Brian Schottenheimer: Not Afraid to Mix it Up | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Brian Schottenheimer: Not Afraid to Mix it Up | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Hey, sorry. Sorry. Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News. Got a couple of guys who are nicked up might practice today. Do you know who they will be? Uh, yeah. We got a few guys banged up when you play 70 minutes of football. You’re going to have some guys banged around a little bit. Our guys are a little sore. Um, we’ll uh have a few guys out, but again, we’ll see how the week goes and there’ll be a lot more to report with that later. Got some guys on IR. Will Josh Butler or Carson begin their practice windows today? Uh, we got two guys that we’re going to open the window. Uh, it’s going to be Jonathan Mingo and Kaylin Carson. So, it’ll be exciting to get those guys out there and um, you know, watch them move around a little bit and do what they love to do. Um, Diggs didn’t start that game and you said you going to be hard on him and we’ve also talked about Bland. He’s only played two games. How do you evaluate those two guys right now? So, a month into the season. Uh, I mean, I think, you know, it’s early in the season. You know, I think the the decision with Trayvon was one that, you know, like I talked about the other night, it was just, you know, expect a lot from him and stay on him about his consistency and I thought he played really well. I told you guys how proud I was of him. Um, they’re both doing really good things. Um, but as a whole, as a football team, as a defense, as a football team, we’re not doing enough to win. And so, um, you know, but both guys are special players that we’re very fortunate to have. Clarence, DLLS Cowboys. Uh, re Rebel. Did he have a setback or where is he in this process? No, I mean, you know, I think when you look at it, you know, um, Clarence, he’s just going through the process, you know, he’s a young player. Um, you know, first time really dealing with something like this. Um, you know, it’s just building up to get ready to play football. And a young player, you want to be smart with what you do with him. You don’t want to throw him out there into the fire, but he’s working his butt off every day to get back and hopefully that’s coming sooner than later. And I know the numbers say one thing, 40 points and they scored on every possession in the second half. Did your defense get better throughout the game? How would you look at it? Yeah, I think when you look at a game, I mean, you know, the the stats are the stats. You can paint stats into anything you want the stats to be painted into. Um, but yeah, there was things that we did better. I really, like I mentioned, I thought the first first down efficiency was really good. Um, you know, the play style is incredible. Our guys play really hard. Uh, I thought the two interior guys were great, you know, OSA and um and Kenny, but um yeah, I think again it’s just been too much up and down. But yes, there was good things that we did defensively. Brian Todd Art with ESPN. Last week was all about Micah’s return here. How much is this week about your return to the Jets? Little little different. uh wasn’t as big of a story when I left the Jets. Uh but uh no, it’ll be good. There’s still some people in the organization I’m really close with and uh you know, shoot, I like to think this way. I spent six years as the OC in New York. I think that’s the longest tenure coordinator there since uh the early 70s. Um it can feel like dog years at times because they’re such great fans. Um and uh it’ll be fun to be back there. So I guess I was the coordinator there for 42 years. Um but no, we had great success, man. We won a lot of games and I’m proud of, you know, the fact that we, you know, went to backtoback AFC championships and things like that, but um it’s about people for me. And then special teams wise, we’re seeing a increase in number of blocks uh all over the place. Is that teams being more aggressive in calling the blocks or is it early season miscues because there’s a lot of new people and new spots in that? I think it’s a little both, but I think early season, you know, they’re they’re testing things out. I think we’re starting to see a trend, especially like on kickoff and kickoff return of bigger bodies. You know, it’s shorter areas with the with the the way we’re having to, you know, attack and block and things like that. So, you’re seeing bigger bodies. Um, but, uh, I think it’s it’s early season and guys are attacking different ways that people maybe haven’t seen and usually those things level out and it gets better. John Mashoto with the Athletic. When you go back to when you guys added George Pickins, obviously you knew a lot about him, but has there been anything that he’s been able to do on the field that maybe uh has caught your eye that you were like, “Oh, I didn’t know he could do that as well on that level.” Uh I think the way uh the aggressiveness that he blocks with, you know, I mean, he’s a big guy. He’s got long long limbs and long arms and but like he’s an aggressive blocker, you know, and sometimes you don’t always get that from guys that are viewed as star receivers and u he he’s not afraid to mix it up. But in terms of the other things, the ball skills and things like that. I think um we were pretty certain what we were getting there. And then in terms of how he did being your guys number one in that game, when you go back and watch it, how how do you feel like he filled that role? I thought he did great. Um, I thought, uh, you know, he played well, made big impact plays. You know, um, you know, I think you see the confidence that Dak has in him and, uh, that’s, you know, um, you know, something that you expect when you add a player like GP that has that type of talent is getting him up to speed. And, you know, this week we’re going to move him around a little bit more. They’re probably going to try to match S Gardner on him and S is a great player and, um, it’d be a fun matchup to watch. Nick Harris, fourstar telegram. What was it about your experience with adjust that you that you think really shaped you as a coach and helped prepare you for this opportunity? I mean, I think more than anything, Nick, it was just, you know, it’s my first time being a coordinator, you know, and when you first sit in that chair, whether it’s a head coach, coordinator, quarterback, coach, position coach, whatever. Like, you think you have all the answers. Like, I remember sitting in San Diego and uh Cam Cameron was our coordinator and thinking, you know, man, I I would do it this way or I’d do it that way. And then you get in that seat and you’re sitting there and something comes across your desk, you’re like, damn, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do right now. You know, um you’re literally learning on the job. And um you know, I think um we had some growing pains, you know, and uh we we struggled through some times there, but we ended up, you know, figuring out and doing a great job with it. But uh you know, I think that’s my first exposure to leading people. I mean, coaching Brett Favre when you’re 33 and he’s 40, you know, you better be good at what you do, uh, and be able to connect with people because, uh, you know, at that’s a unique age of difference. And, uh, and we had a lot of success together. And how are CD and Bookers recaps coming along? They’re doing good. Everybody’s progressing well. Uh, we’ll see, you know, how the week goes, but uh, they’re, again, one thing about our guys, man, they’re all clamoring to try to get back, and they want to get back. They want to be a part of what we’re building and what we’re doing. And um we we’ll see how the week goes. Tommy stcowboys.com. What kind of a unique challenge does Justin Fields present and how much has F’s kind of gotten in your ear about the time they spent together in Chicago? Well, I think number one there’s um he presents a number of problems just based on the the skill set, you know, the athleticism, the arm strength, arm talent, the ability to improvise. I mean, I know everybody saw the game last week, you know, the long touchdown run he had on kind of a broken play scramble. Uh, but the good news for us is, uh, no one knows him around the league probably better than Matt, you know, being with him for two years. And, um, you know, it’ll be a fun chess match, him versus, uh, Justin. Skyler. Skyler. Oh, sorry. This is not to suggest your old Oh, I am. That’s okay. You can suggest that I am. You’ve talked at times about earlier in your career, head coaching opportunities and those kinds of things. And now that you are here as a head coach, how do you look back on that sort of that younger time as a younger coach when you were with the Jets? How do you how do you sort of put that in perspective? Again, I think, you know, like I said, you know, I I learned a lot back then thinking that I had all the answers, you know, and hey, here I was a hot shot 32-year-old coordinator that, you know, after one year’s getting head coaching opportunities and, you know, this is a very humbling business. And, uh, I think, you know, you guys know me, I talk about being authentic and being humble and all that stuff. And um I think as I look back on there were some great memories and great experiences, but you know I I never stopped learning. And um I think the minute you take yourself too seriously in this business, you’re asking for problems because there’s too many talented coaches and players and people in this league that when you take yourself too seriously um which I’m sure I did at times um you know looking back um you’re asking for problems. You talked a little bit Marty about purposeful play calling. It seemed purposeful to try to get uh Pickkins the ball. Was Was that true or was that just kind of the flow of the game, the nature of the game, the what what was there for Doc? No, I think you know, you’re always going to try to get your best players the ball. Um you know, sometimes it doesn’t work out. That’s real. Um you know, you got to be ready to adjust, but again, I think you know, the more GP plays, the more that we get comfortable, the more that we’re able to move him around, that certainly helps us to do that. And in the absence of CD, you know, George is being tasked with more things, but he wasn’t the only one that made plays. You know, again, Florenoi made plays, Tolbert made plays. Um, and I think that’s that’s an evolution of an offense. And uh, again, we’re a little beat up right now. It’s all part of the game. It is what it is. And I say it all the time. It’s next man up. And, um, but it’s great to have to see GP’s confidence continue to grow. Garrett. Garrett Codell, CBS Sports. Ryan, given you’ve got CD Lamb, you’ve got George Pickkins, how does that help you prepare for wide receiver like Garrett Wilson? Um, well, I mean, the corners that we have, you know, talking about Don Kier, Diggsy, you know, they go against great players every day, but each player is different, you know, and Garrett’s a incredible talent and the ball skills and running after the catch and I don’t know what they’re doing at Ohio State, but they produce great receivers every year, man. So, kudos to Brian Hartline, the the coordinator there that’s been developing those guys. But, um, again, each each matchup and battle will be different. And, um, but, uh, again, getting the chance to work against other superstars is is helpful. Speaking of that, you know, you said you face another Micah every week. What’s the challenge of Quinnon Williams in the middle for that Jets D line? Uh, it’s a big challenge. Uh, no pun intended. Big challenge. Great player. Plays the game the right way. um you know, you try to limit his production, but you know, he’s so close to the ball and uh the power and the way that he attacks and in this front that they’re playing. You know, Steve Wils and Aaron Glenn and Steve are both incredible coaches and uh you go back to Steve at Carolina, Aaron at Detroit, the way they play, they use their pieces the right way and they’re usually going forward and they’re trying to dictate the tempo and that’ll be no different. You know, we expect a very physical football game. Um, that’s the way we want it to be anyways and that’s the way their defenses have always played. Joe, Joe White, Dallas more News. One more Booker and Lamb IR question. Usually when people hear high ankle sprains, I think 6 to 8 weeks. Obviously, the fact you guys haven’t put them on IR yet suggests it could be less than that. What is there left to be determined in terms of for those guys specifically in terms of whether or not you’re going to put them on high or not? Yeah, I mean there’s a progression, Joe. I mean, obviously they you’re in a boot for a little bit, then you come out of the boot, you start moving, you start raising up on your toe, and then when you do that, you can do more. And, um, again, I think, you know, um, when you see guys that are doing a good job and you see progress, it doesn’t mean they’re ready to play today or tomorrow, but it means that when they’re really good players, hey, let’s let’s be sure. Because what you don’t want to do is put an elite player on IR, which both those guys are great players. You don’t want to put a guy on IR and then all of a sudden they’re ready to go, you know, two weeks but they have to sit out four games like you know that’s that’s not a good feeling. So um and as long as they’re trending the right way and which they are then you you give them the benefit of the doubt. And then Jaylen Tolbert someone you’ve been very complimentary of throughout training camp obviously had a big game this past big catch too. What have you seen from him just this season? Um, you know, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention just, you know, the fact that, you know, he’s been through a lot. You know, I mean, he came in here having visions that he was going to be the number two and then the trade happens with George and then Turp begins to develop and so he’s been, you know, challenged quite a bit and he and I have had a lot of talks. He’s a special young man and hey, what can I do? And just what do I say? Keep being consistent. Keep being you. Don’t change. And his time’s going to come and now his time is coming. And um again, we we don’t, you know, we’re not as good without JT out there. I mean, JT does so many good things for us. It doesn’t always show up in the stat line, but there’s so many things. And