasons.

And in that time, Dallas has been the not-quite-good enough franchise. The Cowboys have won plenty of divisions, but they haven’t done anything with those wins. It’s been 30 years since they sniffed an NFC Championship game, much less The Big Game.

So that brings the other hand forward.

Dallas fans are as frustrated as ever at owner and general manager Jerry Jones. Jones is no longer the maverick owner, willing to make daring moves in talent acquisition. He’d rather play it safe then invest in stars from other teams, or make boom-or-bust trades for superstars.

Jones has gotten relatively boring but he doesn’t know it, still telling anyone who will listen they are wrong about his daring ways and refusing to take blame for the lackluster performance as he continues to roll in the dough.

Will anything convince him to change directions?

Maybe having to watch Jeffrey Lurie hoist another Lombardi from the celebratory platform would do the trick.

All of the falsehoods the Cowboys have convinced themselves are reasonable explanations would turn into hollow excuses. The Eagles have a quarterback on a $255 million contract. They have a wide receiver making over $30 million a season, with another making $25 million per year.

They’ve invested big money, yet they don’t whine about not having enough pieces of pie to go around that force them to cry they’re cap poor year after year after year. They just go out and acquire talent that helps their quest, like signing running back Saquon Barkley to form their Triplets with Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown.

A Super Bowl win with all those stars making huge money would remove the one final cover that the Jones hide under, so in that vein it would make a ton of sense for Cowboys fans to pull for a Philadelphia victory.

But then they’d have to live in a world where Eagles fans, the most smug, annoying awareness lacking people to jump in Cowboys’ fans social media mentions would be unbearable.

So which reality could Cowboys fans stand the least?

Jerry Jones fears Commanders’ Jayden Daniels

Jerry Jones happy Washington is relevant again, but not looking forward to facing Jayden Daniels.

Jayden Daniels not only won an award Thursday, but he also had Jerry Jones regretting facing Daniels.

At Thursday’s NFL Honors from New Orleans, Daniels was the runaway winner of the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award. It was certainly no surprise, as Daniels led the Washington Commanders to their first winning season since Kirk Cousins led Washington to consecutive winning records in 2015 and 2016.

Jones, the Cowboys owner, was asked about Daniels on Thursday.  The Cowboys defeated the Commanders in Washington and were one play away from sweeping the Commanders. However, Marcus Mariota led a last-minute drive, and his touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin in the last seconds rescued the Commanders.

But Daniels was a highlight reel nearly every game this season. “I get sick when thinking about the Cowboys playing him twice a year the rest of his career,” said Jones.

“He’s a great talent,” Jones continued. “I’m glad to have him in the National Football League. And frankly, really, I like the idea of competing as well for years ahead against the Redskins (Commanders). I’m a big fan of Washington. It’s a great football town. Anything that would help make that more substantive in Washington, I’m all for it.”

Washington had finished dead last in 2023, going 4-13, earning the second overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft. Commanders GM Adam Peters selected Daniels, and the rookie quarterback did not disappoint. In fact, he excelled.

Daniels rushed for over 800 yards, finished tied for second with Josh Allen for Approximate Value, was sixth in completion percentage (69%), and fourth in QBR (70.5).

The Cowboys and Jones finished third in the NFC East behind the Eagles and Commanders. Daniels led the Commanders to the NFC Championship game. Dallas has not played in the NFC Championship game since the 1995 season.

Anti-Jerry: NBA’s Mavs show Cowboys fans the flaws of a professional GM

Nico Harrison showed local fans of Dallas sports the downside of the GM conundrum this weekend. | From ReidDHanson

Dallas Cowboys fans have not been pleased with the front office of their franchise. In the minds of many, the frugality of the team’s top decision makers has led to too many missed opportunities over the years. It’s a trend that appears to be continuing into 2025, and a resentment that’s been unrivaled in the local DFW fanbase.

That is, until the Dallas Mavericks told Jerry Jones to hold their beer.

The Mavericks recently made news for all the wrong reasons this week. They took a generational talent, just entering his prime, and flipped him for a player who’s great, but, by most accounts, past his prime. Other side dishes were included in this smorgasbord of lopsidedness but for the most part it was a trade of Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis.

