Brian Schottenheimer: My Focus is On The Broncos | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Brian Schottenheimer: My Focus is On The Broncos | Dallas Cowboys 2025

was ready. He was ready. Late. He was late. Oh, okay. Well, that’s good. Oh, hey, by all means, step out if it’s like that. Snakes. You got snake problems. Calvin Watkins, Dallas News. You didn’t say hi. Okay. Hello. Hello. How are you? I’m a good sir. Good sir. Uh yesterday we sorry Monday we had talk about some guys starting the 21 day window. Are those guys still on target over Rebel and those kinds of things? Yep. And Cooper BB. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. Looking forward to getting them back out there. I know they uh they got big smiles on their faces. Uh we’ve talked a lot about the trades around here and you’ve been coordinator for a long time now in this seat that you’re in. How much are you involved in those discussions or are you like, “Hey, just let me know if you got something.” Yeah, I mean, um, my focus is on the Broncos and coaching the team and there’s always going to be speculation this time of year and I get that and I talk to Will, Jerry, and Stephen every day and they keep me up to date on things that potentially, but uh, yeah, right now my focus is on trying to go into Denver and find a way to beat a really, really good football team. CL DLLS, how you doing, coach? Um, good good change up. I like that. Um, sorry, Todd. Digs here in protocol. Where is he? Uh yeah, he’s in the building uh in protocol. Uh just going through the necessary steps to try to get out of protocol. Uh obviously 33 and one up and down season. What do you do to get the consistency? You haven’t really won the Cowboys haven’t won any Denver since 95. I’m clearly you’re trying to string back to back good games because what’s the key? Yeah. Well, again, starts with today. Uh good meetings, good energy uh this morning. Uh talked to the guys a little bit. But I guess it was more the offensive guys just um out there at walkthrough about yeah we got to you know sustaining success and putting together a streak. It’s like we’ve done with the ball security and taking care of the football and you know four straight games without giving it away. Well uh and three straight games I guess or four straight games creating a takeaway. You know we have to do that with wins. You know you got to put together streaks of wins. You can’t win lose win lose win lose because what you’re looking at when you do that is you know eight and nine nine and eight whatever was 17 games. It’s a little harder to do the math for me, but it starts with today and the prep for today. And uh I’m not surprised that, you know, uh this is a tough place to go and play. I mean, it’s a good football team. They’re well coached. They’re talented. Sean’s obviously a championship coach and um you know, I’ve played a number of games there and uh shoot Denver haunts the Shenheimers in some regard. So, I don’t want to go back to uh whatever it was, whatever year it was, was bad, but uh yeah, the old fumble and Jeremiah Castile, but um yeah, it’s tough place to play. The fans are made, but I told the guys today, I said, “Hey, I love going there because it’s going to be loud and crazy and that’s what you want.” How do you prepare prepare for the altitude? Uh really, there’s not much you can do. You know, we big thing for us is focus on hydration. you know, hydration is real and uh the trainers and those guys are all over it just with the things that you can do. And you know, we’re not a team that goes out there, you know, couple days early or anything like that. You go out there, you play the game, and you know, we’ll have oxygen and stuff ready for those guys. It’s a little different, but uh I don’t want to overstate it. I just want the guys to do what they can control, which is hydrate. Uh Brian Todder, Troy, the ESPN, how you doing? I’m doing great. Suckups over there. Yeah, that’s your thing. You should have patented it. You should have patented it. Yeah, you first want to set. Um anyway, uh when you go to Denver, obviously they have the incomplete thing. You go to Pittsburgh, they have Renegade that they play. Would you do you prepare your team for that stuff just to know what they’re going to hear when you’ve not been to a place like that? No. Uh the Renegade thing I laugh because and you actually if you’re going to ask the question you should say how they say it, the fans they say in complete, you know, so I’ve heard it a lot in my life. Um, but the renegade thing, I laughed because, um, we were playing a, uh, we were playing, I was with the Jets coordinator. We were playing out there like week 15 and Brilen Edwards was on our team and he, uh, he knew it was coming. He’s like, “Oh, you guys wait till you see this.” And so, we kind of looked up there and next thing you know, all of our offensive players are watching. It’s like Troy Palamalo big hits, you know, Jack Lambert, Mel Blunt. And it was kind of a distraction. Uh, so I did think about that, but uh, no, not really. I mean, you know, we’ll play like sometimes