I think that’s a good lesson for young players, you know, because a lot of times young players, they get frustrated and they’re like, why aren’t I playing or why I’m doing, you know, part of this business is you’re always looking to upgrade your roster. And great example. I mean, you know, you trade for a guy like George Pickkins and the next thing you know, you got to have a hard conversation with JT, but that’s what we do. We have a hard conversation and you say, “You’re still very valuable to this football team.” Um, it just might be at a different style some weeks and then other weeks, all right, now you’re next man ready to roll. Adam Rosell with Spectrum News. I’m curious, Brian, when you guys, you and Clayton are talking about running backs, how they’re going to fit in the run game and how you want to do things, is this basically what you’d envision for how Javvante has just ascended these first few games? Yeah, you know, I think it didn’t take me very long to realize how talented Javvante is. Um, you know, I get asked all the time because there’s different ways to do it, different people philosophies around the league of do you have a a bell cow or do you play multiple people? Javvantee’s kind of become the bellcow for us. And that’s not to take anything away from Miles or or or Jaden or Hunter Lepki and some of those other guys, but like Javvante is just playing with supreme confidence. And the physicality that he brings is so impressive. And what I love about it is here’s a guy that again other players that are banged up right now can look at a guy like Javvante who a couple years ago deals with a devastating injury and you think, man, I’m a running back. What’s this mean to me? But you just keep working. Then the team that you that drafted you says, “H, yeah, we’re going to let you go someplace else.” We’re there waiting saying, “Yeah, let’s give it a shot.” And then I think it was probably second week of training camp. We were sitting in a personnel meeting with the coaches and Jerry and Stephen and um we were talking glaringly about Javvante because the way he practices and plays the game once you put the pads on. Um but u yeah, he’s a stud. Anything that surprised you or maybe you come to appreciate more just as you’ve gotten to know him as as a person. Intelligence, the football intelligence is off the charts, you know, um like there’s nothing that that that gets him off. He sees things well. He communicates what he’s seeing on game day from a run standpoint, from protections. Uh he’s just an absolute joy to coach. He really is. Ed Warer, WFAA. Dak leads the NFL in a lot of categories. One of them is passing attempts. He’s averaging 43 a game. How much of that is a function of that’s how you want to play on offense and how much of it is that’s the way you’ve had to play because of defense giving you so many points? Yeah, I wouldn’t say that’s how we want to play. I I don’t think we want to throw the ball, would you say, 40 something times a game? Yeah. 43. Um, yeah, I wouldn’t say that’s how we want to play. I think, you know, we want to be a physical football team that that that that pounds the football, uses our action passes to create explosives. But I think it does show you we can play the game however the game needs to go. Ed, I think that’s important that we can adjust. Um the Chicago game is the the big one that jumps out at me in terms of we had to go in the fourth quarter. So those numbers get elevated. Uh plus you’re playing into overtime two or four weeks. And so um as we’ve all learned, those overtime periods go fast. And so there’s a little bit more that you do in that regard from passing. But um no, you asked the question. It’s not it’s not how I would love to uh when we put it together on the board, we don’t see 43 passing attempts a game. Gayen, is he still in the concussion protocol? Yep. Still in the protocol. Yep. Will we see him this Sunday or I think uh yeah, same thing. You know, we got to get through the week and see how he’s doing, but uh we’re banged up and uh again, we’re prepared to go into battle with whoever we got and these guys, like I said, are doing everything they got to get ready. But, uh, it’ll be an interesting week to see how it plays out. One more about the Jets. Any regrets on how you had head coaching opportunities? I believe there. Any regrets on I’mma wait, you know? Um, I think I’ve been asked that before. I No, I I really don’t. I mean, I think like I said many times, I’m way more prepared now. I did think I’d I’d miss my window. I’ll be very transparent about that. I thought that my window had passed me by. um when you’re winning divisions and stuff in Seattle and you’re not getting interviews and um you know the phone’s not ringing, when you’re having success and you know you’re the coordinator for one of the best offenses in the league