Brian Schottenheimer: Our Goals Haven’t Changed | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Brian Schottenheimer: Our Goals Haven’t Changed | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Yeah. Bonus Monday. It’s a bonus Monday. You like that name? Yeah. Get some elite eights in today. Good. Calvin Calvin Watkins Dallas Morning News. Uh Jerry said yesterday that he talked to his inner circle and I assume you were part of that and it was unanimous in trading Micah. Why did you think it was the right thing to do? Well, I think you know we just went through the whole process and um at the end of the day it was unanimous. This is not something we came about. It wasn’t something where it was like an overnight thing. We just we had talked about it. And at the end of the day, I think when you look at a football team, um when you can uh potentially add up to four or five players and things like that, uh it gives you the ability to do some things. We were certainly excited about the addition of Kenny Clark. I’ve played against Kenny. Uh he’s very, very disruptive inside. And uh again, when when we looked at it, it was um you know, something that at the end of the day when when you get a chance to get things back in return that you’re excited about, then you know, you make the move. And so um obviously at the end of the day, we got to maximize the picks that we have and uh that’ll obviously be the plan. When you talked to him over the weekend after the last preseason game, was it in your mind that there’s a possibility he might not be with me? When I talked to when I talked to Micah, no. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, look, this is it’s one of those situations where when all my interaction with the players, it’s, you know, I’m checking on them. I’m talking to them. And uh but no, I I I didn’t know. You know, you never know. You’re not you’re not certain until it’s done. And when it’s done, it’s done. And uh that’s a that’s a the best way to handle that stuff. Brian Todd Archer with ESPN. Was there ever a time that you thought this it just wasn’t going to work out with Micah? Uh, I think I’ve been pretty upfront and honest that I was confident he would be back. Um, you know, I think at the end of the day, you know, we’re um, you know, happy for Micah, his family. Uh, you look at the deal that he got, you know, that’s that’s awesome. Um, uh, I wish him nothing but the best. I mean, he’s done an incredible job here for the Cowboys for the last, you know, four years. And, um, but again, you know, you just, you never know. I mean, you never know how these things are going to play out. And uh at the end of the day, I’m excited about, you know, all the additions that we’ve added, not just Kenny, but again, we’ve got some pretty good DBs that we’ve added. You know, this is something you guys know all the time. It’s a it’s a 365 day a year, but to get, you know, Triquz, Bridges, and Ready Stewart, guys that, you know, we’re excited about to get Trevor Keegan. Um, you know, at the end of the day, we’re about trying to upgrade the roster any chance we get. And then did you address the trade with the players uh today? Yeah, I did. Um, you know, and again what I told the players, it wasn’t just about Micah. I said, “This has been a tough weekend for a lot of guys. There’s players that we had to cut that I had to sit down and, you know, tell them, hey, you know, we’re we’re going to wave you and here’s why, and this is what, you know, we’re excited about with you and here’s areas that you can get better at.” And, uh, then we were fortunate to get almost all those guys back. But I just said that at the end of the day, you know, this this business is it’s about that. It’s about having hard conversations and um I felt very comfortable with the message to the team today. And then the you mentioned the picks and then what it could be in the future. What does this do for the Cowboys right now? Well, again, I think you know it’s nothing’s changed. My goals haven’t changed. Our team goals haven’t changed. I hit the the players on that today after I talked about um you know, just the the tough couple days, you know, for all the guys. And uh it doesn’t change. You know, the standard is the standard. I said that we uh with all the new pieces and people we had in there, I needed to hit the goal, you know, which is to win a world’s championship. I needed to hit that. We also want to build one of the greatest professional sports cultures in the world. And um that’s part of the deal when you add new pieces. You have to make sure they understand your vision. They have to understand your culture. They have to understand the way we view this game. And um I think uh that’s something we take a lot of pride in. John Machoto with the Athletic, where were you at and just what was your initial reaction when you when you see that that this actually is happening. Uh yeah, uh I got a call um from Jerry Steven and once I got the call from them, you know, what I wanted to do was reach out to our players, you know, and uh so I reached out to I’d say I don’t know how many it was a bunch of the leaders and just you I wanted them to hear my voice. You know, you never know how guys are going to um take you know the news like that, but I thought it was important for them to know two things, you on me. I’m a connection