Brian Schottenheimer: The World Loves the Cowboys | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Brian Schottenheimer: The World Loves the Cowboys | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News. Uh clowning, have you seen enough to feel like he can give you something on Sunday? You know, we’re going to keep watching today. I mean, Wednesday was kind of a a walk and talk type deal. So, good practice yesterday. Uh see how today goes and uh we’ll have some meetings this afternoon to kind of finalize some things. So, we’ll see how today goes. Jerry seem to indicate on the radio that that might be a possibility that he might play. I think anything’s a possibility for sure. Um again, he’s working his butt off to learn the system. Uh he hasn’t played football in a while, but uh again, I love the intensity and and the look on his eyes. One more if I may. Sure. He’s late, so you take as many as you want. You may appreciate you. Thank you. Cowboy. We do love our legends. We do love our legends. Late is late. Late late is late. The standard is the standard. The standard is the standard. Uh last week you earlier this week you talked about practice. Last week wasn’t to your standard. How has practice been the last two days for you? Yesterday was good. Uh I thought uh again the day off on Wednesday of at least I say day off the the day of not running and going full speed was good. I thought yesterday’s tempo was really good. It was hot which was good. I like I like hot. I think it’s good for us with the conditioning. Uh but I thought the work was uh was really really good. We faded a little bit and then it was cool to see the captains and some of the leaders kind of get it picked up and get it get it back on track. Clans Hill DLS Cowboys. Uh he’s talking about the communication, comfort and communication, especially on the back end on defense. And can is it down? You know, will it those problems from last week be fixed on? It was fixed yesterday. Uh every day is a different day. You know, we’re working incredibly hard at it. Not just us as coaches, but the players. Uh you know, good meetings yesterday with the coaches in the corners and just, you know, getting everybody speaking the same language and using the hand signals and and all that stuff. But um anything we emphasize, you know, Clarence, these guys have have answered the bell. Now, I will say this, Chicago and Ben, they’re going to create problems because they do a good job with their formations and movements and things like that. So, um it’s it’s something that has to be consistent. And I will say this, I mean, hey, against Philadelphia, we covered really well, you know? I mean, AJ had one catch, Devonte had one or two catches, whatever. And, you know, this past game wasn’t to the standard. So you correct it, you point it out in the meetings, which we did, and uh then you work your butts off to get it right in practice. Is anything to the notion that you’re asking guys to do things that don’t fit their skills? I mean, Digs has been more of a man corner than a zone corner. Uh uh number six, I can’t has more been more of a box safety in in his career and this, you know, asking him to do things that he hasn’t done. Is that is some of that? I don’t think I don’t think so. I I I understand the question. I really do. I but I don’t think so. I think, you know, we want to be multiple and you have to do more than just play manto man in this league. And um does it mean we can do things better? Of course. You know, we need to do things better. Um, but again, when you want to be multiple and challenge an offense, like if I know, and I’m not saying me, I’m saying this NFL offensive coach, if you know you’re getting manto man, I’m going to scheme the hell out of that. I mean, I really am. And so, for our ability to be able to play man, but play zone and play two and play tricky twos where you’re changing and inserting and things like that, that’s hard. And so, um, we have to do it at a higher level. But I I think that our guys are so talented that they can do whatever we ask them to do. We just have to do it more consistently and as an entire defense. Will you change it up more cuz at least the AI numbers or whatever you want to call it say you’ve been playing zone 98% the time, you know, in both games, you know, like at a high level you have mixed up man. There’s different zones. So again, like AI, you know, I mean, I don’t know those numbers. I I don’t really understand AI. I’m learning more about it. Uh but uh some of our zones have match principles, which is man, so it presents a zone, but there’s match principles, things like that. Uh but again, uh we have plenty of good calls. I think