The Dallas Cowboys’ brutal season that saw them miss the playoffs after suffering a host of injuries to their stars has been followed by an even more puzzling offseason.
Despite calls throughout the campaign for head coach Mike McCarthy’s job as Dallas failed to meet expectations, team owner and general manager Jerry Jones repeatedly reiterated his support of McCarthy.
However, when it came time to put pen to paper, contract talks between Jones and McCarthy stalled out and both parties decided to mutually part ways. Almost immediately after news of McCarthy’s departure broke, Deion Sanders was linked to Dallas as a candidate for the job.
At the time, both Sanders and Jones confined the reports of talks being had and their serious consideration of a future together, but Jones appears to be walking his earlier sentiments back.
The Athletic’s Jon Machota gave a recap of Jones’ talking points in a Monday media session.
“— Deion Sanders was never a serious candidate to be the Cowboys’ next coach. — It doesn’t sound like Jason Witten will be on the coaching staff. — Brian Schottenheimer will call offensive plays. — Jerry didn’t feel like he needed to meet with coaching candidates like Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn because Brian Schottenheimer has a better understanding of the Cowboys’ current situation. Jerry said he thinks Schottenheimer has the same skills as Johnson and Glenn.”
From talking to Jerry Jones:
— Deion Sanders was never a serious candidate to be the Cowboys’ next coach.
— It doesn’t sound like Jason Witten will be on the coaching staff.
— Brian Schottenheimer will call offensive plays.
— Jerry didn’t feel like he needed to meet with…
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) January 27, 2025
Fans reacted to Machota’s report on social media.
“The fact that he isn’t bringing in another OC to game plan around like other coaches is weird,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“So he went out of his comfort zone by picking the candidate they were the most comfortable with? They couldn’t tell the truth if it would win them the Super Bowl,” one fan added.
“Jerry is right, Brian Schottenheimer does have a better understanding of the Cowboys’ current situation. The current situation is Jerry World is bad at contracts, cap management, free agency, prioritizes stadium tours over player workout privacy, has bare bones training staff and interferes with coaches too much. If the top tier coaches did have an understanding of the Cowboys’ current situation, they would never come here,” another fan added.
It’ll be interesting to see if Jones’s moves pan out.
