LIVE: Brian Schottenheimer Press Conference | 8/04/25 | Dallas Cowboys 2025

LIVE: Brian Schottenheimer Press Conference | 8/04/25 | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Go kill boys. Go Cowboys. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Come on, cow boys. Go Cowboys. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Go cowboys. Go Cowboys. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Go cowboys. Go Cowboys. Heat. Heat. He’s doing it again. He’s doing it again. You’re smart. I’m trying to get a little sun today. Visor backwards. Hello everybody. Morning sir. Morning. Actually afternoon. It’s afternoon. Sorry. Not yet. Not yet. Okay. Almost. Almost. Touche. Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News. uh your thoughts on what would you like to see from your team in tomorrow’s scrimmage? Execution, uh physicality, kind of our identity. You know, I want to see us, you know, play smart, uh play physical, uh play with the effort that is expected, and then uh there’s going to be mistakes, but I’d love to see some young guys really take some big steps up. And I’m excited to go against a different colored jersey, one, but some different scheme. You know, it’s kind of it’s fun to have to change gears and and do that. So, um, but really just kind of see our identity come to, uh, come into, uh, a vision. The way you guys have been practicing and what we will see tomorrow will be. Well, hopefully not much different, you know, in terms of the effort, the energy. Um, I I expect that never changes. I mean, that’s that’s the expectation. You know, Calvin, we don’t we don’t don’t want to change what we’re doing. Uh, you put another jersey out there, you don’t you don’t change the way you work. You don’t change the way you run to the ball. You don’t change the way you try to block. and and close on the ball and contain things on defense. So, um again, I don’t expect it’ll be much different. Uh hopefully the pace is uh one that’s exciting. Clarence Hill the LLS Cowboys, uh speaking of the plan, uh when you do more seven on seven, one-on-one drills, I mean, because I know what you do is unique, maybe not the same, but have y’all talked about that kind of plan? We have. Yeah, Sean and I worked uh worked through it a couple days ago. He and I will jump on a call this afternoon just to finalize everything. Uh you’ll see a seven on seven period today here with us today, but tomorrow it’s mostly team stuff. Try to get the 11 on 111 stuff going. Uh their offensive and defensive line obviously going against our offensive defensive line. Those are things that you want to see because of the matchups and things like that. But uh no um no seven on seven, mostly team drills. And I know you’ve talked to your team about fighting historically at least in the few time that they’ve had practices against the Rams been a lot of fights. I don’t know. That’s around the league. Yeah, that’s not Yeah, that’s around the league. I was in River Falls a long time ago when it was a melee. Yeah. I don’t know if you made a point to reress that with your team. Talk to uh son about that and how y’all going to handle that. Yeah. It doesn’t change it doesn’t change who we are. You know, you can’t throw punches. You know, it’s whether you’re practicing against yourself, whether you’re practicing against the Rams, whether you’re practicing against the Ravens in a game, you can’t throw punches. And uh again, will it get chippy? Maybe. you know, two really physical teams going at it head-to-head, but uh don’t go over the line. You know, play to the edge, but don’t go over the edge. And that’s the message that’s constant no matter what we’re doing and however we’re competing. What will Mic do today? Will be on the field. And how’s he been in the meetings last? Uh been really good. You know, I think you’ll see a lot of the same things he’s been doing. Uh the meetings have been really good. Uh, like I said, what you see from him is the coaching piece of it and all that that he’s doing, diving into the other guys. And, um, I don’t think you’ll see much different, but uh, again, very engaged, asked good questions, and um, you know, I don’t think that that’s that’s going to change. Maybe not a big deal, but he came out, he wasn’t in his practice jersey. Yeah. Not a big deal. I mean, you know, we want all of our guys to be the same, and uh, again, uh, there’s usually a reason if a guy’s not in that, but again, for the most part, we’re a team. We’re going to always act like a team and um you know, usually you’ll see them all in in gear. Athletic any update on Tyler? Yeah, he’s doing fine. Um kind of a maintenance thing. You know, nothing that should prevent him from playing, but yeah, he should be fine. Uh maybe a little bit limited today. I’ll go figure that out when I get done here, but nothing that we’re concerned about. Tackle guard. No, he’s got tackle guard flex. I think, you know, John, he can, you know, he’s more comfortable on the right, you know, so we’ll