you’ll play certain songs and stuff like we play Renegade when we go back to Pittsburgh last year. We did it. Mike and those guys did it. But, um, you know, it’s the process is the same whether they’re loud, whether they’re not loud, which they’ll be loud. Um, the process is more about us and focusing on us. And then with oversh the rehab that he’s gone through, three torn ligaments, you don’t see there’s guys who never come back from things like that. when you were in his office, did you what did you see from him in the spring maybe on the field with Brit doing all that stuff? Yeah, I just saw a guy that every day attacked the the day um worked his butt off. Um and they were doing something simple last week with Britt where they were doing like single leg jumps, man. And like this guy was number one, the zero looked sweet, but like he had the headband around his neck that looked cool. Um, and like but like honestly the explosive power that he can generate. Um, and where he’s at, you know, I just love the kid, man. His mindset, you know, he’s never had a bad day. He’s been dialed in on getting back. He’s had a vision of what it’s going to look like and he’s just that much closer to getting back out there and playing in games. But, uh, we’ll see, you know, how he does today and there’ll be a ramp up period. But, um, like I said, I’ll keep saying, uh, we’re getting close. And then um on the road you’re it’s 40 points a game at home and 24 and a half on the road. How do you close that discrepancy? What would you put anything on that? No, not really. I mean execution, you know, sometimes it’s third down. You know, Carolina was the run game. You know, different things, you know, that you have to look at. And um we know what we’re capable of. And again, I think it just, you know, it comes down to execution. And this big push for us this week is going to be about fundamentals and techniques. And that’ll start today with, you know, the padded work that we get in there today. And this is a very, very physical football team that we’re getting ready to play. You know, Sean and that that offense love to run the football and obviously had a huge comeback win against the Giants. And uh on defense, they lead the league in sacks. You know, um you know, Nick Bonito and Cooper and those guys are outstanding edge rushers. And um if Certain’s not the best corner in football, uh he’s certainly in the discussion. so talented, so poised. Um, and uh, you know, they’re they’re really good, but they’re very physical, and that’s why we need the pad to work today. John Modto with the athletic with Kenny Clark and Kenneth Murray. What do you expect them to be able to do, if anything, today? Yeah, they’ll do some things. Again, I think, you know, we’ll see how they feel. That’s the other thing you do. You know, John, you kind of get out there and see how they feel. We’ll be smart with Kenny. He’s a little sore. Uh, certainly some indie, but, you know, we’ll see how they do. And I think K9’s feeling pretty good as well. So, um, we’ll get a feel. Mostly those guys get out there a little early, warm up, see how they feel, and then we’ll adjust off of that. And then with, uh, JW and Clowney, he talked after the game about kind of his ramp up process and getting back into into football shape. And obviously, he played well in that game. Just what have you seen from him since he’s been in the building in terms of, you know, getting himself into that type of shape, not having a training camp? Yeah, I’ve just seen the the the twitch that I remember. Uh, I felt that last week in practice watching him. Uh let’s be honest, the guy didn’t have a training camp. He didn’t have an offseason program. And I think it’s amazing that he’s been here what, three weeks, and he performed the way that he performed last week. Uh it shows you he kept himself in shape. He looks great. Um but I noticed it and I noticed it incrementally throughout the week of, you know, weeks where you’re like, “Okay, yeah, he looks good. Oh, oh, I like that.” To okay, now that’s what I remember seeing from him. So, um, and he performed well and, uh, he needs to do it again this week for us to have a chance to win. Nick, fourstar telegram. Going back to this being the time of year where trade discussions are talked about with Will and his staff. What does their process look like around this time of year? And how does that help you be able to focus on Denver? Yeah, they monitor everything. I mean, you again, you will and I have touch point meetings basically every day in the in the AM and and the PM and um we just talk about different things and it’s not just the trade deadline, it’s our roster and obviously we got a lot of moving parts and a lot of people banged around which everybody does this time of year, but um the biggest thing that you know I pride myself on and Will and and Jerry and Stephen are really this way is the communication. You know, just because you’re in the same building, you still have to work at the communication piece. And I’ve been in buildings where that doesn’t happen. You know, I’ve been on