what we need to do is we need to execute the call to the best of our ability. Um and then when we have situations like third down and 24, uh not give up big plays because we’re not on the same page. I made more analytics than AI. Yeah, analytics. Yeah. Okay. I understand that a little bit more. I do. Really? He’s going to leave now and go out there, hang out. Number four. I can’t think of his name. Wow. Dakota. His name’s Dakota, by the way. Yeah. You’re old, too. Third game. Third Todd Archer, the Han. Third game. Thank you. Uh, third different start time. How does that impact you at all in and how you get a team ready? And what do you have to think about leading into games? You really, you don’t think too much about it. It changes your nightly schedule. You know, when we play prime time games, we don’t have night meetings. Uh still have curfew and things like that. Uh when you play noon and 3:25, you have night meetings. Um but, you know, in terms of the kickoff time, we try to usually get to the stadium about 2 and a half hours, you know, before kickoff. Um there’s a first bus, second bus when you’re on the road. Some guys like to get there early. I’m not an early guy. I don’t like to get there early. I’d rather sit in my house or sit in the hotel room and review and chill and relax as opposed to sitting in the locker room. When I get to the locker room, I want to kind of get dressed and go. Um, but you know, we’re going to play all types of different days and times and uh the world loves the Cowboys and that’s a good thing. And because of that, we play a lot of different times, but uh you really don’t think too much into it in terms of what time the game starts. You told us you go through the game and call it out. Are you actually calling it out? like you’re out loud you’re you’re going through different situations. So yeah, I’ll take you guys through it. There’s no big secrets here. Um so Tyler Boils, my chief of staff, he’ll pull a uh NFL Jesus stats from one of the games of the opponent we’re playing and he’ll basically insert us into it. So let’s say I’ll use the Bears against uh Minnesota. Let’s say, okay, he’ll read this to me. He’ll say, “Hey, okay, Bears win.” I don’t know if this happened, so don’t take my word for it, but uh Bears win the toss. They they they they defer. Okay. So, boom. Ball’s kicked. Okay. Insert Cavante Turban. Cavonte Turban returns at 35 to the 35 yard line. You got first and 10. Okay. Boom. And I’ll call a play. Okay. Whatever happens happens. He’ll say, “Uh, Javvante Williams runs for four.” Okay. It’s second and six. I’ll call a play. Okay. Uh, boom. Third and three. I’ll call a play. Oh, CD Lamb explosive. Uh, now it’s first and 10 at the plus 22 yardd line and I’ll look at the red zone. I’ll call a play and then after I call the game, I make notes of things that I like that I did or man, I wish I should have done this, I wish I should have done that. Um, and we’ll usually do two or three games and you kind of start to find your flow a little bit. Um, and uh, it’s funny when we did it the leading up to Philadelphia, we didn’t do it in the preseason. Um, Boils, Tyler Boils, who’s been, you know, a couple different places, Indianapolis and Carolina. He’s like, “How long have you been doing this?” I said, “I really start at Seattle.” He goes, “It’s really cool.” Um, but it just it helps. It helps you work the kinks out a little bit. And, um, you know, I don’t think I’ll ever not do it. Why did you start it in Seattle? Um, I just think, you know, going and it was after the COVID year. It was COVID year actually, 2020. Um, and I just felt like, you know, having all the plays, and you think about it, right, on Monday, Tuesday, we put in first, second down. Um, we installed to the players on Wednesday. Well, when Sunday when you’re playing at prime time, you know, we played a lot of prime time games in Seattle as well because we were good. Uh, it’s a long time from Sunday at 8:15 or whatever till Wednesday. And so for me to go back and have to call the first and second down part of it, then lead to the third down part of it and all the situations that come into play, like you’ll be shocked some of the game management situations like the game management situation that happened at Philly uh before the end of the first half where we had to get up there and get a little bit closer to kick the field goal. That happened in one of the games that we did. And I literally remember the call. Uh, it’s called uh I’m not going to take you as a call, but um I called the same play that I called in that situation. So, was that because I remembered it? No. It was a one of our core plays. But again, the point is you’d be amazed