start him out over there on the right playing some tackle and maybe a little bit inside, but for him it’s a ramp up period. You know, he’s no different than, you know, when you bring these players in, you know, um you got to kind of ramp them up. They’re not quite ready to go. Like Kenneth Murray missed a couple days, so he comes back and you don’t immediately throw them back into practice. You start with individual. You start doing things like that, getting them moving, doing football moves and things like that. And um so LC will get a few reps today and uh it’ll be good to see see him get back out there and shake some of the the rust off. Nick Harris before starting obviously these reps for Tyler Gen would have been so valuable here in training camp with him being out. How much value can he get in these mental reps and in meetings and still being has to you know uh he has to and um it could be watching it could be the film. Like I said, I think, you know, we’ve got some good projects that he’s working on right now in terms of watching his 101 pass sets and his 10-1 run blocks um from the spring and from early in training camp. So, you know, you have to make up for that, you know, uh lack of getting the reps. But again, the coaches do a great job. They stay very involved and uh they get a lot of questions. You actually get more questions when you’re not performing uh in meetings than you than you do if you are because you just want to keep them into it mentally and it’s very very different when you’re not getting the full speed reps that he’s missing out on. But uh again very comfortable with him with what he’s getting and uh we’ve been talking to him a lot about just you know attacking the rehab and he’s done a great job and he’s already moving a lot better. TA you had mentioned three guys that y’all were cross trainining on the offensive side. Turpin at running back at tight end at receiver we’ve been able to see some of the turpin but since has been and is there still some things that y’all want to see on the field that Yeah, absolutely. Um yeah, I mean you know his football instincts are off the chart. So intelligent can play multiple positions. He’s really, you know, a running back slot, you know, so like you look for those slot matchups and things like that, whether it’s option routes or, you know, change of direction routes where you’re trying to use his quickness and explosiveness to, you know, match up on a lesser player, whether it’s a linebacker or a big boundary safety that, you know, he should be able to have a step on. And of course, his quickness and suddenness is is um pretty special. But again, you know, all those things, they’re installed and when he gets back, we’ll start, you know, using those again. but he kind of knows his role and how he’ll be used and um we’ve got a package going in today that we call where we put two halfbacks in the game. Those normally would be his reps. Uh but again, you know, when you don’t get those opportunities, it goes to somebody else. So you’ll see Jaden Blue do some of those things and um you know, great opportunity for us to evaluate uh JBRCowboys.com. It’s first game week. I know the practice tomorrow makes things a little interesting, but what do you try to do throughout the week to get your guys ready? What’s that game week process look like with you? Is it pretty standard? Do you try to add some wrinkles to it from what you’ve learned in the past? Yeah, Tommy, that’s a good question. I mean, we’re not changing. Our focus right now is on us, you know? I mean, we’re going to go line up and play on Saturday and um I’ll get more in detail into that as we get going through the week, but like our focus right now is on all things Cowboys and let’s have a great practice today. Let’s have a great uh scrimmage tomorrow. Uh we’re not doing like the typical, okay, hey, this is first, second down. We’re not doing that. Uh we’re still in the install phase of what we’re trying to get done and focus on, you know, um you know, who we are and what our true identity is on offense, defense. We’re learning our players. We’re learning our scheme. What do we do well? What do we like? What do we not like? What do we need to adjust? Um you know, and again, we um probably won’t show a whole lot in the preseason to be honest with you. Then you guys had the beach day and families in town this weekend. How how fun was that and how much did you enjoy getting to be with your guys and their families and that kind of stuff? Yeah, it was amazing. uh really was just a chance to step away and you know go and uh sit and stare at the Pacific Ocean and uh you know have some cocktails and eat and get to know uh the players families a little bit better and let them get to know my family and the coaches and everybody. It was it was really fun. And uh the operations people, Brian Wanley, you know, Cable, um Jason McKay, all the ops guys, Laura Frier, my assistant, like they just did an amazing job. And the Zechariah Dunes did an