People Want Answers; We Wish We Had Some
Trying to put our arms around the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer and What is Next.
Today, they speak to us.
We know how this works – an introductory press conference filled with all of our familiar figures of Cowboys football. A new coach begins to try to drink from the fire-hose of his first head coaching job.
For 51-year old Brian Schottenheimer, it is time to make things happen. Getting dressed today for his big day in front of the camera must be an amazing experience as scenes from his life flash before him. He grew up watching his dad do his thing and set off to follow a similar path. Now he is finally here.
So, forgive him if he isn’t a guy who is cynical, not today at least.
Schottenheimer is getting a chance to do something very few coaches ever get to do. Run a NFL football team. One of 32 jobs and you don’t always get to hand-pick which one offers you the rose. If I am guessing, he wasn’t the type to turn down this rare opportunity anywhere. But, now he is on the biggest stage and coaching one of the biggest franchises in the world. Who can imagine what this opportunity must mean to him and his family?
If nothing else, we should remember that this is truly a huge day for a guy who waited his turn.
Of course, we are not here making dreams come true for long-ignored coaches. We are here following a football organization that hasn’t been good enough for way too long. And you all rightfully would like some answers.
On Saturday, I wrote a long piece (found below) about the Cowboys hiring their 10th head coach.
It was mostly about the process and not enough about the actual hire, according to many of you who read it.
I will confess that a big part of not covering what he is all about is that I wish to offer him the benefit of some doubt that what has happened in the past for him. It is a little more complex than merely listing his rankings with teams that had very poor rosters or some other circumstances that should be considered. Nevertheless, people have questions and would enjoy some answers. I often try to provide something more than what I did on Saturday. So, let’s talk.
I will answer some of your questions and concerns now before we hear the man speak in a few hours:
From K Rice:
I was hoping for more analysis on Schottenheimer. I know what to think of the Jones. I don’t know what to think about Scotty.
This is very fair. I am hoping for more, too. The facts on Brian Schottenheimer are the following:
He has been in this league coaching for a very long time and has a ton of experience.
He is very well regarded as a very knowledgeable and easy to work with individual.
He is attractive enough to the NFL that he never been out of a job for long as an offensive mind.
The rest of it goes from facts to interpretations of history and statistics:
He runs a very run-oriented offense and at time is accused of not being modern enough in his approaches.
He has had many point to conservative and predictable in Seattle and we use Seattle from 2018-2020 as the most recent and relevant stop as well perhaps the only place where he had enough talent to be properly evaluated for results.
He has not been in very high demand since Seattle due to the frustrations of that run and we are left wondering what he truly believes as an offensive mind.
I went back and reviewed some different write-ups about him from the analytics boys at Football Outsiders. Here is a passage from 2018’s annual when he was hired in Seattle: