The Dallas Cowboys, in a somewhat surprising move, elevated their offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to their head coach position. Even more surprisingly, given the numerous highly sought-after candidates on the market, the Cowboys never even brought Ben Johnson in for an interview.
What Was Jerry Jones, Cowboys’ Process Not Interviewing Ben Johnson?
Jerry Jones was asked why he didn’t even interview Johnson, arguably the hottest name on the coaching market over the last two offseasons, for the Cowboys’ head coach opening. His response was very on brand saying, “I have one that is very capable with those skills. He’s done that. And he’s uniquely qualified to coach our team and [Dak Prescott].”
In Jerry post presser, he was asked why they didn't interview Ben Johnson: "I have one that is very capable with those skills. He's done that. And he's uniquely qualified to coach our team & Dak"
Also cited Schotty's experience over Kellen and they didn't discuss hire with Dak.
— Shan Shariff (@1053SS) January 27, 2025
To frame it in another way, Jones’ response feels like it can be interpreted as him saying, “We don’t need Ben Johnson, we have Ben Johnson at home”.
Now, Jones isn’t technically wrong; Schottenheimer has been with the Cowboys since 2022 (Offense+ grade: 79.8, seventh in the NFL), serving as an analyst before becoming their offensive coordinator in 2023 (83.7, fourth) and 2024 (68.2, 23rd), some of the Cowboys’ most prosperous offensive seasons. As a result, there is some familiarity there for the Cowboys’ offensive players.
In 2023, the Cowboys were fourth in the NFL in total touchdowns, and Dak Prescott was considered an MVP candidate. In 2024, Prescott played eight games and the Cowboys went 3-5 in that time. With Prescott missing time, the Cowboys’ offense was unsurprisingly rough, finishing 28th in the NFL in total touchdowns while playing games with Cooper Rush and Trey Lance at quarterback.
Not only did the Cowboys struggle at quarterback without Prescott, but it was also very confusing trying to understand the direction the Cowboys were going with their running back room.
Tony Pollard was a 1,000-yard rusher in 2023, and the Cowboys let him walk. Rico Dowdle was good in 2024, finishing with 1,079 yards. The confusing part is that the Cowboys’ solution for their backup running back was to bring in the ghost of Ezekiel Elliot who, despite finishing the season with 226 rushing yards, still finished second on the team.
To be fair, though, the Cowboys were missing Prescott and CeeDee Lamb for large parts of the 2024 season, but the question still needs to be asked, what is Jones thinking by not even interviewing Johnson?
Johnson ran arguably the most creative offense in the league with the Detroit Lions (first in Offense+ in 2024); even if Jones had no interest in hiring Johnson, Jones could have interviewed Johnson and seen if he was a better candidate than Schottenheimer. At the very least, Jones could have brought him in and picked his brain on his offensive philosophy.
However, in typical Jones fashion, he seems to be assuming he knows better than to even go through the interview process with Johnson, just sticking with a guy that most of the players on the 2025 Cowboys are already familiar with.
READ MORE: ‘When Are They Going To Cut Him Off?’ — NFL World Reacts to Jones’ Strange Rant
The Cowboys have one great wide receiver in Lamb, a solid tight end in Jake Ferguson, and a solid running back in Dowdle.
Outside of those three, the Cowboys have a lot of work to do to get Prescott more weapons and to get healthy on both sides of the ball before they’re ready to contend and end the NFC’s longest active drought of not making a conference championship game after the Washington Commanders ended their drought this season.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears seem very happy to have brought in Johnson as their head coach, with GM Ryan Poles issuing a “warning” to the rest of the NFL after the hire was announced.