amazing job. So, uh if I had one person come up to me and thank me, I probably had 50. So, uh it was fun because some of the players didn’t want to leave. Like, they were having a good time. They’re playing cornhole. There were some serious cornhole uh tournaments going on. Bangers, really good, by the way. You guys don’t want to play him at a bar in uh cornhole. He’s really really good. Uh but uh it was truly a chance for us to slow down and um you know lean into the ones we love and care about. Joe, Dallas, you and Matt talked about your plans for Micah Barson in terms of moving around and how you can kind of get the most out of him on defense. When a trade request is made, how does that alter your game plan for game one already? Is your mind even going there yet? No, we’re still planning on moving Mike around and putting him in all the spots that we see him and using our fronts the way we want to see it. And um no, we just uh you know, we go about our business every day. We live in the moment. We focus in the moment. And uh again, like I said, I talked to you guys the other day. Not going to get a lot into it, but you know, uh I expect Micah to be here. And then Thomas, we haven’t seen a little bit. How’s he doing? What’s kind of the expectations for return? He’s doing really well. He was actually having a great camp before, you know, he got banged up a little bit, but uh he’s doing really well. I think he’s he’s on track. Might be another week or so, but he’s he’s working hard and um again, he’s found his voice in a good way in terms of his command of the defense and what he’s trying to do. And uh when he’s out there, you know, you you hear the not just the calls, but the confidence in making the calls and actually trumping linebackers on some certain shifts and motions, which we challenge our guys with. And um you know, again, he’s another guy. He’ll be getting a lot of reps in the classroom and gets asked a lot of questions and and and forced to speak in those settings. Radio 105 this will be the first time that is correct. be liberating. I know Pete at playoff game said I jumped into a couple of you won’t have to deal with that. Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s um and look, everybody you work with is different. You know, like Pete was was great, Jeff Fischer was great, Rex was, you know, really all the guys I work with, you know, there was a ton of meetings that go on behind the scenes and you talk about the plan and all that stuff, but um definitely freeing. you know, you don’t have to think or ask. If it’s fourth down and you want to go for it, you go for it, you know, and you listen to the people that help you with that information, Ryan Feeder and some of the people that do the game management, but um it uh it’s definitely uh a a feeling where you feel like you can control the rhythm maybe more than you do when you have to answer to somebody. And uh I haven’t really thought much about it, but uh it’s it’s real. It’s very true. Brad Cowboys Radio 103. You had an opportunity to examine a lot of your quarterback depth last week or two. Interested in your thoughts, especially about Rochelle and Child. Okay. Uh well, Christian’s the newest one. Um but again, you know, he was with Flu and understands that Rochelle’s actually made some plays, you know, when we worked him out. We love the size Brad and um I love the veteran experience. Um so he’s he’s doing a nice job with some of the things we have. He’s he’s working mostly boundary corner because he’s a big physical guy and that’s what you want in a boundary corner. And then uh the one that’s probably being taxed the most and doing a good job with it is Ian because he’s playing some nickel and he’s having to move back into safeties in some roles and things like that. But, uh, another guy where the football instincts jump off the film at you. And, uh, when you talk to him and you ask him about the things we’re trying to do on defense, he’s got the immediate answer. And, um, again, what you look forward to from the preeason is watching these guys tackle. You know, right now when we’re in pads, we’re thing off. But, you know, big part of this defense is no house guests and you got to tackle. And so I think that’s going to be the biggest thing that we’re going to figure out when we go up Saturday against the Rams is, you know, who are the guys that can get people on the ground and do the things we want in that regard. But all three of those guys are getting great opportunities and maximizing their reps. Can they help themselves in terms of moving up the chart when you get ready? Always. I mean, always. I mean, we’re always looking for competition and if a guy plays well, then you’ll see them move up. So, let’s say, you know, most of our rep racks are like ones go first, then the twos go, then the ones go, then the twos and threes kind of go. So, you’ll see those guys maybe if you notice them in the second group, which would be after the first ones be the twos, you know, you’ll see