DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys are rumored to have a favorite in their coaching search: Brian Schottenheimer, the team’s offensive coordinator the last two seasons.
If hired, Schottenheimer would replace Mike McCarthy, who split ways with Dallas after the injury-riddled Cowboys struggled to a 7-10 record in 2024.
Jerry Jones has also interviewed Robert Saleh, Leslie Frazier and Kellen Moore for the job. And Deion Sanders has been said to have piqued Jones’ interest. But Schottenheimer has reportedly received the most facetime with Cowboys brass, getting two days’ worth of interviews this week.
Here’s what we know about him:
Who is Brian Schottenheimer?
Schottenheimer, son of late NFL coaching legend Marty Schottenheimer, has been in Dallas for two seasons, but he’s been an offensive coordinator in the NFL since 2006.
Despite his nearly 20-year tenure as an OC, he’s never been a head coach. Even as Dallas’ OC, he was never the primary play-caller with McCarthy at the helm.
Brian Schottenheimer went to back-to-back AFC Championship games as the New York Jets offensive coordinator in 2009 and 2010, with Mark Sanchez leading the offense under center. In his tenure with the Jets, Schottenheimer’s offenses finished 18th (2006), 25th (2007), 9th (2008), 17th (2009), 13th (2010) and 13th (2011).
Brian Schottenheimer-led Rams offenses from 2012 to 2014, with Sam Bradford at quarterback, were below average in points per game, scoring 18.7(25th out of 32), 21.8 (21st out of 32) and 20.3 (21st out of 32). He found better success running the Seattle Seahawks offense with Russell Wilson from 2018 to 2020, where they scored 26.8 (6th out of 32), 25.3 (9th out of 32) and 28.7 (8th out of 32) points per game, respectively. The Seahawks led the NFL in rushing in 2018 under Schottenheimer.
Schottenheimer spent one season as the Jacksonville Jaguars passing game coordinator before coming to the Cowboys in 2022 as a coaching analyst, then later as the offensive coordinator when Moore went to the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Locked On Cowboys crew broke down Schottenheimer’s candidacy here:
