Brian Schottenheimer: Doing Our Homework | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Brian Schottenheimer: Doing Our Homework | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Yeah. Now somebody feels bad, man. No, you don’t. You don’t feel bad. Okay. And I knew about it, too. But Oh, okay. There you go. I knew about it. Exactly. That makes it worse. No, friends a long time. He’ll be all right. Okay. Good. You okay? See, he looks okay. Yeah, he looks okay. Sorry. Let’s talk to the head coach here. How about Yeah, wait your turn. Yeah, wait your turn there, sir. Sorry. Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News. Uh, looks like you’re bringing Mr. clowning in for a visit. Your thought process about why you bringing him in? Well, go back to Seattle days. Was with him there. Uh guy’s, you know, really good football player. He’s uh uh he’s missed playing the game a little bit and the film obviously looks good and, you know, we’re always in the business of, you know, seeing what’s out there and keeping an eye on all good football players, but I would say the personal um relationship I have with him, the problems I know he can create both in the run and the pass is the main reason he’s here. How much did that Eagles game prompt this? Did that did that tell you anything or was this something that you were thinking about doing beforehand? No, this is something that again we just been monitoring. Uh we’ll do it with every position. Uh again, I I feel great about our defensive line depth. Um but you know, anytime you have a chance to potentially add good football players, why wouldn’t you kick the tires? Clarence Hill DLS Cowboys. Just piggybacking on that, uh what can a veteran like that bring to that young clearly you like a young group of pass rushing, but what can he bring? certainly strong against the run and and shows as experienced pass rusher. Yeah, again I think there’s value in being a vet. There’s value in the experience that they have and some of the technique stuff that they’ve learned over the years and uh it’s funny talking to to Javian. It was I was asking I was like, “Okay, what’s your go-to move?” You know, cuz so he was sharing some of his secrets. And just to hear these guys that are vets talk about in detail, like the different moves and the swim and the long arm and stuff like that, it’s fascinating, you know. And here’s a guy when he first came into the league that he just, you know, he just went out and played. And now as you get a little older and it’s like me getting out of bed in the morning a little bit, you have to think a little bit more about what you want to do and how you want to do it. Um, but uh, in terms of young players, this doesn’t if we do it, this would not stop progress. You know, you need to play all these guys and uh, you can add veterans uh, and not stop progress. It’s all about the rep count. You describe to the theory. Keep us strong. Strong. Yeah, you believe in those guys. What’s wrong with adding to that spot? Yeah, I do. I think anytime you can add to your roster in any position, it’s a good thing because this is a very physical game. We all know that. And uh your roster can look very different from one week, from one practice, from three games to the next. And so you got to uh be mindful of that. And um but the biggest thing for me is always going to be the fit, you know, so the fit with us and the fit with uh Flu and the defense and White Cotton and those guys. But uh yeah, we’re just doing our homework. Brian Todd Archer with ESPN. Um, does this game this week take on added importance because it’s your second division game? It’s not just your first home game. Like you don’t want to get too much in a hole at all in the division. No, we don’t think that way, Todd. I think, you know, it’s important because it’s the next game. It’s another championship opportunity. Um, again, like I said, uh, we feel like, you know, we played well enough in spots to beat Philadelphia, but we didn’t. So, you don’t look back, you look forward, but, uh, you know, we don’t look at, okay, this is a must win. It’s got to be that. We just go play the game. And I I really do believe that if you start thinking the other way, I think it kind of distracts you from the main thing, which is if you go and play well, you have the best chance of of winning. You’ve been around when this team won pretty much every game at AT&T and then last year they it was a struggle at home. How important is to get a home field advantage? I’m a big believer in homefield advantage. Um I think the fans make a huge difference uh here. Um so hopefully uh you know, we’re playing well and they’re into it. I think they will be. I think they’re excited about what they see from from this group of young men and um expect it to be packed. John with the athletic uh any update on Lee Hooker. He was in a price on Monday. Yeah, again we’ll see how he looks today. Uh just you again getting some stuff done on his foot, but uh