guys move into those spots. If there’s things that we see that we like and that they’re doing the right way and um they’re playing the game the right way, we’re certainly going to reward them. Edward WFAA. Um, regarding Micah, what’s lost in terms of the value I would assume he brings in terms of going taking reps against your offensive lineman, your tackles, getting to block against one of the great rushers in the league and just him coordinating with, you know, stunts and so forth to be teammates. Yeah, I think the first one that jumps off the film is probably that, you know, challenging our young tackles and, you know, of course you wanted to see Gayton and Micah last year and then Tyler had the setback and, you know, going up against, you know, T Steel or going up against Nate Thomas, you know, that speed and and all that stuff that that’s part of the competition that we talk about, you know, and so that’s the first thing in terms of the scheme fit and us moving Micah around and all that stuff. We can get those things done in walkthroughs. We can get those things done in talk through. we can emphasize those things and um it’s it’s more selfishly for us from an offensive standpoint is not having that that elite speed edge rusher coming off the off the corner. But uh you know Donovan’s done a great job. Dante Fowler’s having an incredible camp. So it’s not like we’re short of uh guys that have elite speed coming off the edge and bending corners. Dan Greenspan, associate press. Brian, in the couple weeks I’ve been out here, I’ve noticed the way you talk about competition, there’s a lot of carryover, even down to some of the verbiage between you and Pete Carol. Why does it seem like your time with Pete was really influential in that part of of your footballing identity now? I just think, you know, when I first got there and and Pete gave me an opportunity to go there as the coordinator, there was so many things. So, I’ve always I’ve always carried around little notebooks and I I just make notes about things that I like and don’t like and okay, when I get an opportunity to be a head coach, I’m going to do this. But, um I’d never been around anybody like Pete. You know, I mean, Jeff was a funloving players coach. Uh you know, Rex was a wild man in a good way. Um you know, Eric Manini was very much like um you know, Coach Bellich. My dad was certainly, you know, a certain way. I chuckle about that one. But uh I just think you know when I watched Pete and I was sitting in the meetings and whether that was a staff meeting or a team meeting there was just so many things that I was like you know what I do believe that and from day one Pete said to me he said he goes you know shot he goes you’re a he goes I say this and I mean it. He goes you’re a football savant. He goes football just makes sense to you and it really does. Football comes easy to me. I’m sure it’s because I’ve grown up around the game but it just comes easy to me. I say that humbly. That was Pete’s words. Um, he goes, “But do you really know what you believe in?” Like, he challenged me. I think it was the very first day he hired me. He said, “Do you really know what you believe in and what a practice should look like and what what the identity of your defense should look like and, you know, what’s the practice going to look like?” And I just kind of paused and I was like, man, I was like, I I can’t answer that right now. I I I guess I don’t know. And so I just love that he really invested in me and um you know so uh I was I was hooked you know and I was and I was listening. I don’t do everything that Pete does you know uh but uh I was I was I was I was captured I was captured by the way he coaches his energy um the comp competition. I’ve always been a competitor. Um whether I’m good at something or not I’m gonna try to find a way to win. I don’t always find a way to win but I’m going to try. And so I think he caught me at the right time. Mike, the number three receiver position. How have you seen that competition play out? Is that mostly Mingo and Tolbert in your mind? I imagine got a role in that, too, but his role is different. Is that mostly Mingo? Yeah, I mean, you know, we’re going to roll guys through in that spot. I mean, Turp obviously is different. We all know that. Um, Mingo’s having a great camp. I mean, you know, Tolbert is, you know, he he doesn’t get noticed sometimes, but he just goes out there and does a great job in every phase. And the run blocking, uh, in the in the receiving element, he just does everything right. Um, so those three guys, if you were putting a depth chart out there today, they’d probably be the guys getting the first crack at it. But again, you I want to see, you know, Ryan Floreno, I want to see Jaylen Brooks, I want to see those guys continue to compete. We got some young guys that we’re excited about. And um you know, but at the end of the day, if if you were trying to finalize a roster, which we’re not, we’re a long way from doing that, uh those