The Dallas Cowboys made the perplexing move on Friday evening of promoting offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to the team’s head coaching position. Schottenheimer rose the ranks in Dallas from being a coaching analyst in 2022 to the team’s offensive play-caller in 2023 and the team’s head coach in 2025.

Longtime Cowboys reporter Ed Werder pulled back the curtain a bit on why Dallas owner Jerry Jones made the surprising decision to hire Brian Schottenheimer for the franchise’s head coaching job before another former assistant was free.

After the Dallas Cowboys didn’t reach an agreement to retain coach Mike McCarthy, owner Jerry Jones chose a successor from within and promoted offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to head coach, in a move that would have been seen as stunning as recently as a few days ago.