Brian Schottenheimer’s Jets return: Can the Cowboys’ head coach steal a win in New York?

FRISCO, Texas — In Week 4, All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons‘ return to AT&T Stadium with the Green Bay Packers to face the Dallas Cowboys, his former team, was an unavoidable storyline. 

This week, there’s another return game storyline surrounding Dallas’ Week 5 matchup at the New York Jets: head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s return to New York. The Jets gave Schottenheimer his first offensive coordinator job at 32 years old under then-head coach Eric Mangini. 

Schottenheimer stayed on through then-head coach Rex Ryan’s first three seasons in charge from 2009-11. His tenure included calling plays for Pro Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre at 39 years old in 2008, a campaign that began with a lot of promise thanks to an 8-3 start but then went downhill after Favre suffered a biceps injury, and the team finished 9-7. Schottenheimer built a punishing rushing offense that accentuated 2009 first-round quarterback Mark Sanchez’s skill set. The result was consecutive AFC title game appearances in 2009 and 2010. When he was let go following the 2011 season, Schottenheimer departed as the longest-tenured offensive coordinator in Jets history, as confirmed by CBS Sports Research.

“A little different. It wasn’t as big of a story when I left the Jets,” Schottenheimer said Wednesday after a big laugh when asked about his return this week in comparison to Parsons’ last week. “But it’ll be good. There’s still some people in the organization that I’m really close with. I like to think this way, I spent six years as the OC in New York, and I think that’s the longest-tenured coordinator there since the early 70s. It can feel like dog years at times because they have such great fans, and it’ll be fun to be back there. So I guess I was the coordinator there for 42 years. But, nah, we had great success. We won a lot of games. Proud of the fact that we went to back-to-back AFC Championship Games and things like that. But it’s about people for me.”

Schottenheimer, whose Dallas offense leads the NFL in total yards per game (404.3) and ranks fifth in scoring offense (28.5), credited his opportunity with the Jets for having a major impact in molding the kind of football coach he is today. Schottenheimer spent much of the offseason reshaping the Cowboys’ team culture, which has paid dividends on his side of the ball — the offense — early on. 

“More than anything, maybe it was just my first time being a coordinator. When you first sit in that chair — whether it’s a head coach, coordinator, quarterbacks coach, position coach, whatever — you think you have all the answers,” Schottenheimer said. “I remember sitting in San Diego and Cam Cameron was our [offensive] coordinator, thinking ‘I would do it this way, or I’d do it that way.’ Then, you get in that seat, and you’re sitting there and something comes across your desk. You’re like, ‘Damn, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do right now.’ You’re literally learning on the job. I think we had some growing pains. We struggled through some times there, but we ended up figuring it out and doing a great job with it.” 

All of Schottenheimer’s professional development in New York helped pave the way for him helping guide Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott to a strong start to 2025. Prescott leads the NFL in passing yards (1,119) and ranks inside the top 10 in both completion percentage (72.9%, third) and expected points added (EPA) per dropback (0.17, seventh).

“I think that’s my exposure to leading people. Coaching Brett Favre when you’re [34 years old], and he’s [39 years old], you better be good at what you do and be able to connect with people,” Schottenheimer said. “Because it’s a unique age difference, and we had a lot of success together.”

Looking back on his Jets’ journey, the Cowboys’ head coach acknowledged that receiving multiple head-coaching interviews in his early thirties after success in New York inflated his ego. That was before receiving a humbling end to his Jets’ tenure after an 8-8 season in 2011. That’s helped mold his more steady approach with the Cowboys. 

“I learned a lot back then thinking that I had all the answers. Here I was a hotshot, 32-year-old coordinator that after one year is getting head-coaching opportunities. This is a very humbling business,” Schottenheimer said. “You guys know me, I talk about being authentic and being humble and all that stuff. I think as I look back, those were some great memories and some great experiences, but I never stopped learning. I think the minute you take yourself too seriously in this business, you’re asking for problems. Because there’s too many talented coaches and players and people in this league that when you take yourself too seriously, which I’m sure I did at times looking back, you’re asking for problems.”

The head-coaching interviews that came early in his New York tenure dried up in his subsequent offensive coordinator stops with the Rams (2012-2014) and Seahawks (2018-2020). Schottenheimer spent 25 seasons as an NFL assistant coach before Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones hired him to succeed Mike McCarthy as Dallas’ head coach this year. While it would have been nice to have been an NFL head coach in his thirties, he wouldn’t go back and wish to have gone straight from the Jets to the NFL head-coaching ranks because of the accumulated coaching experience he now has at the age of 51. 

“I am more prepared now. I thought I missed my window. I thought my window had passed me by. Winning divisions in Seattle, and you are not getting interviews,” Schottenheimer said. “The phone is not ringing when you are having success. I was coordinator of what was one of the best offenses in the league (in Seattle). Not calling plays (under Mike McCarthy in Dallas) was certainly a factor. I did think my window of opportunity might have passed me by.”

Now, he’ll look to guide Prescott and Co. in a critical opportunity to steal a victory on the road in Week 5 against his former employer. New York is 0-2 at home this season, and it is just the sixth team in the Super Bowl era to have its defense not create a takeaway in the first four games of a season. Schottenheimer’s Cowboys will look to keep that dubious streak alive and crank up the intensity on first-year Jets head coach Aaron Glenn’s early New York “dog years.”