Schottenheimer is entering his second season as head coach, but one analyst thinks he could already be on the hot seat.
FRISCO - Brian Schottenheimer's first year as Dallas Cowboys head coach didn't exactly go according to plan, with the final result being a 7-9-1 record and no playoff berth for the second straight season.
Of course, the defense was the worst in the league, and the front office traded away the team's best defensive player in Micah Parsons.
But still, the buck starts and stops with Schottenheimer.
Well, and with Jerry Jones.
Now as "Schotty'' is entering his second season, there is hope that the Cowboys might finally be able to return to the playoffs after an offseason highlighted by a defensive overhaul both on and off the field, coupled with the usual high expectations for the Dak Prescott-led offense.
We're not crowning the Cowboys - on defense or otherwise - just yet. OTAs are about to open, which will give us a first peek into how new defensive coordinator Christian Parker's vision is coming together.
But can Cowboys Nation project Dallas to be a playoff team in 2026? That seems reasonable.
Unless you're "shock-jocking'' ...
Fox Sports' Jason McIntyre, the sidekick on Colin Cowherd's "The Herd,'' is offering about as skeptical a view as possible ... for the Cowboys and for their coach.
“I don't see greatness in Dallas the way everyone else does,” McIntyre said. “To me, this is a good, not great team. ... I guess the arrow's pointing slightly up for the Cowboys, but I don't think by any stretch they're a playoff team.
"When that doesn't happen, then you start wondering, 'Is Schotty going to get run out of town? How many more years can Jerry take no playoffs and be happy with it?"
McIntyre, we're sure, is aware that owner Jones has a slow trigger finger when it comes to firing a coach; Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy can testify to that.
McIntyre is also surely aware of the Dallas schedule, which has the Cowboys favored in Weeks 1 and 2 over the Giants and the Commanders, respectively ... and yet he paints a scenario in which the Cowboys start 1-3 with Schottenheimer "seeing the "writing on the wall" ...
And then he hints that Jerry would fire Schottenheimer to hire Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman as the replacement.
Are the Cowboys lined up to start 1-3? Is it really "playoffs-or-you're-out'' for Schottenheimer? Is Dallas secretly plotting to hire a college coach with no particular ties to the Jones family, the Cowboys, or even the NFL?
We'd say, don't bank on those three things occurring.
Freeman, to his credit, has put together a 43-12 record, with four consecutive AP Top 25 finishes and a College Football Playoff appearance. And he had Notre Dame playing in the national championship game in 2024.
At 40 years old, he is likely poised to be "the next hot thing'' in the eyes of the NFL.
But in Dallas?
Would Jerry and the front office, having overseen monumental changes this offseason in the way they do business, overreact to short-term failure by tearing it all down once again?
You should find that to be hard to believe.
In the end ...
Is the pressure on for the Cowboys? Sure; when it is not?
Is the mortality of Jones, as he approaches his 84th birthday, a factor in how he operates? Sure, and he's said as much.
But the potential brilliance of Freeman aside, predicting a Jerry Jones firing of Brian Schottenheimer after Year 2 is an illogical bridge too far, and reeks of "shock-jocking'' of the worst sort.
It's a good way to fill a TV segment. It'd be a bad way to run a football team.
