The Cowboys are entering Year 4 of the Mike McCarthy Experience in Dallas, which means it’s essentially put-up or shut-up time for the former Super Bowl winning coach. Gone is Kellen Moore, the inherited offensive coordinator from the previous regime.
In comes Brian Schottenheimer, the well-traveled play-designer, handpicked by McCarthy. What the hiring lacks in creativity, it makes up for in fit and acquiescence.
Rather than tweaking the current model, McCarthy is expected to build an offense that better resembles his system in Green Bay. Wanting someone he knew and someone he felt confident would support and enhance his efforts, McCarthy hired Schottenheimer, who was most recently working in a supportive role of coaching consultant in 2022.
Working together last season, McCarthy and Schottenheimer likely laid the groundwork for a successful working relationship in 2023. McCarthy knows what to expect from Schottenheimer and Schottenheimer probably knows what will be demanded by McCarthy.
He hired familiar for a reason.
McCarthy will be calling plays for the Cowboys in 2023 and Schottenheimer will be helping with play-design and game-planning. But who really is Schottenheimer and what does he bring to his new role in Dallas?
Is Schottenheimer a good offensive coordinator?
Much of the immediate consternation over the hire revolves around Schottenheimer’s modest success in his various coaching pit stops. He served as offensive coordinator three times before in the NFL (New York Jets 2006-2011, Los Angeles Rams 2012-2014 and Seattle Seahawks 2018-2020) but only in Seattle did he find success (top-10 offense in scoring and EPA).
Yet, even his time with the Seahawks was somewhat marred because Seattle ran, what many believed to be, a dated attack. The Seahawks offense was top-ranked but leaned heavily on a run-run-pass formula that didn’t maximize Russell Wilson’s best years.
Schottenheimer was unceremoniously let go in Seattle when offensive production dipped significantly late in 2020. Cited as “philosophical differences” between Pete Carroll and Schottenheimer, the most successful stop in Schottenheimer’s career came to an abrupt end, leaving questions as to how good he really is and where the blame/credit for the various success and failures should be.
Is Schottenheimer a run-heavy coach?
This could be the biggest misconception out there right now.
It doesn’t help his father, Marty Schottenheimer, was infamously known for “Marty Ball” which uses opportunistic passing to support a stubborn and unrelenting running game. It also doesn’t help his numbers show he’s led some fairly run-heavy attacks over the course of his career.
Yet a deeper dive shows there’s more than meets the eye and calling him a run-heavy coach might be inaccurate once the circumstances of the individual situations are considered.
Seattle offers the best glimpse of this.
The previously mentioned “Philosophical differences” between Carroll and Schottenheimer specifically involved the run-pass balance. But it was Schottenheimer who wanted to pass the ball more and Carroll who wanted to maintain the run-heavy identity, according to QB Russell Wilson.
Carroll, one of the most run-focused coaches in today’s NFL, saw his team’s passing frequency steadily rise under Schottenheimer. His last year calling plays for the Seahawks produced Wilson’s best season of his career (also the most pass attempts of Wilson’s career).
Despite the success, it didn’t fit the mold of what Carroll thought a Seattle offense should be and Schottenheimer was dismissed.
What is a Schottenheimer offense?
Schottenheimer isn’t as run-heavy as Carroll wanted in Seattle but he’s also probably not as pass-happy as McCarthy was in Green Bay. Schottenheimer is an Air Coryell coach who uses inside-zone runs to set up play-action passing.
Like McCarthy, he likes to hit receivers on the run and designs plays for YAC (yards after catch) which is a stark contrast from Moore’s version of Air Coryell.
At the end of the day, Schottenheimer’s offense will be what McCarthy needs it to be. McCarthy is calling the plays so Schottenheimer’s ideal run-pass ratio is almost irrelevant. McCarthy will dictate that.
Schottenheimer brings new running concepts and a love for play-action and YAC to the offense. Most importantly, he brings something McCarthy specifically wants and not something he inherited.
For better or for worse, McCarthy is doing things on his terms this coming season and Schottenheimer is the offensive coordinator he chose to do it with.