guy. Um I’m not afraid to have hard conversations and so, you know, I talked to I would say 12 to 14 guys and um had some real candid conversations that uh I thought was uh was very good. And um again, at the end of the day, it’s uh it’s one of those things that some people might shy away from wanting to do that, but I just felt very strongly that these guys needed to hear my voice. When we were out at training camp, it was pretty obvious that the edge rusher group might be your guys’ deep deepest position. How much did that factor into this? That was a big part of it. I think, you know, you you’re always looking at different areas and, you know, when you look at the the guys that we have that can create, you know, pass rush, Dante, and and Sam certainly drafting a guy like Donovan. James Houston’s a guy that’s come out of nowhere, you know, that, you know, we found on the streets. and uh Marshon Nean, you know, there’s guys that we have that play inside that can play outside. So, it was part of the decision, but you know, this was not something that we just, you know, stumbled upon and said, “Yeah, let’s do this.” It was it was well thought out. It was a lot of conversations about it. And then again, at the end of the day, you know, uh you got to make sure that that it works. Nick Harris for Star Telegram. How much of the timing of this was not wanting the the cloud of the distraction to push into week one of the season cuz you guys dealt with it all training camps or questions on it. How much of the timing associated with it was getting it done before the season? You know, Nick, I think again when you talk about trades and stuff, it it it takes multiple people to get these things done. And again, we didn’t have a timeline. You know, it’s just when you make a deal, you make a deal. And uh we were able to make a deal. And um you know the the the a positive thing about it is we’re into a regular 7-day cycle with Philadelphia and um it’s uh one of those things that now we we get to focus on on Philly. What has the overall team reaction been and namely Trayvon Dixs since he was super close to Michael? Yeah. Again, you know, you have to ask the guys. Uh like I said, the real conversations I had with the guys uh last night. Uh Trayvon was one of the guys I called. Uh obviously he and Mike are very close and uh he and I had really good conversation and uh again I’m not going to share that with you guys but he appreciated the phone call and um again not everybody feels like they have to do that as a head coach but I I do feel like you know those guys I wanted them to have a chance to talk to me and I said you guys can say anything you want to me. Here’s kind of why we made the decision. Here’s what went into it. And um again, those uh conversations were um powerful, but uh also um we’ll stay, you know, between me and them. And lastly, a big part of the the deal is that it opens up a lot of cap space for you guys. You’ll have the second most in the league right now. Do you anticipate using that cap space? Um at some point, I would think yes, we will. Uh you know, I I laugh about that, but uh yeah, look, you know, we’re in the business of of making moves. We’re in the business of trying to upgrade the roster every time we get a chance to and uh we’re glued in on the waiverwire. Will and those guys do an awesome job. And like I’ve said from the very beginning, the communication between myself and Stephen and Jerry and and Will and those guys um is is terrific. And they do an incredible job of, you know, just making it easy for us to turn on the film and look at certain guys that have traits like Tri like Triquz and Ready uh Stewart that is like, “Okay, yeah, let’s turn the film on and see what what we think.” Tommy, Tommy, Dallascowboys.com. Ryan, some of the defensive ends in the locker room were saying that Micah texted the group chat last night. Have you talked to him since it happened? Did you exchange any sort of communications? Uh, I saw Micah yesterday, uh, but I have not. U, but that doesn’t surprise me. You know, Mike is part of our family, you know, that doesn’t change when you leave the team. It doesn’t Zack Martin’s still part of the family, you know. Uh, it doesn’t change and, uh, it gets me, it makes me happy that, you know, those guys are still going to be close. Shoot, we see see him here in a couple weeks, right? It’s like, you know, that’ll be one that uh we’ll be we’ll be it’ll be a ball. But like that’s what I want because what that means, Tommy, is that we are building the right type of culture where hey, Mike is going on to Green Bay, but he’s still part of the family here. And again, great memories with him and uh the guys in that locker room. And then with Kenny, you mentioned this being a game week. What’s kind of the plan for him this week? And then how much do you anticipate him playing on Thursday? Yeah, again, I think, you know, he does have some uh he’s been, you know, playing uh in similar systems and has some exposure to to Flu’s system. Uh he’s a pro. Uh he’ll have no problem getting up to speed, so uh you should expect to see him out there. Skyler Sky with the AP. This seemed like a less than ideal way to kick off your head coaching career, losing perhaps your best player a week before the season. You talked about feeling the need to reach out to the players. How do you sort of put a happy face on this for yourself? Uh, I mean, again, we’ve got lots of really good players and um, again, you know, I’m never I’m never going to change who I am. I understand what we’ve been tasked with from the minute I took this job. We’re the Dallas Cowboys. I’m the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. And I stared right down the barrel of the gun and said, “Hey, I want to win a Super Bowl.” And so, that doesn’t change. Uh, you know, you you you you work and you get excited about the pieces that we’ve added. Uh again, it’s been really cool to see the guys uh you know, wrap their arms around Kenny and uh you know, some of the other guys that we’ve brought in because again, that’s what’s going to get us through the tough points in the season, whatever those look like. You know, it’s going to be that the culture that we’ve created and um again, I don’t sit around and think about, oh, this is my first year as a head coach. This is part of the business and I’m comfortable with that. Got CBS Sports. Brian, what would you say to people who question how does this bring the Cowboys closer to that gold winning world championship trading away someone who had 12 sacks in the last four years? Yeah, I would say Mike is an incredible player. Nobody nobody disputes that. He’s a great player, but this this is the ultimate team game. You know, it’s the ultimate team game and um you know, we’re not going to win a championship with just one person. you know, it’s going to take variations of the 69 guys plus that we have on this roster and injuries are a big part of this and we’ve built our depth up and we’ve done those things. But, um, you know, those would be the things that I would would say is that, uh, again, at the end of the day, this is the greatest team sport in the world and to do that, you have to have pieces in place and I think we have a lot of really good players in place. Just quickly, how do you feel Kenny Clark fits into what Matty Iberloo wants to do, that kind of attack front style? Yeah, he’s I think it’s a great fit here. I think, you know, when you look at this guy, the way he plays the game, the way he, you know, comes off the ball north and south, his hands are incredibly violent. Uh this is a guy I go back to my days in Seattle playing against this guy and it was like, I mean, he’s just an all day battle matchup. You know, he’s battleh hardened. Um, but wow, what a what a uh, you know, just incredible uh, young man and I think he is really excited about the opportunity to be a Dallas Cowboy and I’m excited to get a chance. I have not met his his wife and his two young daughters, but uh, can’t wait to meet them. Joe, uh, Joe Hoy, Dallas Morning News. You talked about the communication and the player acquisition all year long. in this case in particular, how much communication and what was kind of the overdrive with Kenny and specifically in terms of saying, “Hey, that’s a guy that we would like as a coaching staff.” Yeah. Again, you know, you guys have been around for a while. And again, when when you want to stop the run, it’s really important to have the pieces to do that. And so, this is a guy that having competed against him was a huge piece of this puzzle. Like, uh, quite honestly, if Kenny Clark’s not in this deal, it it may or may not happen. But, um, yeah, I’ve played against this guy, you know, Joe, for such a so many matchups, and he’s just he’s just so disruptive in there. And I think in this front with what he can do with the depth that we have, um, with him and OSA in there, a couple UCLA Bruins, I think that that gets me really, really excited. And, uh, again, it’s really hard when you’re standing on the sidelines and you’re like, oh man, hey, you know, they’re they’re chipping away at us in the running game. And you guys have talked about that. You have to be, you know, strong up the middle. And that was an area that we felt very strongly about that we wanted to get better at. And player leadership is obviously a huge part of culture when something like this happens. How much do you rely on a guy like Dak Prescott who obviously was a big leader in there? Yeah, of course. you know, Dak was one of the guys that I called when this this happened along with again 12 or 14 other guys. And um again, there’s there’s the leaders of this team and the players that I spoke to appreciated me taking the time to call them and I appreciated being able to have these real conversations with them. And um I think that that’s part of how you move forward is you have conversations. And um again, a lot of coaches probably don’t feel that way, but I thought it was very important that once this happened that they heard it for me. Um uh a lot of them had heard uh it broke, you know, pretty quick, which it does nowadays, but you still get on the phone and you you say, “Yo, what’s up? It’s Shotty. Got a few minutes.” and you visit obviously the athletic Ryan you talked about the conversations with players uh what have your conversations been like with Matt Ilfloose where you know would he like to have a talented player like Mike I’m sure he would but you know just going and having a player like Kenny then and plugging him in and just how he goes about sche Yeah I mean Fuss’s ability to be multiple and do different things he’s excited about Kenny and what Kenny can