should be should be okay, but we’ll see how he does today. And then you had a long day to wait before the season opener. Um how different will this game be? What do you think that your pregame ritual or you know process will be like uh in terms of getting to the stadium and things like that? Yeah, you know, I’m not an early early at the stadium guy. I’m not a guy wants to get there five hours before the game. I don’t really like sitting around. Uh I would say most of the time, you know, when you play noon games, which we don’t play very many many of them. Uh you know, most of your prep work is done the night before. Like when you lay your head down Saturday night, you should feel really good. Hey, this is the openers. This is what we’re doing. and hey, I feel really good about that. Uh whereas against Philadelphia or the prime time games, even the 3:25 games, you just have a little bit more time to kind of yeah, get some rest, get up in the morning, kind of look over the call sheet one more time. But um you know, I I enjoy noon games. You know, I don’t we’ll play them anytime, anywhere, but it is a little bit different how you uh approach them. Nick Nick Harris, fourstar telegram. Uh going back to Clowney, your time with him in Seattle, is there anything that jumps to mind from a year you all had together? No, just how disruptive he can be. You know, he’s he’s really good against both the run and the pass. And uh violent, you know, player, plays the game the right way. Um love his length and uh but it was really good just catch up and he’s a dad now. He got a couple kids and he’s actually been coaching his son’s uh football team. So I think that’s cool to see these guys as they grow up. They started having families. I know in normal years it takes about four or five weeks to kind of throw an entire offensive system out on film. Is that different with it being a firstear system under you play calling and how much do you feel like you still have in the bag coming out of week one? Uh quite a bit. I mean you know we want to be multiple Nick you know that and um we do a good job of self scouting ourselves. I would agree with that. I don’t know whether the numbers four games, five games, whatever it is but um we’ve got a philosophy of what we want to do that doesn’t change. Um, we certainly have plays each week that we look at, we see, that we like, that match up against a very, very good defense this week with the Giants. Big fan of Shane Bowen and and his style coming from, you know, Romeo Krenell and Mike Vrabel and those guys. I think he does a really good job. It’s a well coached football team we’re getting ready to play. But, um, you know, you’re always looking to tweak things and, um, hopefully week 10, week 15, uh, and beyond, we’re still keeping people off balance. Nicole. Um, Nicole, just in Dallas TV. What’s the next step for your run game? Uh, from what you saw in week one. And what are you looking to build up heading into? Uh, you know, I wish I wish you would have got a few more explosives. You know, we uh you had one miles, you know, that that got out. I think we were close on a couple. Um, I think that’s how you run the ball really really well in this league is through explosive runs. I think that was one of the things that I loved about looking at the Arizona film when we were going through the process of of a Clayton Adams run game. Um, but again, the way we game plan is we’re very um, you know, everybody’s involved and everybody has a voice and I think it’s cool when you see the different builds that, you know, guys like Derek Foster come up with and things like that. Uh, LDub does a great job in the run game as well. But I would say so, you know, pop a few more explosives just because it it it helps you score points and it flips the field and um explosive plays matter in this league. Having some success against Philly, what kind of tone does that set for, you know, the rest of the season for this backfield? Yeah, again, I think, you know, we we expect to be able to run the ball well against every opponent. This group is very, very good. The linebackers are downhill. I’m a huge Dexter Lawrence fan. Uh he’s just uh he’s fun to go against. Uh but it’s also fun to be uh done with it uh when you’re done playing him because he’s so big and powerful inside. But um like I said, it’s a it’s an exciting matchup for us. They’re very very talented group. Um and uh it’ll be be a fun matchup. Uh Joe Joe White, Dallas Morning News. You mentioned on Monday that you got all your most call plays, you know, called. What’s the process for determining your most call plays and I guess how much impact do you get or feedback you get from other people in terms of determining that? Yeah, it’s a great question. Uh, I would say the biggest thing is you kind of watch the week of practice. You kind of have an idea when you put them in. You know, uh, Joe, when you look at, you’re like, “Okay, hey, I really kind of like this one. It draws up