teams, really good teams, where the head coach and the general manager never talked. You know, um that was San Diego, a really good football team that basically got dismantled because of that. So we go out of our way to communicate and we talk about different things and you know they ask questions about the game plan and I ask questions about you know potential personnel things and uh but it’s very normal like you guys get excited about this time of year but for us it’s just the it’s what we do and it doesn’t doesn’t change. I know there’s a deadline coming up a couple weeks away but uh our process is very much the same. Then with Javante Williams when he was free agent over the offseason, what about his time in Denver and specifically last year was wasn’t his best season in Denver. What did you guys see that made you guys want to target him free agent? Yeah, I mean just the suddenness, the ability to jump cut, the way he would run through contact, you know, yards after contact to me is a big thing for running backs. Um I like big big backs, you know, I really do. I think it’s it’s that type of league right now with how everything is, you know, played and physical and um but you do see a guy that creates explosives, you know, and I think uh why does he do that? Because he doesn’t hesitate and uh um it jumped off the film, you know, and it wasn’t again something that they felt like, but we knew it was something that we wanted to add to our to our team. Patrick, I caught it. I caught it. I I actually started to sing the rap song. I got Yeah, I got it. Yeah, sir. Sir Mix a lot. I like big backs. Oh, some people just got it. Some people just got it in the back. Leave it to my man right there. Yeah. Yeah. It’s going to be hard to follow up with. Yeah, you get two questions. Oh god. All right. So, good morning, coach. Patrick Walker, Dallas cowboys.com. I too like big. Um, so going to George Pickers really quickly, a lot of the conversation with him rightfully so has been um the production that he has for you guys and also locker room etiquette, joining the brotherhood, so forth and so on. The DPI component of it. So I’m going to throw some stats at you from his DPI component. And I’m just curious as far as your take. So he’s drawn four defensive pass interferences. That’s second only to Jamar Chase. Uh 116 yards game that you guys have gained on his DPI penalties, first in the league. and one no 24 points scored on drives in which he’s drawn a DPI. Would you talk about the reaction to those types of numbers and just the value that he brings not only on the general spec sheet but in plays like that where they impact the drives positively for you guys? Yeah, I mean I think you know he’s a tremendous weapon because of his size and like you know I think maybe most fans that don’t have a chance to be around him like we do all of us in here you don’t realize how big and long he is and all that. Um again he’s a guy that if you’re not combative with down the field he’s almost impossible to cover on those 5050 throws. I think there’s huge momentum swings for us when that happens. Um I know I feel that way. you know, you throw a go ball down there and he catches it, you’re excited, but if he doesn’t catch it and you see a a flag, you’re just as excited because it’s normally going to be a PI penalty and not an illegal contact penalty. Um, but what I I mean, you know, that’s who he is. But, you know, I what I’m most excited about is how much fun he has playing the game. And like that’s I got home late last night. I guess he was miked up, which I don’t know who decided to have him miked up, Tad. That’s interesting. but probably like Mike and Mia. But um I mean just how much fun the guy has playing the game like you know and and our guys feed off it. Our our guys were very loose in that last game and that’s that’s what we’re trying to bring you know whether you’re playing in Denver whether you’re playing last week at home against Washington. You know this is Sunday is your day to have fun and to not try too hard and to fly around and to play free. And um I felt really good after pregame warm-ups because of how loose our team was and and confident. Second question um to the guys that are coming back obviously there’s a a lot of expectation on overshown um to try to hit the ground running as quickly as you can. Can you guys talk about just the balance of you know his expectations, his potential, but also just the grace of understanding the injury he’s returning from? Yeah. Uh I I don’t put expectations on him that can come even remotely close to the expectations he has for himself. He’s that type of young man. He lives his life that way. It’s not just football. He lives his life as a dad like that. He does all that stuff. And um I just want him to focus on his preparation. I want him to focus on having good practices, stacking good practices. Um because when you get out there and play, man, he hasn’t forgotten how to tackle. He hasn’t forgotten how to rush. he hasn’t forgotten how to cover. Those things are going to happen. But for us to say that you watch him today and