Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer has revealed why he won't be pulling starters in the final three games.
The build-up to the Dallas Cowboys' Week 16 game against the Los Angeles Chargers has been dominated by how the franchise will approach the final three weeks of the season.
Our own Mike Fisher's "organic tanking" approach, in which the team rests starters to avoid injury and gives younger players snaps to improve the Cowboys' draft position, is a sound idea.
And frankly a good one.
But the Cowboys don't see it that way.
Dak Prescott stated he wants to play, Jerry Jones made it clear how important it is to win, and now here comes head coach Brian Schottenheimer with his thoughts on the battle between organically tanking and winning.
“We're in Year 1 of this program, and what we're trying to build is a culture that's all about winning,” Schottenheimer said. “To me, yeah, you could say, 'Let's not play anybody' or let's do this or that, but at the end of the day, I think you keep it very simple. We're going to compete every day. We want to win.
"You can't (say you're) all about winning. ... (and) all about competing every day and then be like, 'I'm not going to play this guy or that guy.' I think that's the wrong message to your players.”
"Compete Every Day'' has been the 2025 Cowboys' mantra.
And maybe Schottenheimer is right. You can't preach that and then tell starters to sit.
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That would fly in the face of everything he is trying to build culture-wise with the Cowboys.
So, yes, we get the draft aspect to this, and it is clear Schottenheimer does, too.
But what is also clear is that winning trumps everything for the first-time head coach.
You don't build a culture by going back on your values, and Schotty knows that winning has to be his team's main objective.
Let's hope it actually helps the "culture.''