The Mavericks GM, Nico Harrison, defended the trade citing things like culture, fit, defense and conditioning as reasons why the trade was made. These issues may have very well existed, but to most fans, they hardly justified trading away a perennial MVP candidate. It was a move that made Jones and the Cowboys look good. Considering what’s happened for them over the past two seasons, that’s saying something.

Jones has been on a mission of austerity as of late. While he’s re-signed his must-have superstars, he’s been essentially asset stripping his roster by parting ways with costly second and third-tier players, rounding out the roster, coaching staff, and support personnel the cheapest way possible.

A reason why he would do such a thing is a fatal flaw within the structure of the team. Jones isn’t just the general manager and chief decision maker but he’s also the owner. What he doesn’t spend on players, coaches, and support personnel, he gets to keep in some ways. That’s not something any other GM in the NFL can say.

Other GMs are given a budget and are fairly determined to spend to the limits of that budget in the name of winning. Unlike Jones, they can be fired if they fall short of expectations therefore, they have to make every season count. The demand to win now is significant, so understandably the life expectancy of a GM is fairly low. Based on these same motivating forces, the Cowboys have no comparable urgency to win and every financial reason to save.

Up until this week, Harrison was regarded as one of the best GMs in the NBA. The former Nike executive has stacked the Dallas roster and made the 2024-2025 Mavericks one of the deepest and most talented teams in the league. He’s gone to the Conference Finals twice and the Finals once in a short time and done so with wildly different rosters. Even with Harrison’s success he feels the pressure to win now and has wasted no time making moves to achieve that goal.

Unlike Jones, Harrison doesn’t have the benefit of eternal job security on his side and that has presumably led to a highly controversial roster move. When asked about how the Doncic trade affects the Mavericks in the long-term Harrison showed why even a traditional GM structure has flaws.

“[Anthony Davis] fits right along with our timeframe to win now. And win in the future. In the future to me is three or four years from now,” Harrison clarified to reporters. “The future, 10 years from now, I don’t know. I think they’ll probably bury me and J [Kidd] by then. Or we bury ourselves.”

Harrison isn’t a fan of the Mavericks, but rather he’s an employee. He’s not married to the team like the fanbase is. There’s a good chance he’ll be gone in three or four years, making Doncic’s long-term value unimportant to him. Fans are critical of the move because they’ll still be Mavericks fans for the next 10 years. After Harrison is gone and Davis is retired, they’ll still be watching Doncic dominate the NBA and it will probably be extremely painful. That day could realistically be just five years away.

This kind of thing isn’t an issue for Jones and the Cowboys. Jones loves his Cowboys franchise and if anything, he cares too much about the long-term good of the team and not enough about the urgency of the here and now. He probably would have cashed on the Doncic brand in perpetuity. He probably wouldn’t have surrounded him the same depth of talent as Harrison has done, but he would have kept him.

If fans had to pick which is GM setup is better, most would probably point to the traditional type of GM like the Mavericks have. But as Harrison just showed everyone, even that has its problems because most GMs aren’t concerned about life after they’re gone. For universal Dallas fans, it’s the worst of both worlds this year. Guess it’s a good time to be a Stars fan.

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Schottenheimer’s success with Cowboys hinges on one thing he can’t control

Here’s why the front office for the Dallas Cowboys plays such a big role in determining the success of new head coach Brian Schottenheimer. | From @BenGrimaldi

Brian Schottenheimer is now the 10th head coach in Dallas Cowboys history, and he’ll try to help end a Super Bowl drought that will reach three decades during the 2025 season. The opening press conference dog and pony show is over, and now the real work begins.

The first-time coach can’t do it alone, and his success hinges just as much on the front office as it does him. Therein lies the biggest challenge for Schottenheimer, to find a way to lead the team if upper management doesn’t change their philosophy.

It’s no surprise that Schottenheimer looked the part during his initial media session, but sadly Jerry and Stephen Jones played their roles as well. If Schottenheimer is the hero in production, the Joneses remain the villains. If the Cowboys want better results with their new coach, they’ll have to alter their ways and provide a better supporting cast.

