With the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones maintained his stance of being ‘all in’ during his first meeting with the media since parting ways with Mike McCarthy two weeks prior.
Jones also used the introductory news conference Monday to respond to the idea that he would only hire somebody he could control.
‘I know I get my proverbial (expletive) kicked over needing people in my comfort zone. Without this thing being about me in any way, if you don’t think I can’t operate out of my comfort zone, you’re so wrong, it’s unbelievable,’ Jones said. ‘This is as big a risk you can take, as big a risk as you can take – no head-coaching experience.
‘Let me share something with you. With all of that, you just heard him reference his osmosis, his family, anybody in this room that doesn’t believe the apple doesn’t go far from the tree has missed it someplace down the road, especially if there was an effort to make it that way, and there was an effort.’
The Cowboys announced the hiring of Schottenheimer, a longtime offensive coordinator with X teams but no previous head-coaching experience, Friday.
All things Cowboys: Latest Dallas Cowboys news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.
The numerous coaches and players Schottenheimer, the son of late former NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer, has been exposed to throughout his coaching career appealed to Jones.
‘How often do you have a chance to take advantage of all of that at 50 years old, which is a puppy?” Jones said. “Yet he’s had 25 years being around the kinds of things he’s going to draw from. “I like his package. I like that experience.’
None of Jones’ previous head-coaching hires – from Jimmy Johnson to Chan Gailey – were driven by X’s and O’s, he said.
Jones said that he has taken more risk in the last five years than in the rest of his life put together. This hiring process was thorough, despite the Cowboys holding formal interviews with just four candidates.
“It’s ridiculous to think that you can make a decision to coach the Cowboys relative to the number of interviews that you might have,” Jones said.
He added: “What I’m here to tell you is this was a thorough, thorough process, shaded by whatever my experiences have been.”
Jones also had a message for Cowboys fans who were unimpressed by Schottenheimer’s promotion.
“What I would say (to) the fans is that, yes to some – and it might be couched to some as a less-than-glamorous hire – what I would say to you is I got (by) taking shots,’ Jones said.
“Don’t think for one minute I won’t take a shot. This was risky. This is risky.
“I’m all in here.”
Jones said Schottenheimer impressed him when the owner observed meetings. He watched Schottenheimer display deference to experience and his boss, McCarthy.
“I’ve watched him bite his lip sometimes when he didn’t necessarily agree with that direction, but he bit his lip, as his daddy would have told him,” Jones said.
Yet Jones was complimentary of McCarthy, as he’d been over the past few months.
‘Mike McCarthy left some good stuff here,’ Jones said. ‘One of them was Brian. Mike McCarthy is a hell of a coach.’
But it was time for a change.
“I’ve heard it criticized (that) we spent five days getting to come to that decision. We did come to that decision. One of the reasons we came to that decision is because there was this decision available to us as well – one of the reasons,” Jones said. “Schotty has fantastic support among our players. Key players. Real support. And they’ve seen him when he was on top, they’ve seen him when it didn’t work out so well. That’s an advantage here. That’s a real advantage. That was big. That was real big.”
For those who said the process looked “disjointed” or “untimely,” regarding the days of meetings between McCarthy and Jones as both coach and team floated in limbo, the time helped inform the owner’s decision to not re-sign McCarthy.
“That time, those days to go through many things that we should and wanted to talk about, that caused us to arrive at that,” he said. “But what we have is an opportunity to take some of the very best things that are here in place, Mike’s doing, some of those very-best things, change some of that, add to it, and be better for that.”
Schottenheimer’s offensive philosophy might be more old-school than other coaches, Jones said. But that wasn’t a detractor. But Jones is confident in Schottenheimer’s ability to blend his style with the modern necessities and with an eye toward future evolution.
“That’s rare to come in here with this kind of energy. This kind of ‘I’m gonna show ‘em.’ That’s rare to combine those two things,” Jones said. “Yeah, there’ll be change. But we’ll use many things we have in place now.”
One thing that won’t be the same is the head coach.