would probably be the the first couple names that go into that spot. But we’re going to we’re going to be multiple. We’re going to have running backs that play in receiver spots and tight ends that play in receiver spots and linemen that play in tight end spots. And that’s all part of our DNA as an offense. Tomorrow, I imagine you guys probably have settled on a lot of this probably tackling the ground, things like that. Correct. Where would you evaluate is this how close to full game speed you expect tomorrow? Uh, it’ll be fast. I mean, it’s going to be fast. And again, it’s going to be because, you know, there’s going to be some nuances, some blitzes. We haven’t seen some route concepts. The defense hasn’t seen. And, you know, Sean and his staff, you know, Chris Schula and Laflur, those guys are they’re they’re awesome. You know, we’ve competed against them over the last couple years, and you know, they’re a really good football team. And uh we um we think that we’ll match their intensity. We think it’s going to be no different for us in terms of how we practice. That’s what we want. Like quite honestly, I almost didn’t have a joint practice just because of the fact you’re like, “Hey, if we practice the right way, then why do I need to go practice against anybody else?” But then when you start talking about the scheme fit and stuff, Mike, it’s like, well, I do need a little bit of scheme, you know, flexibility and looking at three, four defenses and things like that. And um but uh it was something that we you know we took into uh account. We were like you know what worked really well last year and you know Sean’s easy to work with his staff. So uh but I’ll be disappointed if the tempo changes quite honestly. I I think if anything we should practice that way today Jeff with Fox 4. Uh when you think about your life routine outside of football time when work day ends before the next one begins. How much, if anything, has changed about that now as the head coach? And are you sleeping more or less with the same? Uh, good question. You know, the phone rings a lot more probably than it did when I was a coordinator. You know, there’s things that come up at all hours of the day and the night and all that stuff. But, you know, I’m a grinder. You know, I work a lot of hours. I’m more of a night owl. I’m not a 4 a.m. guy. I know Sean is. You know, Sean’s a 3:15, 3:45 guy. He and I have laughed about that a little bit. Uh, I’m more of a 1:00 in the morning type guy. I mean, that’s kind of me. I’m just I guess I was born at 4 4:15 in the morning, so I could think that maybe had something to do with it. Um, but uh, look, when I get a chance to get away, I try to turn it off and be around the people I care about, which is my my wife and my kids and and my family. But, um, you know, it hasn’t changed me very much. You know, I just, you know, the sleep doesn’t bother me or lack thereof. Brianna Aldridge, CBS News, Texas. Um, when you’re looking at a guy like Tan Holden, who’s young guy, but he seems to be getting a lot of eyes on him right now. He’s making some splash plays. What have you seen from him? And when it’s a guy running mostly with the twos, what are you looking for specifically when you bring another team in here? Say that last part. What are you looking for from a guy like him who’s taking reps with the twos when another team comes in here? Yeah. Well, again, number one, we we were really excited when we got Tan as a undrafted free agent. you know, we had some inside information into him because of Junior Adams being with him. Um, the ability to make plays that you see out there, whether it’s catching the incut the other day, caught a deep cross yesterday. He’s just shown up every day. And I think that that’s what you want to see. What you don’t want to see is a guy has a great day and then the next day and the next day, those next two days, he’s quiet. He doesn’t make any plays. He actually he muffed a a handoff. It was our fault as coaches because we didn’t ball handle it, but he muffed a little sweep that we had around the corner and he still went for about 25 yards. Um, but the consistency, you know, if you see a guy that’s doing it day in and day out, then you are earning those opportunities. If a guy has one great practice and then the next day you don’t, he disappears or he’s got two or three mental errors, then you’re not earning the opportunity to get more reps with the twos. And uh, he’s a guy that has been pretty consistent. I mean, I can think of really three plays in the past two days alone that he’s made that jump off the film. A touchdown in the in the move the ball period and then the the two plays I mentioned earlier, the deep cross and then the the muffed uh sweep play that we had. But, um, he also asks a lot of questions. He really is curious and I love players that are curious. They want to know the wise. They want to know, okay, why do we do that? Why would we check that? Why why are we alerting that? and it shows you that they’re