Frankly put, the front office will need to be more aggressive in acquiring talent. Free agency must be used for more than just the plugging of holes, as Stephen Jones put it during the opening presser. The stopgap option of waiting through the first few waves on the open market before signing cheaper players isn’t a way to break their championship drought. The last 12 years of free agency should have told organization this lesson.

The Cowboys don’t need to sign the best and most expensive players in free agency, but they do have to add quality talent. The team can still sign players that help at positions of need, they just have to do it with better options.

Team executive vice president Stephen Jones acknowledged they might need to alter their free agency approach during Schottenheimer’s press conference. Jones mentioned how the Cowboys will look at how they use free agency and how it helped the better teams in the league this season, but that guarantees nothing. Much like his dad’s facetious “all-in” comments from last offseason, Cowboys fans will believe it when they see it.

Stephen Jones is notoriously cheap when it comes to adding outside players; the organization has signed just one player over $6 million annually since the 2012 offseason, and that was a one-year rental for defensive lineman Greg Hardy in 2015. Other than Hardy, the threshold has rarely been hit and no big-money free agent has been signed by Dallas.

Instead, the Cowboys like to re-sign their own free agents and extend their best players before crying poverty. The Joneses (mainly Stephen) will talk about the salary cap and how the pie divides trying to make excuses as to why they don’t use free agency, it’s how the team conducted business last offseason. The Cowboys signed quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to massive extensions but slept through free agency. The team made one outside move, signing linebacker Eric Kendricks, and that was it before the compensatory pick window closed.

That cannot be the case again this offseason, even with a high number of their own free agents to re-sign and the priority on extending edge rusher Micah Parsons, the Cowboys have to find quality players from outside the organization. They cannot be last in free agency spending again and expect to turn their fortunes around for 2025.

Currently they don’t have a ton of salary cap space, but that can easily be managed by getting Parsons’ deal done quickly and restructuring some contracts, with Prescott and Lamb’s deals leading the way. The Cowboys can create all the cap room they need to be in on good players in the open market.

Dallas can also be aggressive in the trade market. It was a successful route in 2023 when they dealt for cornerback Stephon Gilmore and WR Brandin Cooks. Any progressive approach to adding talent will be necessary to give their new coach a chance at being more successful than his predecessors.

The Cowboys hired Schottenheimer to get them where their previous six coaches couldn’t, and part of those failures are because of how the front office operates. They can’t continue to do the same thing this time around, hoping it works. If the decision makers don’t give Schottenheimer more to work with, he’ll suffer the same fate as the previous six.

This problem isn’t new, the previous two coaches have felt the sting of the organizations unwillingness to be proactive in acquiring talent. The lack of utilizing free agency has been something that’s held the Cowboys back for the past 12 years, and it threatens the team’s future again.

Schottenheimer might only have one shot as a head coach, so he’s at the mercy of the Joneses and how they operate the franchise. It’s what he signed up for, and he’s been around the organization long enough to understand the way it works. There’s smiles and laughter now, but no one’s going to care if Schottenheimer can’t deliver on his bold prediction that the Cowboys are “gonna win championships.”

The coach can only work with the talent he’s given, and hopefully, Dallas’ front office provides Schottenheimer with the players they need to get over the hump. Solving this Super Bowl drought is as much on the front office, as it is their new head coach.

Cowboys’ Jones was fully prepared to repeat Garrett-Phillips fiasco before naming Schottenheimer HC

Jones admits his biggest priority in the hiring process was to ensure continuity in the offense, and that superseded the possibility there was a better head coach to be hired.

Jerry Jones admitted his biggest priority in the hiring process was to ensure continuity in the Dallas Cowboys offense, and that superseded the possibility there was a better head coach to be hired.

Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Sometimes, those who know the history, and caused the history, didn’t learn their lesson and return to the well when thirsty. That apparently was almost the case with the Cowboys, and seems to have led to the decision to make Brian Schottenheimer the 10th head coach in franchise history.

At Schotty’s introductory press conference on Monday, the conversation ranged from one topic to another, sometimes through three talking points and two wormholes, which is often the case when Jones gets in front of a microphone.

Towards the end of the hour-plus long affair, Jones let out some information about the coaching search that may stun some into silence.

