It’s been almost two years since the Dallas Cowboys made the fateful decision to hire offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer–who had never been a head coach before–to replace veteran coach Mike McCarthy after a 7-10 season. The first year with Schottenheimer was chaotic, with an outstanding offense and a disaster of a defense, a blockbuster trade in the middle of the year and a tragic suicide at about the same time, and only marginally better, record-wise. The Cowboys were 7-9-1 last year.
This season under Schottenheimer has not seen many advances. The offense has gotten marginally worse, and the defense has mostly been as bad, if not slightly better than in 2025. The team has seemed to cough away two shoulda-won games (against the Ravens in Week 3 and against the Cardinals in Week 8), and barely showed up for a third (against the Buccaneers in Week 5), and after each fresh insult of a loss, there have been ample calls to get Jerry Jones to fire Schottenheimer.
Jerry Jones: ‘I Like the Bet’ on Brian Schottenheimer
Don’t count on it. On Friday, during a radio appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, Jones was very clear tat a bet was made on Schottenheimer developing into a good coach, even with a total record of 11-14-1 thus far, and that Jones stands behind that bet.
Said Jones: “Given the ability to live to tell about it, Brian will be a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, he’ll be much more (prepared) for the kinds of challenges a head coach has. There’s no question, you pay a price when you’re doing it for the first time. … I still like the bet.”
Cowboys Have a Chance to Move up in NFC East
Jones also said, repeatedly, that the Sunday game against the 49ers stands as an opportunity for the Cowboys to shake off their disappointing start and get to 5-5 with some momentum. The Cowboys have a chance to move up in the NFC East with the Giants falling to 5-3-1 after a loss on Thursday night.
Jones said the early struggles could slingshot the Cowboys forward: “Most of any character building — most of anything that has contributed to something good has come about mot through good times, but adverse times. It’s building on learning those lessons in adverse times. We have certainly given everybody a big dose of adverse times. We’ve been in the foxhole, shot at and hit. Let’s come out of here and do something that could reverse this against a great team.”
Cowboys’ Jerry Jones Makes Strong Statement on Brian Schottenheimer Future