some of the things that we do, he’s going to look like he maybe did when he was starring at Texas or his first couple years with us when he was playing great. You know, it is a process and so we’re there to support him. And if he does have a not saying he’s going to a average or below average practice, there’s no panic on my face. I’m I’m I’m great. I can’t wait. I just happy to have you out here. And um I think that’s what these guys want from us. Babe Babe Laughberg 1053 the fan Cowboys radio. Uh Brian so you know you get a game Buffalo Kansas City Josh Allen versus Patrick Mahomes. They never take the field at the same time but we build it that way. Um with you going against Shawn Peyton who’s recognized as you know one of the great play callers offensive minds da da da. Do you take that as a personal challenge going against the other guy even though again you won’t be calling plays against his defense per se? Yeah, I don’t think so. Um, you know, Shawn is a guy I’ve spent a lot of time with. Um, my relationship with Drew Brees is kind of how I first actually got to know Shawn when I was a coach at Syracuse. He was the coordinator with the Giants and our relationship just kind of grew. And um you know, I think you know, him signing Drew after Drew was with us in San Diego, we had a lot of conversations and I’ve been around, you know, him quite a bit. Um but no, I’m not going to compare myself to Shawn. I mean, look at what Shawn’s done in this league. And um it’s fun to go and compete against really good football team. Now, I’m going to compete my ass off against Vance Joseph, who I think’s one of the best, if not arguably the best defensive coordinator in the league. the way you look at that defense. I’m gonna have fun doing that. But at the end of the day, it’s the players and it’s going to be Tyler Gayton blocking, you know, Nick Bonita and um George and CD going up against Certain and more than anything else, that’s that’s the battle. Garrett Podell, CBS Sports. Hey, Brian, how do you um I guess game plan, how much does it affect when you face a pass rush where there’s five guys with at least three sacks? Obviously, you mentioned Venito and Cooper, but how kind of multiaceted their pass rush is from like a blocking perspective. Yeah, I mean, well, they force your hand, Garrett. I mean, they, you know, there are certain fronts that they play where they know what you’re going to do. They know you have to go, you know, five on five, and um we do a good job around here of trying to game plan that stuff, but they make it difficult. I mean, it’s a well-coordinated, well orchestrated thing. What they do is they take the interior defensive lineman and they’re playing attack. They’re very different. They’re three four, but they’re very different than Carolina, who was kind of read and react. These guys are going north and south and trying to knock the interior lineman back into the quarterback’s face so that Cooper and and Nick can come off the edges. It’s very well coordinated and it’s extremely difficult. You know, I mean, Nick’s got what, eight sacks and they’ve got 34 or 35. I mean, in seven games, I mean, that’s outstanding. So, it’s going to be a hell of a challenge and in the noise it makes it even more. So, we have to um you know, put together a great plan, but it won’t be easy. And um you know, they they they do a nice job of trying to affect quarterbacks. And you talked about, you know, hunting for deep shots really effective at that last week against Washington. Does does that kind of change how much that’s part of the plan and just the different types of passes you have with Dak going in against a defense that speeds guys up a little faster? No, I don’t think so. Because again, what they do, which is smart, I understand it because of their pass rush. They like to play a lot of press manto man and so um you know we’ll see what they do with with Patrick you know who they match him on if they match him at all. I think they will but we’ll see. Um and uh but yeah they want to they want to rush a passer and so they want to disrupt the timing. So I’m quite certain they’re going to be very comfortable. They do it against you know Cincinnati and teams like that that have elite weapons like we do and uh so it uh it’ll be a fun matchup to watch. Joe White Dallas is Brian. Um Javvante has talked about the last couple years in Denver that it wasn’t he didn’t feel like he was pulling himself still after the ACL tear when you guys are scouting guys. How much does a post ACL recovery timeline kind of factor in especially with running backs? Yeah, Joe, I think you know when you look at it it’s you know 10, 12, 15 years ago it was like people thought their careers were over and now we’ve all learned it’s not. It does take time. Each position is a little bit different. Running backs and corners are maybe different than offensive linemen and things like that. Um, but when we dove into the background of the young man, there was no question in our mind that he was going to be um, you know, back to normal. And we didn’t know if that’d be day one, day two. I I