Fans grill Cowboys for hiring Brian Schottenheimer as next coach: ‘Clown show’

The Dallas Cowboys have hired Brian Schottenheimer, their offensive coordinator, as the team’s next head coach, announcing the move Friday with a message from Jerry Jones attached.

“Brian Schottenheimer is known for being a workaholic,” Jones said, via ESPN. “He’s not Brian anymore. He’s now known as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.”

The hire shocked some and surprised many, as the Cowboys’ process this offseason has been an uphill one.

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Cowboys fans expressed their opinions on social media, and they were not very happy with their team’s selection.

“Hiring Brian Schottenheimer as head coach without even trying to talk to Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn or other top picks is 1000% the same as not calling Derrick Henry and just signing Zeke,” one fan told X. “Same. Exact. Something.”

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To understand where Cowboys fans may be coming from, one has to understand the strange process the team has gone through since the start of the season.

First, the problem for Jones and the rest of the organization was what to do with Mike McCarthy, a head coach who went 7-10 in the final year of his contract without quarterback Dak Prescott for a good chunk of the season.

Players like Prescott and others publicly voiced their support for McCarthy, but the Cowboys moved on.

In doing so, however, they were already behind the 8-ball, as other teams in need of a head coach were already out interviewing and grooming candidates.

When Dallas assembled their roster, it was an interesting group. Robert Saleh, the former New York Jets coach who was fired midseason in 2024, came in despite not being on anyone’s roster other than the Jacksonville Jaguars. He eventually returned to the Bay Area to take his old job as defensive coordinator under Kyle Shanahan.

Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer watches before a game against the New York Giants at AT&T Stadium on Nov. 28, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (Sam Hodde/Getty Images)

There was also Pete Carroll, who eventually returned to the NFL by taking the Las Vegas Raiders job. Kellen Moore, the former Cowboys offensive coordinator who is now with the Eagles, joined the discussion, as did Leslie Frazier, who serves as an assistant head coach for the Seattle Seahawks.

Although these candidates have all their credentials, supporters were unhappy that top nominees like the ones mentioned above, all of whom have arrived elsewhere, never entered the building.

David Helman of Fox Sports broke down the situation from the perspective of the Cowboys’ process.

“We don’t know that Brian Schottenheimer will be a failure any more than we know that Ben Johnson will be a success,” he wrote in X. “The recruitment of coaches is strange and difficult to predict.

“We know that there will be a bad program that will continue for eight days with a coach who needs a new contract, he failed to keep him after missing the interview window for the players who were visited by things, and he brought in two coaches who have not been at a high level. look, one outside assistant you already have a relationship with and *then* picks a guy down the hall who a) doesn’t draw interest elsewhere b) wasn’t a head coach c) didn’t call plays and d) has had mixed results when you’ve called the offense in the past.”

Finally, some feel that Schottenheimer is similar to Jason Garrett, who took over the job after the firing of Wade Phillips, under whom he worked.

Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer during training camp at Ridge Fields. (Kirby Lee-USA Today Sports)

“It’s new, easy, cheap, and the Joneses keep control the way they like it,” wrote one upset fan. “This team doesn’t want to win. It’s about attention. It’s about pride. Cowboys fans are tired of this cliché game.”

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Schottenheimer joined McCarthy’s Cowboys staff in 2022 as a coaching analyst before taking over for Moore as offensive coordinator in 2023. His first year in the position was Prescott’s best season, as the team won the NFC East before falling to the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card Round. The team had the fifth-ranked offense that season.

Schottenheimer, the son of decorated NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer, has nearly three decades of coaching under his belt, spending time with the Jets, Rams and Seahawks before joining the Cowboys. He served in the offensive coordinator role for each of those teams.

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