When discussing why Schottenheimer was chosen ahead of others who might have more experience, Jones basically said that he was so enamored with having Schottenheimer as the offensive coordinator and playcaller (a duty he didn’t have as OC for Mike McCarthy), he was heavily considering pulling a “Jason Garrett on Wade Phillips” again.

For those that remember, Jones was so insistent on getting Garrett into his ecosystem, he hired him as offensive coordinator before he hired Phillips to be the head coach. That scenario seems to have been ridiculously close to playing out again.

“We wanted Brian to call the plays. We cherish his relationship with our players. We wanted him to call the plays. As my mind would drift around to alternatives,… I believe if he doesn’t want to call the plays, he’s probably not with the Cowboys.”

“I think Jerry (Jr.) said, You know something, if we went that way, as much as we’ve gone down the path, there’d be some heartbreak here. There’d be some ‘knock the slats out from under’…. I’m just giving you an idea of how the process was going as we were looking at alternatives of other people that might be coaching the Dallas Cowboys and Brian calling the plays.”

During the process, it was reported from many that Schottenheimer was under consideration for both head coach and offensive coordinator roles, and Jones decided to confirm those reports in the worst way.

Not only that, it seems based on his words that the decision to take the risk on making Schottenheimer the head coach came down to not wanting to walk away from the possibility of someone else designing the Cowboys’ offense, so he made him the head coach as well.

Which is a pretty interesting way to run a team, to say the least.

Cowboys’ Jones claims he’s constantly rolling dice, hiring Schottenheimer ‘as big a risk as you can take’

Jerry Jones is correct, but is woefully missing the point of all of the criticism levied at him over the process that led to hiring his new head coach.

The Dallas Cowboys held their introductory press conference of the 10th head coach in franchise history on Monday, bringing Brian Schottenheimer to the people. After Schottenheimer gave his opening statement, thanking the Jones family for the opportunity and giving his regards for his family’s support, the Q&A session began.

The first question lobbed to the panel, as expected, was of Jerry Jones and why he decided to hire Schottenheimer. Why him?

Jones took a deep pause of about 10 seconds before entering into a diatribe about how the decision was made. Jones cited how every Senior Bowl and scouting combine, he’d arrive early just so he can engage with potential coaches who might cross his path some time in the future. He spoke of his familiarity with the Schottenheimer family, Brian’s dad Marty and his mother Pat, from prior times on competition committees and basically saying Schottenheimer came from good stock.

He spoke of how Schottenheimer showed deference to coaches with more experience, like Mike McCarthy and Mike Zimmer, “biting his lip” when he disagreed with some of their decisions. And then he dropped the money quote.

Jones spoke on the accusations that he only operates within confines of people who have crossed his path. He believes the opposite, despite the evidence to the contrary.

“I get my proverbial a– kicked over needing people in my comfort zone. Without this thing being about me in any way, ifyou 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.”

Jones somehow believes that Schottenheimer’s 25 years of experience in the coaching profession is unique, angling that it’s not normal for someone only 51 years old. He then spoke about several of the coaches he’s had in the past, how it wasn’t only about Xs and Os, but more about life experiences in bringing in Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer and Chan Gailey.

Jones has an unbelievable blind spot to the criticisms levied against his process.

“I’ve read where I don’t have a penchant for risk taking. If you really knew my score sheet, you’d see that I have taken more risks in the last five years than the rest of my life put together.”

In football terms, that’s a ridiculous statement to try to pass off on the general public. Jones’ team has signed no external risks in free agency. Taking risks is signing outside players to large amount of guaranteed money, something Jones has proven allergic to for over a decade. He’s taken really one noteworthy risk in the draft, gambling on the red flags attached to CB Kelvin Joseph in the 2021 draft, but that’s about it.

It’s been eons since Jones gambled in the draft, trading up to snare a top prospect.

Does he consider keeping Mike McCarthy to play out the final year of his five-year contract some sort of leap of faith? Waiting until the final year of CeeDee Lamb’s contract to offer him a near market-setting deal?

Perhaps he’s speaking about the first extension for Dak Prescott, where he allowed Prescott to reach free agency, twice, and having to give him both a no-trade and a no-third-franchise-tag clause. Granted, Prescott was coming off a gruesome leg injury when he signed that deal in 2021, so Jones does get credit for that, but he had backed himself into a corner where the only viable free agent QBs were Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston,

Regardless, these are normal risks that every owner takes, and pretending like these decisions make him some sort of maverick is a confusing spin on the situation.