bring to this defense and um you know when Fouse’s defenses have been at their best. It’s been they’ve been just dominant against the run and, you know, there’s certainly ways that uh you can, you know, um use your multiple pieces to change fronts and things like that. I’ll go back to the seven iron comment. You know, we haven’t even begun to touch on the the different matchups and and personnel uses that we can use uh on a given day, but uh Fouse is excited. He he’s looking forward to Kenny. He’s same thing. He’s a guy he’s admired. And um when you got a piece like that that that can be as dominant inside, it it helps make everybody around him better. And in that room now with uh what kind of role does Dante Fowler take in in a room that’s pretty young with a lot of potential, but you know, doesn’t have that veteran um I guess production. Well, I I appreciate you asking about Dante. Dante uh was one of the players I called and um Dante’s grown up so much and and he is a leader and uh I think you know when I was first around Dante a couple years ago he didn’t say much but like he speaks up in the meetings when we’d make it interactive and I ask questions about opinions of different things about messaging and stuff like that. Uh Dante, it’s so cool for me because I see him growing into um one of those guys that he wants to share. He wants to give back to some of the younger guys. So, absolutely, that’s a guy that has already been stepping up and will step up, you know, uh continuing in this role. Babe, Babler, 105 point. Fan. Um you’re obviously in the first year of your contract. If you’re in a situation similar to what Mike McCarthy was in last year in the last year of his contract, would your thought process have been different? I think we’re all on one-year contracts in this business, babe. I mean, I really do. I mean, uh it’s Yeah, you Oh, you do. Mine’s a little more than that, but I mean, it’s just uh I really think, you know, at the end of the day, we’re going to be judged on wins and losses. And uh again, you know, when you grow up in this business and you see the things that you see, whether it’s Frank Reich after a year or some of the one andds and like doesn’t scare me, doesn’t startle me, you know, it’s the business. And if you’re good at what you do and you know how to capture your players and and get them pulling in the same direction, which I think uh we’re going to do a great job of, I think uh we expect to have great success this year. Jeff Gold with Fox 4. Shotty. Obviously, you know, you’re trying to invoke positivity, you know, on these calls talking to the players. Do you acknowledge this as adversity, though? Uh, I don’t think so. I mean, again, you know, like you have two ways to look at it. And again, uh, this was a unanimous decision. Like when we talked about it, this was unanimous from top to bottom. And, um, again, when you look at it, there’s going to be adversity. I don’t see this as adversity. I think that again guys will step up, guys will um really do a great job of again bringing these new pieces into the locker room and the culture and get them up to speed. It was cool for some of the me just looking over during practice today and seeing Kenny talking to Dante Fowler and Donovan as a rocku and um you know it kind of that’s what you want. You know these guys aren’t all standing off by themselves going all you know what’s going on like no it’s not what you do in this business. you know, you could lose players for different reasons in this in this game. We all know that you guys retire, guys get injured, there’s different ways you lose players and um so no, I mean, I think that there’s a um you know, a chance for us to grow as a football team. You got the call from Jerry about the trade. What was his main message to you about the boot? Uh really the biggest thing was just that it was it had been agreed upon and it was done. And you know, again, like I said, we had been in conversation about it. And so that’s immediately when I knew it was time for me to pick up the phone and reach out to to some of our leaders. Nick, uh, you’ve talked about u wanting to have the right guys in here. You want to build an elite culture. Did culture play any sort of role in in making this decision? No, Micah Micah and I have I mean we’ve everything I’ve ever asked Micah to do. I mean Micah, you know, has been awesome and Mike and I have had some real conversations going back to last week. you guys asked me about, you know, after the preseason game, you know, uh, so the answer to that is no. What would you have to replace from him as a leader? Again, you know, I think, you know, the biggest thing would be some of the the the young guys are going to have to step up. You know, Donovan knows that. I think it was I had a chance to talk to Donovan this morning and um, you know, again, leadership, we’re strong on leadership. I really do believe that. We’re strong on leadership in this locker room and adding a guy like Kenny Clark uh doesn’t doesn’t do anything to diminish that. It actually helps that tremendously and that’s one of the reasons that uh again when you look at this you you say okay Kenny’s going to be a big piece of what we’re trying to do because he plays the game the right way. He’s kind of I know you guys had a chance to talk to him. He’s not overly vocal, but man, the way he