well.” Then you watch it get executed in practice. That that helps. Uh, I will say sometimes when it doesn’t look good in practice, you have to force yourself to call it because you’re like, “Look, that was just a bad rep.” Uh, it still looks good. It still draws up good against their coverages and things like that. But uh absolutely the coaches have a say in the openers and Dak has a say in the openers and uh some of the things that they like. Uh I never want to force a play on a quarterback and you know so if there’s something he’s like hey shotty I just I don’t feel that play then we’re not going to call it. Um but uh I will say that the biggest thing that you do is as you go through the week I’ll kind of little make little tick marks on my um script to just like okay just keep your eye on that one because I like that one. I like the way it looked and I like the way it came from the meeting room and kind of the lab if you will to the practice field. First game he was head coach but also first game for Clayton Adams as an OC. How did you kind of see him kind of take on that role? How much did you rely on him in certain situations? How did that go? Yeah, again Clayton’s a awesome coach and uh again, you know, I thought he did a great job. It’s it’s fun for me because um you know early on I would have to probably you know hey think about this think about that do this do that you know because it’s new for him but now I come to him and I’m like hey man what you think he’s like yeah I got it you know I’m kind of like okay cool so you see him developing but uh terrific coach man bright bright future and just blessed to have him here on the staff Garrett Odell CBS Sports Brian I know you’ve been here since 2022 but Dax won his last 13 starts when he started for the Cowboys boys against the Giants. Why do you think this has been such a good matchup for him? Uh, you know, I don’t know. I mean, I think, you know, Garrett, when you talk about each game is different, man. Each season’s different. This is 2025. Uh, Dak plays good against a lot of people, and I don’t think this is something just specific to the Giants. You know, ultimately, at the end of the day, we’re judged with wins and losses, and he’s won a lot more than he’s lost against them. But, um, you know, this matchup’s different. This matchup’s new. They have new faces. We have new faces. um he’s got a new play caller, he’s got a new head coach. So, there’s things that are different and um but he will always go into every game against every opponent confident and that’s his job as the quarterback and that’s our job as coaches to throw the type of practices where you can come out of practice and you feel confident. Um but to put my finger and say, “Hey, here’s why.” I think that’s that’s hard. Babe, Babe Laugh 1053, the fan Cowboys radio. Uh Brian, you’re watching Sunday. You know, when you’re watching tape as a coach up there, obviously it’s kind of sanitized. You don’t get the elements. You don’t get the emotion. You don’t get the crowd. When you’re watching the Giants on Sunday, are you the play caller? You’re not the fan drinking a beer and eating nachos. I mean, are you thinking, “Okay, I might drink a shotty.” I’m not going to drink a beer, baby. I mean, you should know better than that to ask that. But, um, I think I know what you’re asking. Um, yeah. I mean, I’m I’m watching the game like a coach, you know? I’m not I’m not watching the ball. I’m not I’m I’m I’m learning about the personnel. I’m learning things I can take from it. Yeah. I think my wife always she’s always like, “Well, how’d you see that?” And I was like, “Babe, I kind of do this for a living, you know.” Um, you know, Yeah. I know. But she doesn’t. I think she forget. She forgets sometimes, you know. Yeah. Yeah. No, not you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Honey babe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. No, I know you do. No. No. Yeah. No. My bride. No, my bride. Yeah. I get it. Um, but no, like I’m always looking for things and I’m denoting, you know, where they play different guys and things like that or, you know, like you watch this team and you look at, you know, what a special player Malik Neighbors is and Tracy the running back and um, so you’re looking at things like that, you know, more than just kind of the the normal fan, they watch the ball. And do you think like a play caller though, what, you know, third and fourth, they’ve been doing this, what would I do here? Yeah, situations. I think even more than that, babe. you know, playing the game management side of it. It’s such a big part of what you do as a play car, but also as a head coach, obviously. Uh, so I would say that more than, okay, it’s third and three, what would I do here? Some of the got to have its like fourth down and three. Um, you know, I would be like, uh, hey, you know, what would I do in this situation? Things like that. But, uh, you know, I love the game and, um, any chance I get to watch