that around the league the things that come up that would be good for you to rehearse. Nick Nick Harris start. First off, how’s your mom doing? Uh she just got a surgery. Thank you. Uh two pins and uh doing great. So, she’s already out of the hospital which is amazing. She is a She’s a tough one. That’s who I get my toughness from, her. We’re upgrading her to probable. Yes. Yeah. She Oh, she won’t be at the game, but believe me, she’ll be cheering and she’ll be watching. Uh, I want to ask you about a couple rookies. Start with Donovan Ezrau. Uh, what have you liked from him here early in the season and what’s kind of the next step for him to get? You see the growth, you see him getting more comfortable. Um, I thought he played very well against the Giants. I think he’s figuring out that you need a a sorted bag of pass rush moves to beat tackles in this league. The tackles are bigger, they’re longer, they’re faster. Um I think he’s figuring that out. I like the way he’s playing in the run game as well. He’s using his length. Um but I love his demeanor. Uh the way he approaches practice, the intentionality uh that you see from him in practice, I think is really cool for a young player. Um, and uh, you know, just uh, again, I see him getting better and that’s what you want from young players and again I’m not surprised by it because of his makeup and the way he works, but I do see him improving and uh, I think uh, these next couple games you’ll see him take even another leap. And with Revel, I mean, it’s got to be tough being, you know, starting your first year and still having to work through this rehab process. What have you kind of seen from his mental strength to this point and you expect to happen this year? Yeah, I mean, I really do. I’m not going to put a timet on it, but again, I think here’s what I said and we had a staff meeting this morning and I kind of talked to the coaches about I reminded them, right? Like make sure we’re spending time and talking to and reaching out and checking on those guys that are hurt. It’s not easy to be hurt. you know, when you’re out six, eight weeks, whatever it is, if you started on, you know, NFI like he did, like it’s not, you know, there’s a lot of things that go through your brain. And our job as coaches is to make sure we’re connecting with those guys. Hey, how you doing? Okay, I know you missed playing and okay, how’s the rehab going? And it’s not just a two-minute conversation. It’s, hey, bring them in, talk to them, call them on the phone, go upstairs and have have a bite to eat and catch up with them. And um I have not had a chance to do that with with with Von. Uh, but I have had a couple really good conversations with him and he’s doing good. You know, there’s a process and uh he’s stacking pretty good days and um you know it it it’s the hardest part of dealing with an injury is the mental anguish and you love playing football. You want to be out there with your teammates. You’ve reached the NFL which has been your dream since you were so, you know, five, six, seven years old and it’s like but when you handle it the right way, the journey is just getting started. Have some patience. Have some grace with yourself. If it’s going slower than you thought, it’s not the big deal. We’re not going to rush him out there and let him go out there and fail. We’re going to watch him grow, watch him ramp up, watch him have success, and because he’s going to have a hell of a career. Uh Joe Hoy, Dallas Morning News. One more zone question, communication for you. I was hoping you indulge me in a quick case study. Um bas basically they had two wide receivers over the right on one nil touch one nail Robinson touchdown. and did a quick motion with the tight end. A lot of communication happened on that play and then Wandell ends up going scotfree. So, when you’re trying to diagnose communication issues, how do you go about saying, “Hey, we had communication on here. What’s the root of it? What happened? How did you guys kind of diagnose that?” Well, you see it, Joe, in in real time. Like, you do see it and you look at those surfaces and stuff and you’re like, “Okay, hey, what what happened there?” But the players give great feedback. Like, I I do think that’s a huge part of this. Like, on the sidelines, our players, we talk to them all the time. Hey, what happened? And there’s players that give you really good feedback and they’re like, “Oh yeah, hey, I just didn’t stay on top of number three.” Or, “Hey, yeah, I jumped the underneath route or whatever.” Or, “Hey, yeah, I didn’t I didn’t overlap.” And then there’s other players that they’re a little bit more um uh but what we don’t want is we don’t want guys telling