The Cowboys repeatedly find ways to disappoint their fans whether it\u2019s through free agency inactivity, half-hearted coaching searches, draft-day decision making, or their blatant disregard to curtains and the usefulness they offer. But the 2026 season might just be a little bit different.<\/p>\n
For the first time since possibly the Bill Parcells administration, the Cowboys have an extremely strong coaching staff. With all due respect to the many talented coaches sprinkled in throughout the last 20 years, the complete 2026 staff stands above the rest and that\u2019s no trivial detail to gloss over.<\/p>\n
Related:Where does Brian Schottenheimer rank among NFL head coaches?<\/a><\/p>\n Fans love to blame coaches and notoriously see the grass to be greener on the other side of the coaching carousel. But the 2026 staff, on paper, looks to keep the harshest critics at bay for the time being.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Head coach Brian Schottenheimer wasn\u2019t always viewed so generously. At the time of his hire, the Cowboys front office was criticized heavily for their decision. They ignored the high-profile coaching names, they interviewed only a small pool of candidates and they landed on a guy no other team seemed to be considering for the post.<\/p>\n Yet despite the 7-9-1 season in 2025, Schottenheimer impressed. Saddled with the worst defense in the NFL, the first-year head coach was fighting an uphill battle from the start. In 2026, he was given the support to build things his way on defense. He was empowered to pick his own defensive coordinator and to help fill out subsequent positions down the chain.<\/p>\n Christian Parker, the chosen defensive coordinator, has been getting rave reviews all offseason. The up-and-coming coach is known as brilliant defensive mind with success stories and player testimonies to prove it. He comes from a renowned coaching tree and brings with him a team of promising position coaches.<\/p>\n As for Schottenheimer\u2019s offensive staff, they\u2019ve largely remained intact. Offensive coordinator Klayton Adams is a rising star himself. As an offensive line specialist, he\u2019s one of the best in the business and his presence ensures stability for a long time to come. Tight end coach Lunda Wells and offensive line coach Conor Riley round out his all-star inner circle. \u00a0<\/p>\n By hiring so many up-and-comers to top roles, the Cowboys front office stepped out of their comfort zone and rolled the dice. It\u2019s more boom-or-bust than what the typical retreads offer, but with the usual way clearly not working, so it\u2019s good to see the Cowboys trying a different approach.<\/p>\n Some fans will undoubtedly have issues with this staff, but generally speaking, there seems to be an abnormal amount of satisfaction surrounding the entire staff this offseason. Everything can change in a year but for now, let\u2019s take a moment to celebrate something the Cowboys seemed to get right.<\/p>\n You can follow Reid on X\u00a0@ReidDHanson<\/a>\u00a0and be sure to follow\u00a0Cowboys Wire on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to join in on the conversation with fellow fans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 2, 2026, 3:57 p.m. CT Dallas Cowboys fans can be an ornery bunch. After 30 years of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[95878,230,229,257,2461,7,6,96666,96667,95882,116520,95896,95888,95906,95884,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-851054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-cowboys","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcowboys","16":"tag-sstsncowboys","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbill-parcells","19":"tag-tagnational-sports","20":"tag-tagnfl","21":"tag-tagoverall-positive","22":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116340083911781599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775208670_376_86373428007-square-1.jpg\")