football, which I don’t get a chance to watch it a whole lot from that lens, is is fun. Michelle um coach Michelle Monty in WFA Jerry said yesterday or I guess he was asked yesterday about Mazy Smith being listed as inactive for the opener against the Eagles and said do I expect that that would probably be the case again this weekend against the Giants. Are you able to uh provide some reasoning behind? Yeah, I I think at the end of the day, you know, we’re going to have three great practices this week and, you know, I think we we have a projected list of how we think this thing can play out and what we think, but it’s projection at best and you don’t know and we’re in pads today and we’re running around and hopefully we come out of it clean and and all that stuff. But, um, these guys have the opportunity to earn their spots and in Mazy’s case, it’s been very Mazi’s a good player. It’s the flashes are there. It’s just the consistency has to be there more often. And um again, but you know, just because you were inactive last week doesn’t mean you’re going to be inactive this week. It just means that you were inactive week one. And they have a big role in trying to get that changed. And at the end of the day, we do a great job, I believe, of trying to communicate to these guys um on game day or the night before in this case because of the noon start of what the plan is, but things change in a hurry. Pat. Hey coach, Patrick Walker, Dallas Cowboys.com. We talked earlier about your familiarity with Jade Davon Clowney. Kind of going back to you being familiar with players, Russell Wilson, he’s coming into Dallas um to play against you guys. Can you talk about just the benefit of being able to scheme against a quarterback that you are so familiar with, but on the flip side of that, the challenge knowing that he knows you as well? Yeah, I think that’s the fun part of the chess match that we love so much as coaches and players and you know why you look forward to playing against your friends. you know, um I’m not the only one in the defensive room that knows Russ. Andre Curtis was with Russ for a long time in Sale, actually longer than I was. Um you know, his strengths, you know, his weaknesses, but I also know what an incredibly hard worker Russ is. And so I’m not I’m not um I’m not fooled for one second to think he’s not working on certain things that he knows that I know and that Dre knows and stuff like that. But uh he’s going to go out and play and really it’s more on the coaches to, you know, come up with a game plan. And I’ve uh spoken a lot about my respect for Brian Dball. He was a quarterback coach for us with the Jets when I was the coordinator and um I think he’s an awesome coach and uh uh it should be a fun a fun chess match to watch uh Sunday at noon. And also did you get your shoes yet? Uh Russ, I’ve not gotten my Sue. Uh 11 and a half. Tad says I need to go up a half size. So uh I’m still waiting. If we can get that to the Giants media people, I would appreciate it. And maybe we’ll do a off camera little sit down. Whoever gets that done. Clarence, just putting a wrap on clown just for a second. You’ve already visited with him today. Yes. Uh is the plan more of this is is this a look see or are you looking for a practice squad? What what is the plan? Yeah, just evaluating, you know, he’s still got a few more things to do with us and then we’ll circle up, you know, probably after practice and just kind of see where we’re at. And you know, he’s a he’s a free agent so he has choices as well and we’ll just kind of have a meeting in the minds and and see if it makes sense for us. Thank you, Skyler. Skyler Dixon with the AAP. The fumble kind of overshadowed the penalty that George Pickkins had. Seemed to be some unnecessary contact on that play, which was one of the issues in Pittsburgh. What was your take on that penalty? What conversation did you have with him, if any, about it? Yeah. No, we talked about we we approach all things like that. Yeah. I mean, he came in too high and slung the guy down and it was a good penalty. Um, and obviously they got the hit in the head to Fergie which kind of took it away. But yeah, we just talk about, you know, you can’t hurt the team and I love the physicality that George plays with. Uh, but, uh, all of us, we can’t do really, I say it this way, you can’t do stupid And I’m not saying that that was the only stupid thing that we did, but like things that hurt the team like that, you can’t do that, especially in the red zone. And so, you point it out, you coach it. Um, and uh, at the end of the day, it’s stuff that when it comes to a close game, it can hurt your ability to win. Any other concerns about his effort running? What was your name again, sir? Go ahead. What was the What was the question? I’m I’m joking. Jump right. Yeah. What was the question? We’ll get to you. Yeah. While Clarence, since we were talking about at least pick, you know, any other concerns about his effort or route