us something that’s not real. And we don’t have that. We really don’t. Our guys give great information and um because they know we’re gonna find out, we’re gonna see it and all that stuff. But um yeah, I don’t remember the specific play that you’re talking about, but I will say that again it it’s a inside out communication. When there’s a change of strength, there’s different ways to handle it based on the speed of the motion. If the motion’s really fast, sometimes you just bump the pieces over. If the motion’s in between, you normally will run your nickel over. You’ll switch your backers. You’ll do things like that. You’ll spin your safeties. And that’s why you just think about what I just said. If it’s a slow motion, we could do one thing. If it’s a fast motion, you could do one thing. What if it’s a peel motion where he goes over and comes back that trick? It’s not as easy as, yeah, why are these guys not talking to each other? They’re talking, but they’re also talking and then having to cover guys that are running 44 and 4-3 down the middle of the field. And that’s why it takes so much practice. And that’s why we’ve been doing a bunch of walkthroughs with the defense, working on those trouble formations, knowing Ben’s going to present those things so that they’re not just speaking, Joe, they’re speaking with confidence. and Brad Spanfor had a couple big blocks in that last game. I’m just curious. I know you call plays for wide receivers in order to get them open. Do you have guys that maybe say, “Hey, I want to use this guy as a blocker and specifically this play.” So, I’m kind of using the same methodology or is it just, “Hey, we’re going to run our play and hope that Brevan’s No, you know, I think you guys know how I feel. I mean, I’m all about, you know, players are who make the magic happen.” And, uh, Brevin’s played extremely well and physical the last couple games. And on Miles Sanders touchdown run, you can find the block. It’s easy to find, but um he was dominant at the second level against a linebacker, but again, you get caught up in people get caught up in George and CD and all that stuff, but you know, Fergie’s a really good tight end and Sconey is a really good tight end and Brevin’s a really good tight end. Um and and we’re going to use those guys and um the things that they do in the running game. All that does for us is make our play action passing game way more effective. And that’s I think what we’re excited about in these next couple weeks is okay people are going to pay attention. I mean Dennis Allen’s going to double CD. I think I said that the other day. He’s going to he should I’d double CD. I might triple CD. Um but those other guys have to be ready to make the play and they will. Hey coach Patrick Walkadscowboys.com. Um, it’s not easy to pull a smile out of Brock Hoffman, but when I asked him about the uh the level of excitement combining his demeanor, that lunch pale bluecollar demeanor, you look to the left, you got Tyler Smith, same demeanor. Look to the right, got Tyler B, same demeanor. He smiled, showed all 32. Can you just talk about um the value of being able obviously you lament the loss of Cooper BB for a couple months but having that type of guy to be able to step in in between Tyler Booker and Tyler Smith and and not have a drop off at least in demeanor. Yeah. You never want players to get injured and Brock doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Cooper BB. But the nature of the National Football League and football in general is there’s going to be injuries and it’s the next man up. It’s going to take it. I say it all the time for us to go where we want to go to win a Super Bowl. It’s going to take all 69. Um, you know, Brock is the guy that he prepares like a starter every week. So, when he gets an opportunity like he’s going to get this week and for a few more weeks after this, he’s going to be ready. And, um, he is one of the unquestioned leaders in that room. It just goes to show you, you don’t have to be a starter, per se, to be a leader. We want leadership from all different levels of our locker room and each position room. Um, but confidence is generated by having good players around you. And when you have good players around you, uh, you tend to be more confident. And, uh, I don’t know what he has up his sleeves in terms of trash talk and things like that, but what I’ve told him is you be you play to the edge, but don’t go over the edge. And, uh, he has a great knack for doing that. Chris, Christy Scales, 1053, the fan Cowboys radio. Last week was the first in which you had the game captain in addition to the seasonl long captains. Um Malik, how are you doing that internally? Are