dialed into what we’re trying to do and want to understand it on a much more comprehensive level. In Dallas Cowboys TV, uh when you have a running back room where everyone’s stacking good days and also showing some versatility, whether it’s in pass or in the receiving game as well, how hard does it how hard is it for the for you in terms of evaluating that room? Well, it’s exciting one because you feel like, okay, we got a really competitive room. Um, you know, when you look at it, I’ve always said it, this is part of the process, but the real process starts, you know, when we start playing games where they’re trying to get tackled and there’s there’s uh Blitzers that are actually trying to get to the quarterback. You know, right now we’re dealing with the quarterback halo. The quarterbacks have the red jerseys on and so when the Blitzers come, they kind of they engage, but they don’t, you know, try to run through them. So, um, I I’m really excited about the room. Again, the guy I probably haven’t talked about enough that shows up every day now is Phil Mafa. You know, Phil is a guy that, you know, when he moves, it’s very smooth, very fluid. Um, his vision is excellent. And so, he’s a guy that I didn’t really have much of a feel for in the spring because I didn’t see him do much. And, uh, now over the past, you know, whatever it been, two weeks of camp, week and a half of camp, there’s something like Tayan that we’re asking, talking about. He shows up every day uh with some really really positive plays that get you excited. We’re about a month out almost for the start of the season. How would you assess how you’ve been able to handle everything from us to getting practice done, calling plays, dealing with this trade thing, everything of that nature? Now, you guys are the worst for sure. I mean, I just step up here in a bad mood every day having to talk to you guys because you guys are so unfair. Uh, you know, I really I just live in the moment. You know, I really do. You know, this is something I’ve thought about, dreamed about my entire life. Is it different? Not really. It’s kind of what I thought it would be. I’ve been around the game. I’ve sat in a head coach’s office from the time I was a little boy. Uh, as a coordinator, you sit in the head coach’s office and you’re involved in a lot of the big conversations. You don’t have the final authority like, you know, you do when you sit in this chair. Um, but it really, you know, I don’t look too far ahead. You know, we got a lot of work to do. That’s why I said, you know, Tommy asked the question like, you know, what are you looking forward to game week? You know, to me, this isn’t a game week. This is this is a chance for the Cowboys to get better today and tomorrow. And, uh, I’ll be disappointed if we if we don’t do that. So, I don’t approach Monday different than how I’ll approach Thursday or Saturday during, you know, preseason and training camp. I kind of look at them all the same way. And uh but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I I look forward to the chance to go play real football and I look forward to that on Saturday against the Rams. We see Joe Milton make some wild plays with his arm and things. Where is he on the the boring mundane stuff? He’s doing really well. Uh the arm is very evident. You you you would not I mean you you can’t miss the arm strength. The biggest thing for Joe right now, I mean, has been, I would say, when they cover our top two or three progressions, where’s the outlet? Where is your check down? Like, he’s such a aggressive hunter, man. Like, he’s hunting up the the big in or the deep cross. And if you know, Foo and them do a great job of punching out and getting depth and forcing the ball underneath. And there’s a few times where you’re like, “Man, I’d love for you to get that ball to the check down underneath.” Because when you throw the ball underneath in zone and they’re punching out, right? The quicker you get that to the the underneath receiver, the more time he has to run, the more time he has to create with the ball in his hands. The longer you wait, the linebackers and underneath safeties kind of settle their feet and then they’re ready to point, punch, and drive. And so that’s probably the number one thing. You know, when we pop one or two open, it’s like like shooting fish in a barrel. I mean, it’s really more when, okay, they took this away. Oh, they took that away. Now, where’s your two? Where’s your three? And I think that’s where he’s just got to be more consistent. Last one. Have you made any decisions as far as Dak and the starters go for Saturday? Uh, we have a head start, but no, we haven’t finalized it yet. We’ll meet as a staff tonight and we’ll have a little bit more information for you in the next couple days. But, uh, like I said, uh, um, folks in the moment and getting ready to have a hell of a practice today. Thanks, guys. that he had what you kind of Yeah. Go Cowboys.

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