running pickers at all? Absolutely not. Again, I wish we would have gotten more targets, you know, quite honestly. um thought they did a good job taking away. But listen, I I I’m the biggest George picking fan in the world. And uh as a teammate, the way he plays the game, he plays the game the way we want everyone to play on the edge, but don’t go over the edge. That one example was him probably if you could tone that one down a little bit or at least strike the guy lower. It doesn’t get called. Todd, what attracted you to Flu? I think going against him, playing against him, he’s always been a pain in the ass, Todd. you know, he’s hard to get big plays on. Um, I love the style of defense that sometimes sometimes when you play a defense, you look at it and you’re like, “Okay, this you I really like this this scheme or this coverage structure, the way they rush the passer, some of their blitz packages.” I love the style that Matt’s defenses have always played with, whether it was Chicago, uh, Indianapolis here under Rod Marinelli. the style, man. The way they run to the ball, the effort that they play with, it’s it’s right up my alley, you know, attacking play style. And um again, I think that uh he uh he people think he’s a simple coordinator, but he’s not. And what I love about him is the adjustments from an experienced guy. Like you look at what we were able to do against Philadelphia in the second half, the adjustments that we made, I thought were terrific. And that’s a testament not just to Fluke, but really the entire defensive staff. Did you have to have a conversation with him like, “Hey, what happened in Chicago like when it ended?” I mean, you obviously were let go and Seattle, too. So, you kind of maybe can commiserate a little bit. No, not really. I mean, you know, yeah, of course, we’ve sat around, you know, having beers and stuff, traveling for some of the pro days and stuff. We’ve talked a little bit about that, but it’s kind of the nature of our business. And hey, look, Matty Rufus is a hell of a football coach. He’ll be a head coach again in this league in my opinion. Um, and uh again, I’m just I’m so thankful to have him and and really this entire staff. The entire staff’s been great. Uh, when you were searching out an offensive coordinator, did you want to find one that had these specialty knacks in the run game or did it just kind of fall that Clayton Adams was that guy and what he brought from Arizona? No, I mean, I wanted a guy that was uh elite with teaching. I wanted a guy that was elite human being. So, Clayton checks both those. Uh, but certainly I was looking for a guy with an offensive line background. You know, I think that’s an area that you can never have enough good offensive line coaches. And his ability to not just do the running game, but you know, the protection piece and he’s just an elite coach. But more than that, he’s an elite man. I know you guys haven’t spent as much time with him as say I have, but he maybe is the funniest person I’ve ever truly ever been around. Uh his humor and his wit is is incredible. Uh and I just think he’s uh got extremely extremely bright future and I love to watch him grow. Yeah. Uh when you were talking to Fluc, did you ever think do you need a break from it because you know he got let go and did you think taking a year off or did when you had the discussions with him you felt like he’s ready to go? Yeah. When I talked to I mean this is literally what happens you know we’re we’re literally we’re just creatures of habit man like you know if if something doesn’t go your way whether it’s me in Seattle him in Chicago whatever it is man like you think yeah you know maybe I’ll take a little time you know. Now, I will say he he loves to play golf. Uh but the minute I talked to him on the phone, the first five minutes I was like, “Yeah, this dude’s all in, you know.” And uh that’s uh that’s that’s what you want. You want someone that’s hungry and uh no one is more motivated to continue to be an elite coach than Matt Eberloose. And I think he’s going to do that for us in this defense moving forward. Real quick on Diggs, is the plan still the same for him because he came in a lot on a nickel. I don’t know if you the goal is to eventually get him with the the base defense. Yeah, again, we’re still trying to, you know, work on those numbers. Again, we’ll see how he does today, but you know, we’ll always continue to up it. Whether it’s a full game, we’ll see how that plays out. But again, I thought, you know, he uh he did a nice job in the game for us on Thursday night. Cool. Got to go. Thanks, guys.

Head coach Brian Schottenheimer speaks with media on Wednesday heading into the Cowboys’ Week 2 matchup against the division rival New York Giants. Schottenheimer discusses working out veteran DE Jadeveon Clowney, scheming against a familiar opponent of Russell Wilson & Brian Daboll, the game status of Mazi Smith, and more.

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