After an 8-8 season in 2019 — his fourth in nine years — Jason Garrett was fired and replaced by Mike McCarthy. After a 7-10 season in 2024 that came on the heels of three consecutive 12-5 playoff seasons, Mike McCarthy was fired.
Was he replaced by Jason Garrett 2.0?
It’s a question worth asking after watching the Cowboys’ total collapse in December and January. Dallas managed just a 7-9-1 record following a 1-4 finish that included losses to teams that concluded with records of 9-8 (Detroit), 8-9 (Minnesota), 11-6 (Los Angeles Chargers) and 4-13 (the New York Football Giants).
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I know this question angers some because the reactions to Garrett for much of the Cowboys’ fan base are unnaturally harsh. No, he was not ultimately successful and did not do the things he was hired to do. That just made him like everyone else since Barry Switzer. Garrett was given nine full seasons after replacing Wade Phillips in the middle of 2010. No one since Tom Landry has had anything close to that length of time to get it right. His 2-3 playoff record came after a long dissatisfying postseason stretch from Chan Gailey (0-2), Bill Parcells (0-2), Phillips (1-2) and before McCarthy (1-3).
Pick a record, any record. They all stink.
Like Garrett, Schottenheimer arrived as an offensive coordinator first. Actually, he shared the role with McCarthy. And while Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made it clear he saw Garrett as a future head coach from the day he brought him back to Valley Ranch in 2007, Jones has acknowledged he did not even view “Schotty” as head coach material until the interviews were conducted last January.
What Schottenheimer gives the fans are straight, honest, thoughtful answers through the press. At least he does it when he’s not being asked about Matt Eberflus’ staying power. What Garrett gave the fans were more than nine years of robotic answers determined to cut every news conference to the shortest possible length. It’s unfair to say Garrett was never expansive, but those who covered him have notebooks filled with hundreds of “He’s a good football player, he’s been a good football player for a long time, we’re happy to have him” passages.
Now Schottenheimer needs more than politeness to stick around here like Garrett did. Jones expected progress this year, although he certainly derailed any real chance of achieving it when he sent Micah Parsons to Green Bay a few minutes before the season’s opening kickoff. Still, Schottenheimer got 17 starts from Dak Prescott — nine more than McCarthy had a year ago — and elevated the team from 7-10 to 7-9-1. With that kind of progress over the course of a year, Lewis and Clark would still be in Idaho looking for the Oregon border.
One way to examine this is to turn your attention to Atlanta. Maybe you don’t think the Cowboys long to become the Falcons. On the other hand, two Super Bowl and four NFC Championship Game trips since Dallas last achieved any of those would suggest maybe the Falcons don’t long to become the Cowboys. Anyway, the Falcons fired the coach and the GM on Sunday night. This news came after the players barely had time to shower following their fourth straight victory.
The Cowboys don’t have a general manager to dismiss (and, yes, that’s 80 percent of the problem, a road we have traveled here too many times to return to today). In the case of coach Raheem Morris, he went 8-9 last year and this season in Atlanta and was fired. I don’t know that Jones takes a lot of cues from owner Arthur Blank, but then again, maybe the Falcons just have higher standards than the Cowboys these days. The point is that 7-9-1 in Schottenheimer’s first season won’t cost anyone besides Eberflus a job. Another 7-9-1 in 2026 would have Jones at least pondering what he’s gotten himself into this time.
Mostly here to run the offense, Schottenheimer delivered in a big way. Dallas finished second behind the Rams in total yards, seventh overall in total points. But doing a good job with Dak is nothing new. Garrett did that when Dak and Zeke Elliott were rookies and the club went 13-3 before Aaron Rodgers’ magic ended their postseason plans.
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It was on defense where the Cowboys failed all year, even after the Quinnen Williams trade, finishing 30th in total defense and dead last with a record-setting 30.1 points allowed per game. Schottenheimer cannot be held directly responsible for the defensive mess in his first season. But he will be eventually. So whatever role he plays in making the eventual determination to move on from Eberflus and find a new, young defensive voice for this team, he has to get it right.
What I would worry about is his belief in his players. If you learn anything from the HBO ”Hard Knocks” cameras being in the NFC East locker rooms this season, it‘s that every coach from Philadelphia’s Nick Sirianni on top of the division to interim coach Mike Kafka in New York believes in his players and “the brotherhood” of his team.
“Now the season’s over. We’ll go back and look at everything with a fine-tooth comb. And there will always be things we have to address,” Schottenheimer said Sunday. “We have the right type of guys. There’s no question about that. You know we did some good things this year.”
Mostly, they made great offseason calls on Javonte Williams and George Pickens and need to find the money to keep both. They made a nice midseason save on the trade for Williams — or at least it appeared they did for a few weeks and maybe time will tell in 2026.
But they squandered a productive and healthy season from Dak, and he’ll be 33 next summer. Not every quarterback gets to be Tom Brady and play at a high level while getting AARP notices in the mailbox. That’s the real failing for this team in 2025. And if they don’t get it right with the defensive coordinator and the defensive players they presumably grab with those two first-round picks, the heads will start to turn Schottenheimer’s way in 12 months’ time.
X: @TimCowlishaw
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