But yes, hiring Schottenheimer is a big risk due to his lack of head coaching experience, but this is the exception to the rule, not the norm, and it’s still a move that checks all of the boxes of an owner who doesn’t want to stray from what’s familiar.

This is hardly a knock on what Schottenheimer might do, he could be a fabulous coach and Jones knocked it out of the park. But pretending that in all of those casual interviews he bragged about hosting at the beginning of his soliloquy and there were only four coaches who interested him, and two of those had woefully bad records, is cap.

Jerry Jones defended Brian Schottenheimer’s Cowboys promotion with bewildering rant

This is an outrageous display of defiance and defense from Jerry Jones.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has never shied away from theatrics (literally, he was an actor in a recent Landman episode), but his answer for why the team promoted Brian Schottenheimer to be the team’s new head coach might be one of the strangest, most riveting moments of his ownership tenure.

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Rather than just give a canned answer to why Schottenheimer was the right pick in his eyes, Jones delivered a fiery, teary response defending his entire time owning the Cowboys and essentially daring anyone to question his decision-making.

“If you don’t think I can’t operate out my comfort zone, you’re so wrong it’s unbelievable. This is as big a risk as you can take,” Jones said about promoting Schottenheimer. “[He has] no head coaching experience.”

Jones’ remarks start at the opening of the question period, and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t rapt for the entire duration of his first answer.

Jones’ response sounds as if he’s pleading his case before the football gods to be let into NFL Valhalla for his time owning the team, hellbent on striking down any doubt about his ability to make sound decisions that lead to wins.

NFL analyst Gregg Rosenthal summed it up as well as anyone could.

From a thematic stand, Jones nailed it. From a logical standpoint of assuaging concerns from Cowboys fans that this was a rushed process that led to a questionable hire, there is no comfort to be found.

Jones sounds as defiant and desperate as ever to justify his decisions from atop the mount in Jerry World, and that feels destined steer this franchise into some absolutely bewildering directions. Whether those directions will be good and lead to franchise success … that’s a bit in the air.

No matter what, Jones sounds like he’s ready to go down swinging either way. Watching him make his case really is nothing short of remarkable.

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The real reason why Jerry Jones hired Brian Schottenheimer instead of a big-name coach

The Cowboys have retreated into their turtle shell, which continues to harden over the years and is now impacting every alligator-armed attempt to reach success. | From @KDDrummondNFL

I started the conversation three or four years ago, returning each year since, in explaining why the Cowboys don’t sign external free agents. They conduct football operations like a Fortune 500 business that is too big to fail financially, but still doing things woefully incorrectly. This philosophy appears to have leaked into the process that led to Brian Schottenheimer being hired as the latest head coach.

Follow the logic.

Big player contracts are seen as rewards for prior performance to the company. Players earn big deals as thank yous for outperforming their previous contracts, kind of like 9-to-5 workers getting promotions.

Despite his background as an oil guy, Jones has soured on speculation in his later years. Signing external free agents is all about what could be. Sure, a player could have proven his value for a different team, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be the same guy in a new organizational setting, under different coaching.

Signing a guy to a huge amount of guaranteed salary when they’ve never done it in the fishbowl that is Dallas is a gamble the Jones family is no longer willing to take. This is why the club no longer plays the market in the first few waves of free agency. As time goes on, Jones has been less inclined to tread in those waters.

That philosophy has now seeped into his coaching decisions and was on full display with everything that happened since Mike McCarthy’s contract expired at the end of the 2024 regular season.

Jones did not envision a world where McCarthy wasn’t returning as the head coach, reportedly. He wasn’t dutifully prepared for a coaching search, assuming that after backing McCarthy into a corner as a lame-duck for 2024, the bad season on his resume would limit his external opportunities and convince him to return under Jones’ parameters.

Those parameters allegedly included forcing a Jones “family member” (Jason Witten) onto McCarthy’s staff, and a shorter than normal contract length.

This was something Jones had done to Wade Phillips over a decade ago. Jones hired his guy, Jason Garrett, before Phillips was brought on board, letting the journeyman coach know his successor was already decided before working his first day on the job.