and you’re not calling the plays, which is a big factor of it. I totally get that. But um I I did think that my my window of opportunity might have passed me by. You talked about tackling the other day. How do you improve at tackling without tackling? Yeah. Well, you do tackle. Uh but you don’t tackle live. Uh you do tackling drills. Uh you can do it with bags, you can do it with people. Um but uh it’s it’s more of the video actually is very powerful because you can show them their strike zone. You can show them where they’re where they’re hitting as opposed to where they’re supposed to be hitting. It’s like anything. If you grab somebody up high and they’re big, strong men, which most of the players in this league are, the knock back that we talk about where you’re knocking them either sideways or backwards, that’s not going to happen. the best way to get them on the ground is to wrap them up, tie their legs together where they can’t go anywhere and they’re forced to, you know, be restricted in movement and then that’s when the other guys, which is why we run so hard with the ball, they come and they knock the guy back, but also they punch at the ball. I think the biggest thing that I’m, you know, expecting and waiting for is we’re doing a great job, Todd, at punching at the ball. We’re just not getting the ball out. It’s not for lack of attempts. If you watch our film, you see guys very intentional with their eyes and their, you know, their wrist is below their elbow and they’re looking right at it and they’re there’s some good punches. We just haven’t gotten it out. You measure do you count that like you know you have those stats that we don’t see that how many times you how many have you attempted? Absolutely. Uh I don’t have the numbers in front of me. Um but there there’s there’s been a bunch and it’s something that you know Nick Sornson um going back to my time with him in Seattle is um uh really good at that. you know, he he’s the guy that talks to the guys on Thursday because Thursday is either turnover or no turnover Thursday and he always does a session in front of the group and he talks to the offense about ways to protect it. He talks to the defense about ways to take it out uh and really grabs clips from all over the league just showing the trends and tendencies of how it’s coming because it’s that important. Nick, you’ve committed the receiver room on how they stepped up in CD’s absence. when Jonathan Mingo is ready. Is there a consideration to taking a roster number away from another position or do you try to keep those pretty concrete throughout? No, we’re open to all all sorts of different things. I think I’m just excited to have Jonathan out there again. I know he’s really excited. Uh he has not played football in a while, but you know, I know he’s really really excited. So, we’ll see how he does. And uh this is not something like obviously he’s going out there to practice, but we knew this was coming at some point. So, he’s been working incredibly hard in the classroom, spending time with, you know, the walkthroughs and things like that. But, uh, again, we’re not going to force anything. You know, we’re we’re going to, you know, be smart with what’s in the best interest of the players. And, uh, but, uh, he he’s clamoring to play. I know, 16 games, coaches used to take the season in quadrants, four four. I don’t know if it’s still do the first four or whatever else, but how would you assess the first four and what do you say we need to build off of? Um, well, certainly not good enough. Um, because we’re judged on winning. I’d say, you know, the consistencyy’s not been there, you know, and then really the thing we have to do, I talked to the guys about today is we got to learn how to finish and how to win. And, you know, a big part of that is, you know, just the accountability of everybody being together. I talked to the guys today really it said, you know, when when it becomes more about winning for my brother or it comes more about the team winning than about personal success, which is what our guys are doing. I’m not saying they’re not. That’s when it means more to you, but um you know, in every phase there’s things we’re doing well. In every phase there’s doing things poorly. In coaching there’s things I’m doing well, there’s things I’m not doing well. There’s things Flu is doing well. Clayton, Nick. Um, but uh, as long as we don’t ever get tired of the grind and the pursuit of excellence and the pursuit of building a championship football team, we’ll be okay. All righty. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Head coach Brian Schottenheimer speaks with media before Wednesday’s practice to discuss the Week 5 matchup against the New York Jets, practice windows opening for Jonathan Mingo and Caelen Carson, and more.

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