you notifying that person like in in front of a meeting that you know the weekend of or and are is it like ringing of honor committee of one making the decision? You’re taking input from Well, no. Um and thank you for asking. I think it’s awesome. I think these guys deserve it. So, when we went to the yearly captains, it was something that I always wanted to do. Uh, in terms of wearing that C on your chest is cool. It’s important. It’s a badge of honor. Uh, no pun intended. Um, but I also know that, like I’ve said, there’s more than six great leaders in our locker room. Um, what I think so great is that when you have the game captain of the week, one of the actual captains has to bow out of the coin toss because the league only allows you to send six guys out there. So last week, um, I did there’s a thread with the captains and myself and a couple of the people. Um, and both, uh, OSA and Dak, I said, “Hey, who wants to sit this one out?” And OSA beat Dak, uh, by a matter of seconds. Um so OSA uh he set out the coin toss so that Malik could go out there. Um and then the staff has a huge part of uh selecting it. So they nominate each side of the ball, offense, defense, special teams. They nominate uh someone that is exemplifying the things that we want, playing well, having leadership, playing with toughness, playing with grit, and um then I kind of talk to him about it and I make a decision. And uh this week’s captain is a guy that really really proud of. He’s playing great football right now. Uh will be Javvante Williams. And I told the team that today in front in Friday we tell them uh who the pulling him up and Yeah. Acknowledge him. Yes. We don’t pull him up, but we announce him and uh and everybody goes crazy. Thank you, Clarence. Who’s bowing out? Uh I haven’t I haven’t sent the text yet, but it won’t be OSA because I’m not going to make OSA out. I said, let’s be honest. I mean, Sidi’s probably not looking at his phone, so at some point we’ll come up with a formula. You know, Sidi’s probably gaming, so you know, he’s probably not looking at his phone, but uh we’ll take turns and we’ll rotate it. He will take his phone, though. He will grab his phone. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Uh what does Jayen Blue need to do to get active? You’re going to hate the answer, but I’m going to keep saying it. Uh be more consistent. He’s had two really good weeks of practice. He really has. Um, right now when you look at the numbers in the roster, you know, we’re a little heavy on defense. Obviously, we’re beat up on defense, so we’re a little heavier on defense. So, we’re short, I’d say, a body or two on offense, but he can’t get caught up on that. And, uh, he has to continue to control what he can control, which is to do a really, really good job in practice. Um, spending the extra time with, uh, uh, Nick Sorenson with special teams. you can’t just be a returner because we’ve got an all-world returner in Turp and Jaden’s a really good returner. We all know that. You know that. Uh but okay, let me see your gunner reps and let me see this and he’s doing a phenomenal job of learning the system. Uh but the biggest thing is just the the consistency and and we see trends from him. We see trends from Mazi, you know, and like I said, you know, when we sit down this afternoon after we go through today’s practice and we’ll we’ll make some of those decisions. And the last thing that I say and I say to all the guys that become inactive is these things change fast. I remember two years ago going were in Washington and uh it was to win the division and um all of a sudden uh I think it was Brock was going to be down and Zack Martin showed up at the stadium man and just was throwing up and sick. So my point is those things change up until 90 minutes before the game. So if and and we usually tell the guys on game day because of that. But um Jade needs to keep doing what he’s doing and he’s doing some really great things for us and we’re excited. Real quickly you brought up Turp and is he good to go for everything all the returns and you know cuz I know if you might need an extra returner because of his injury but yeah we have backup returners but yeah uh Turp is one of the tougher guys that we got and uh he uh yeah he’s he’s he should be good to go. All righty. Thank you. You and Tyler do that in your office? Uh depends on we do it in the office.

Head coach Brian Schottenheimer speaks on practice this week heading into a Week 3 matchup with the Chicago Bears, the growth of DE Donovan Ezeiruaku, a progress report on CB Shavon Revel, announced the rotational captain for Week 3, and more.

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