Accusations exist regarding Garrett potentially purposefully contributing to the unraveling of the 2010 season.

Jones also didn’t care how blocking McCarthy from interviewing with the Chicago Bears would come across to the outside world. When McCarthy balked at the offer, Jones was left scrambling for a solution.

That included a quick conversation with Deion Sanders, a Jones favorite from the 1990 heydays who has shined in the CFB coaching circuit. Sanders was never brought in for an official interview, despite there being a compelling case, but word of their conversation “about the head coach position” was quickly run through the media’s tentacles in what seems to be an effort in distraction.

It feels as if it was used as a cover while the brass formed an ad hoc process, while also attempting to give Sanders leverage in his discussions with his currently employer.

In the end there were only four men interviewed for the head coach opening after McCarthy walked. The two true candidates were Schottenheimer and Kellen Moore, Schottenheimer’s predecessor as offensive coordinator.

Moore is currently employed by the Philadelphia Eagles. He did a virtual interview last Friday, but the Eagles advancing to the NFCCG kept him from a follow up. The Jones family spent the week convincing themselves of Schottenheimer’s worthiness.

The two other coaches Jones interviewed felt out of place. Both were ex-head coaches with horrible records who just so happened to be minorities, thus satisfying the NFL’s Rooney Rule (which is a whole separation serious conversation that needs to be had).

Rober Saleh, 20-36, was fired midseason from the New York Jets and returned to San Francisco earlier Friday to be their defensive coordinator. That likely doesn’t happen if he feels he’s a serious candidate to be the Cowboys head coach. The other was Leslie Frazier, 21-32-1, currently an assistant head coach in Seattle currently.

Were they seriously under consideration? A team with the prestige of the Dallas Cowboys only interviews two candidates who lacked prior ties to the organization and they both had miserable records?

Jones never made a real effort to escape his comfort zone. Transitioning to Schottenheimer was literally the next-best thing to his original plan of keeping McCarthy on the cheap, furthering the idea that the coach’s exodus caught him off guard.

The expected hiring of Matt Eberflus as defensive coordinator supports the idea of Jones’ proclivity to favor those who have worked for him before, rather than outsiders. While it’s being walked back that he’s a sure thing to take over the DC job, most know what it is.

There’s a lot of scuttlebutt the team believes they satisfied the Rooney Rule for coordinators by claiming that Saleh and Frazier were considerations for both HC and DC, as they classified Schottenheimer’s initial interview as being for both HC and OC.

If one walked away from this as them looking to shirk the rules, it’d be tough to argue them down.

All in all though, things seem fairly obvious from the outside looking in. The Jones don’t trust their ability to look outside the organization for help. When it comes to players, there’s nothing that will convince them the risk is worth the reward. When it comes to head coaches, they will trust former champions, but even they could have conditions attached. It’s all a stressful existence for fans who have tied their sports happiness (and sometimes overall joy) to a franchise that has shrunk into it’s turtle shell.

Twitter, Bluesky reactions to Jones’ flawed process that made Schottenheimer the Cowboys HC

Things have felt bleak in Dallas for over a year, and the way that Schottenheimer came to power leaves many scratching their heads. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Late into the night, the Dallas Cowboys made an announcement of their new head coaching hire. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer has now taken over the reins, after being on Mike McCarthy’s staff over the last three years.

Fans and media have watched a weird coaching search play out since the end of the regular season. Dallas had a one-week, exclusive negotiating window with McCarthy, allowing them to deny the Chicago Bears permission to interview him despite his contract’s expiration.

It’s been said one of the reasons McCarthy walked was because Owner Jerry Jones insisted Jason Witten be part of the next coaching staff. Jones reportedly didn’t have any foresight that McCarthy would turn down his offers and walk away, and was left holding the bag, scrambling to execute a last-minute coaching search. He missed his window to interview two well-regarded coordinators, the Lions Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, during the wild-card round, as both took jobs before ever talking with Dallas.

There was a conversation, but no interview, with Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, and former NFL coaches Leslie Frazier and Robert Saleh were brought in for interviews that satisfied the NFL’s Rooney Rule.  The club had a virtual interview with former assistant and current Philadelphia OC Kellen Moore, but for the past week, it’s been clear to those in the know that the team was focusing on Schottenheimer.