don’t know if he’s if today he feels like he’s back to normal. I hope there’s even more room for improvement because he’s really good. Um, but I think that was the main thing for us and the understanding of with these injuries now. It’s like, yeah, there’s a process and it’s going to take, you know, 8, nine, 10 months sometimes, but um, you know, we, uh, we bet, right? And with him, one of his first runs was obviously one where he ran over Marshon Latimore. Running back can be kind of momentum based, I feel like. Uh, how important is it for him specifically to kind of have that tone setting run like he did? And what does it do for others on the offense when he does have a run like that? Yeah, they love it. You know, they love it. And I think you know what he pointed out to me which was cool was really the reason Marawn was there is because George did a great job coming down and cracking the safety. So the safety was trying to fit and George did a great job. We talk about you know everybody being a part of the running game. George did a great job of digging out the safety and um but it it’s a shot in the arm man when you run as physical as he does and I just think it sends a message to you know DBs in this league. you know, they they’re put on, you know, the field to mostly cover and uh it sends a message that, hey, if you see 33 coming at you, you better get down pretty low. S the Athletic Brian, uh just to go back to Sunday for a second, you mentioned um winning the toss allowed you guys to kind of control uh which way how you approach going into the Sun. I was just curious, is that is there a preference? Could you expand on do you want to be going into it in the third or fourth quarter? you would you rather have your quarterback looking into it as opposed to your receivers? How do you kind of make that decision? Yeah, I’m I’m not I’m not dodging the question. I’ll answer it to a point. I’m not going to tell you our strategy because there’s going to be teams that come in and they’re like, “Oh, okay. Well, let’s listen to Shotti and hear what he says and then we’ll follow his deal.” Um, but it’s something that we think about, you know, and again, I think, you know, we’re aware of it like we said. And uh but there was also, you know, the fact that I felt really good about the week of practice on offense and the openers and we felt good about the fact that, you know, we could go down and generate some points and um so that wasn’t the only factor. Uh but um without giving away too much of our, you know, strategy of that, it it it it’s factored in and we have meetings about it and we talk about it and we debate it and um it just happened to worked out this week for us. And then looking ahead, we all kind of know Brandon Aubrey and the power that he’s shown with his leg with the thin air. How does that kind of uh alter, if at all, how you approach end of half situations and how much time is actually enough time to go down and score? Yeah, again, I think we’ve shown and I’m very confident in our ability to move the ball however far we need to to get into range. Uh there’s different factors that you would take into account. You know, do you get the ball first? Do you not get the ball first? you know, maybe how many plays have you had, different things like that. But, um, the only thing I expect to be a little different is that target line that we normally get of like the 50 might be at like the 40ish and I might have to be like, well, which one? You know, across the 50 or like behind the 50 and uh, so I might have to get that clarified from Nick. Yeah. Uh looking back on it when you were offensive coordinator and a consultant here, how much do you think helped you develop a good relationship with Dak? You know, when I was a consultant, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with Dak just out of respect for Kellen and Nus, who I think are great coaches. Like I didn’t have a whole lot to add to Dak. They he was getting great coaching anyways. And um of course I was friendly. I mean I’m a friendly guy, you know that. Um, but when I became a coordinator, it obviously changed and then I was going to be very involved along with Mike and Scott Tolzene and guys like that. And um, the more time you’re around somebody, I think I was able to show probably my true personality to Dak and him, you know, show his true personality. Plus, we buted heads on things, you know, which is part of building relationships and things like that. And, um, we still laugh and butt heads at times. Like, like I said, I call a bunch of shots last game. and he’s getting the knocked out of him and he’s like really? Um but like you know so we can have those disagreements but uh it was more so the two years as the coordinator more so than the year as a consultant. We good. Thanks guys.

Head coach Brian Schottenheimer speaks with the media before Wednesday’s practice to discuss practice windows officially opening for Overshown, Beebe, and Revel, provides an update on Trevon Diggs, the contributions of George Pickens, and more.

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