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admitted his biggest priority in the hiring process was to ensure continuity in the Dallas Cowboys offense, and that superseded the possibility there was a better head coach to be hired.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