North Carolina Tar Heels football general manager Mike Lombardi has been doing rounds in the media, talking about the changes expected at UNC. The Tar Heels have received a lot of media attention since early Dec. 2024 with legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick signing a five-year, $50 million contract.
However, on Thursday, Jan. 23, he had another topic to discuss: the possibility of Brian Schottenheimer taking over as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Mike Lombardi Thinks Brian Schottenheimer Would Be a Good Fit for Dallas
Mike Lombardi appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” to discuss various topics in the football world. One topic that came up was the Cowboys’ head coach search. One person who is rumored to be in the mix is their offensive coordinator Schottenheimer. Lombardi discussed how he thinks Schottenheimer would be a great fit for the position.
“I think Brian’s a really good coach. I think Brian comes from a great tradition of coaches. His father Marty [Schottenheimer] is one of nine human beings who has won 200 games in the NFL, and he can get himself into the Hall of Fame. It’s a complete injustice. And so I’m rooting for Brian to get this job and carry on his father’s legacy, who was an outstanding coach.”
"I think Brian Schottenheimer is a really good football coach..
I'm sure he's ready to be a Head Coach and I think he would be a great hire for the Dallas Cowboys" @mlombardiuncgm #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/fOyI767c4Y
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 23, 2025
“I think some of the time when you have this rise and all of a sudden you don’t get the job, you learn the essence of the job,” Lombardi continued. “I’m sure he’s more ready to be a head coach than he ever was, and I think it would be a smart move for Dallas because it would keep [Dak Prescott] in line.
“Plus I know Brian knows how his father ran the operation. Brian knows that Marty was running pretty much everything. It was a philosophically aligned organization. I think it would be a great hire for the Dallas Cowboys, I really do.”
Schottenheimer has been part of the Cowboys organization since 2022. He was brought in as a coaching analyst in 2022 before being promoted to the offensive coordinator position in 2023.
It will be interesting to see if Schottenheimer is the person the Cowboys decide to hire. They are coming off a poor season where they only won seven games. That comes off the back of three seasons when they won 12 games.
With Schottenheimer at the helm, the Cowboys’ offense graded out at 68.2 in 2024 and 83.7 in 2023, according to PFN’s Offense+ metric — they graded at 79.8 in 2022, Kellen Moore’s final season in charge. However, 2024 was plagued by injuries, particularly to Prescott.