plays the game, the play style, it jumps off the film at you, Nick. Kyler, adding can he changes the depth chart a little bit as it relates to Mozy? We’ve asked you a little bit about him this preseason. Do you feel the need to sort of communicate with Mazy and kind of keep him engaged and make sure he’s sort of still there? Were you in my office on Wednesday, whatever day it was? Uh, no. I brought Mazi up uh and and spoke to Mazi. And why talked about Mazi with his consistency and uh he knows that and again he uh he understands. I believe in Mazi. I do. I believe in Mazi. I believe that we will get the most out of Mazi Smith. Uh but I also made it very clear to him that hey it’s got nothing to do with you being a first round draft pick. It’s that hey we know how capable you are of playing to a certain level and how can we help you do that? So it was very very good conversation. But it’s it’s funny you ask that because it was that was a real conversation. Nick, coach Nikki Mandel.com. Micah was a guy that here that did a he rushed from left side, right side, sometimes in the middle. Not to give away what you’re doing, but do you have guys that you feel that can kind of move around and be flexible like that? Yeah, you know, we’re going to be multiple. We’re going to move guys around. I think I talked a little bit about some of the guys that play inside that have gone outside and and vice versa, but um I’m certainly not going to, like you said, give away the advantages, but yes, I feel very comfortable that uh we’re going to move the pieces around and um we’ll always be looking for matchups. I think that’s what Floose and and Adub White Cotton, when I say ADUB, you guys know that, but um they’re so good at is is finding matchups and the the type of rusher versus a certain guard or a certain tackle. Those things are really really important. Ed Edward WFAA uh you said that this was a unanimous decision of the front office and the coaching staff that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t conversation and concerns expressed along the way were there people who needed convincing that this was the right thing or was it obvious to all involved that there was the benefit outweighed the risk? No, I think the conversations were always great, you know, back and forth. You know, again, I’m not going to get into the different things that we talked about, but like um there’d be sometimes you’d say something or someone would say something and it it was great, you know, feedback. Well, okay, what about this and what about that? And sometimes when we’d have those conversations, it would generate other thoughts. Um but again, at the end of the day, it was a unanimous decision. And um again, I wish Mike nothing but the best and I really do look forward to seeing him before the game uh against Green Bay, but maybe not on the field. Brad, Brad Sham, Cowboys Radio 1053, the fan. In other news, you you mentioned the two defensive backs you claimed a couple times. What do you like about them? Uh, do you envision a competition in practice for the slot position now? You’ve got the two guys you used back on the practice squad. And what did you like about the guard from the Eagles? Yeah. Well, I’ll talk about Bridges first. You know, the length jumps off the film as you. You know, he looks the part. I saw him and Vaughan standing next to each other today and like that’s what they’re supposed to look like. Um, but he’s just very very comfortable in coverage. Like when you’re watching him play the the man-to-man coverage, he was so comfortable playing in all different types of press manto man. He’s got great length. Uh he’s very aggressive in run support. You know, we talk about all the time no house guests. Um for Stewart, he has the advantage because he knows the system having played for Flu. We actually watched some of his clips from Minnesota, but also from him with flu, and they only got him active, I think, one time last year. But, uh, here’s a guy with tremendous ball skills. I think he had 12 interceptions. Brad, correct me if I’m wrong on that, in college coming out of Troy, uh, two in the preseason a couple years ago. So, that jumped off the film. And then, uh, you know, for Trevor, it was a guy that we liked coming out. And again, that center guard flex is something that’s really, really valuable for, you know, um, any team. And so I think that was uh you know something that we were looking forward to, but we’re always looking to try to upgrade and find different pieces that might make us a better football team. Last one, Todd. Um have you made have you have the players selected captain J? Uh we actually voted on today and so I’ll let you guys know when I get them all tallied up. And uh we are going to do I think I shared with you guys we are going to do um uh year-long captains uh along with um you know a captain of the week based on guys that deserve it. But like I said before I think it’s uh really really cool to be able to say you were a captain of the Dallas Cowboys in 2025. All righty. Thank you guys.

Head coach Brian Schottenheimer speaks with the media to discuss the Micah Parsons trade to the Green Bay Packers, meeting with new DT Kenny Clark, his fit in their defensive scheme, and how the team and coaching staff will be moving forward.

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