Related: Cowboys tab former LB coach Matt Eberflus to run defense

Frustrated with the process, fans locked in on the Jones’ obvious preference for hiring people they are already familiar with, afraid to go outside the organization for a head coach unless they had proven successful elsewhere. This clear hole in their process is seen as emblematic of the reasons it’s been three decades since the club has seen true success, unable to escape the divisional round of the playoffs, often succumbing in the wild-card round.

And for that reason, Schottenheimer is a frustrating choice for many.

Failure shouldn’t be expected; the things that make a HC successful aren’t necessarily tied into being a savant as OC or DC. The animosity is more about the fact the process in Dallas is ridiculously flawed and everyone seems to know it except for the billionaires making the decisions.

As such, social media reactions have ranged from despair, apathy, laughter and everywhere in between. Here are some of the best responses.

BlueSky

Twitter

Winning the Super Bowl with Dak Prescott depends on this key Cowboys decision

Schottenheimer’s been hired; now here’s the task he will be judged by.

Dallas has named Brian Schottenheimer as the new head coach, but fans will have to wait for his introductory press conference on Monday to learn whether he will call plays. Whoever calls them, will have to knock it out of the park to maximize Dak Prescott’s skillset as his career has ebbed and flowed over his nine seasons.

The Cowboys have not been to an NFC Championship game since 1995, the longest streak of futility for any team by 15 years. Just since 2018, seven teams have made the Super Bowl, and all either have an elite quarterback who can carry a less-talented squad, a great play-caller who makes an offense outperform its parts, a roster-stacking wizard GM, or a combination.

Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL, and Andy Reid is one of the best coaches ever. The Chiefs have followed the New England Patriots’ blueprint with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Brady also led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl victory to end the 2020 season.

Joe Burrow has carried the Cincinnati Bengals to a Super Bowl, even winning in Arrowhead Stadium against the Chiefs to get there.

Sean McVay might be the best offensive play-caller in the NFL. He helped Jared Goff get to a Super Bowl and then won it with Matt Stafford, who had zero playoff success before having McVay as his coach. Kyle Shanahan is one of the best offensive minds in the league, and the 49ers have made two Super Bowl appearances in the last five years with him running their offense, but he isn’t the only reason.

San Francisco’s general manager, John Lynch, always creates an incredible roster. He has a top-of-the-league defense and surrounds his quarterback with weapons like Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, and Christian McCaffrey. Even when he had a contender, he wasn’t content, trading for McCaffrey and letting Jimmy Garoppolo leave to draft Trey Lance and Brock Purdy.

Another team that has mastered the team-building route to winning is the Philadelphia Eagles.

Howie Roseman built a team so stacked they were able to win a Super Bowl with their backup QB in 2017. He then revamped the team and returned to the big game five seasons later with Jalen Hurts as his quarterback.

They are once again in the NFC title game this year with top-of-the-league offensive linemen, wide receivers, tight end, running back, and defensive unit. They have an MVP candidate in Saquon Barkley, a defensive player of the year candidate in Zack Baun, two defensive rookie of the year possibilities, and Vic Fangio is an assistant coach of the year finalist. Roseman could be executive of the year.

Jerry Jones isn’t going to go all in on Dallas’ roster like the Eagles or the 49ers will.

The team is a playoff contender when healthy, but they won’t push contracts back enough to load up the roster. Prescott is an All-Pro, MVP-capable quarterback, but not one that can carry a lesser team past a great one in the postseason. Only Mahomes, Burrow, and possibly Josh Allen can put a team on their back to overcome a roster that isn’t as good as their opponent.

The general manager and quarterback are locked in for the next few seasons, so the only way the Cowboys can get the team to the next level is by upgrading the head coach to someone who can elevate the team through their scheme and play calling. This is why the coaching hire is key for the next four seasons Prescott is under contract. If the front office can’t build a team the QB can win with, the coach must be great, or the chances of getting to the next level in Dallas are slim.

Can Schottenheimer shock the world and be that guy, or hire the playcaller who can?

You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or Bluesky @mike-crum-cdpiglet.bsky.social