How would you rate Brian Schottenhiemer’s 1st season as head coach?

We are now in the final week of our first year with Brian Schottenhimer as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, and I think it is fair win or lose this week to give him a rating for this first year as the headman.

Let me first say I was completely against the hire when it happened, but I will keep it as fair as possible now that the first season is about over.

Tough Circumstance

Two weeks before the season started, Jerry Jones decided to trade his best defensive player, so he had to start the year without Micah Parsons. I think he handled that really well.

In terms of how he handled that, being a leader of men and holding a sinking ship together from the start was impressive.

I truly thought that they would win maybe five games, and that was with a healthy Dak Prescott, and as we know, they have one of the best offenses in football, they just can’t stop a parked car in a school zone.

HC Brian Schottenheimer on how much winning the last game of the season to avoid a losing record matters.

“Again, we want to win. We play to win. 8-8-1, we do the math, sounds way better than the alternative. But again, the other thing is right now, we did, what? 4-1 in the…

— DLLS Cowboys (@DLLS_Cowboys) December 26, 2025

I feel like it is very hard to give him anything above a 6 and that is the rating that I am going to settle with.

When they beat the Eagles and Chiefs in those back-to-back games, it made things a bit exciting, yet the defense was just not good enough, and at times the offense did not adjust in the second half as you saw other teams do against Dallas.

He has a lot to build on going into next year, but I would like Jerry to allow him to build the staff if Matt Eberflus gets let go.

His connection with Dak Prescott and the offense is something that we can hang the hat on going into next year, but I am tired of talking about next year.

I feel like a rating of 6 is fair given the situation he was thrown into and having to deal with the worst defense in football and an owner that talks after every single football game.

Heck, sometimes he can’t even tell us if a player will play or not, it has to come from Jerry!

The offseason is going to be an interesting one because we all heard what Jerry Jones said about being disappointed and blah blah.

End of the day, here we are again talking about what went wrong instead of talking more about what went right, but all in all, I think this first season could have been way worse than it did for Schotty, and hopefully a full offseason with some help with two first round picks and a new defensive coordinator, and they can be back in the playoffs next year.