FRISCO, Texas — Three days after the Dallas Cowboys’ season officially ended, Jerry Jones was asked to give a message to disappointed fans that what happened in 2025 will not happen again in 2026.

The owner and general manager’s first thought was head coach Brian Schottenheimer.

“Brian is one of the reasons for our fans to be excited about our future and his first year,” Jones said. ” … I think that you could say that he’s experienced things that will, in my mind, make him better qualified to be the head coach in the coming years than he was when we hired him this time last year.”

It was about this time last year that Schottenheimer’s name was mentioned as a successor to Mike McCarthy, whose contract had expired. The Jones family’s first meeting with Schottenheimer was to tell him they wanted him to remain as offensive coordinator, regardless of who would be the next head coach.

As the meetings progressed, Jerry Jones Jr. was the first to mention Schottenheimer as a potential head coaching option after the team had interviewed Robert Saleh, Kellen Moore and Leslie Frazier.

On Jan. 24, 2025, Schottenheimer was introduced as the 10th head coach in Cowboys history.

Approaching the one-year anniversary, Schottenheimer earned largely good grades, despite the Cowboys’ 7-9-1 finish. The 12-month journey was filled with the normal head coaching issues, like a defense that struggled for most of the season, but also a seismic trade of edge rusher Micah Parsons a week before the season and the death of defensive end Marshawn Kneeland in November.

“When you saw him as a coordinator, you felt his presence. Obviously you felt his leadership. You knew how he held men accountable, but to take that role into the head coaching job and to do that for both sides of the ball, manage the front office, he’s done a hell of a job,” quarterback Dak Prescott said. “Managing the ups, the downs, the trades, the loss, the tragedy. He’s done a hell of a job.

“He preaches about staying consistent, being the same guy all the way through. I saw that as a coordinator, but when you get in a head coach position, you’ve got a lot more stress factors and different things that you have to handle. … That’s compliments to him, compliments to his foundation, to his faith, and I know that alone has allowed guys to follow him, allowed guys to believe in him and understand that he’s the right guy for us.”

At the exit interviews with the players, Schottenheimer asked them to be honest. He wanted to know where he could improve, what the staff could do better. When he took the job, Schottenheimer said he wanted to build the greatest culture in professional sports.

“What I love about this group of young men is the one thing I think we’ve taught them that they’ve learned this year is that it’s OK to have hard conversations,” Schottenheimer said.

When Parsons did not wear his jersey during practice in training camp, Schottenheimer had a discussion with him. Parsons had his jersey on the next day. When the All-Pro edge rusher lay on a table during a preseason game, Schottenheimer talked with him. Parsons was traded one week later.

When CeeDee Lamb missed curfew before the game against the Las Vegas Raiders and George Pickens missed the team bus to the game, Schottenheimer benched his star receivers for a series.

In the locker room, minutes after the Cowboys beat the Washington Commanders on Christmas, cornerback Trevon Diggs asked if he could remain in the D.C. area with family for the holiday. Schottenheimer said no. When Diggs skipped the flight back to Dallas, multiple sources said Schottenheimer was furious and wanted to release the former Pro Bowl cornerback.

The decision came five weeks later, but not solely because he skipped the flight. It was based on a number of factors, such as practice habits and attentiveness in meetings. The Cowboys were likely to release Diggs in the offseason, but sources said Schottenheimer pushed for it immediately.

“I just think it just reminds me that I’m not going to change,” Schottenheimer said. “I’m going to have hard conversations. Sometimes people don’t like it. I’m not saying Trevon necessarily. I have hard conversations all the time.

“This is one of the toughest decisions of being a head coach is these roster decisions. You’re not just affecting one person. You’re affecting his family. You’re affecting a locker room. These are difficult decisions that are hard to make. Believe me, I don’t make these things casually. We didn’t sit down and say, ‘Hey, Trevon didn’t take the plane.’ No, it wasn’t that. It was a culmination of multiple factors.”

Talking about accountability and following through on accountability are two different things. Schottenheimer fined players for being late to meetings and other issues, according to players.

“He’ll still hold you accountable,” defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa said. “He’ll tell you when it’s not good enough. He’ll call it up and get on the whole team’s ass. Done it a couple of times. He’s just genuine in keeping it real.”

Hours after learning of Kneeland’s death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Nov. 5, the Cowboys held a virtual team meeting with players, coaches and staff scattered across the country since it was the team’s bye week.

For about 15 minutes, an emotional Schottenheimer addressed those on the call about what happened and how they would move forward. For the rest of the season, Kneeland was at the center of the team’s thoughts. Multiple players said how he dealt with the tragedy, how he kept the team bonded, and how he was willing to listen, drew them closer to their coach.

But earning the trust and respect of players was a process that started when he took the job.

“I knew that he cared about us,” special teams captain C.J. Goodwin said. “I mean obviously he’s a good dude, but he’s a very emotional leader in the best way possible. We’ve seen him cry more than any man I’ve seen cry before. But just shows how he really loves you. He tells you he loves you. He’s helped me become a better father to my son because I feel like it’s OK to express love. Even with my friends. It’s OK to tell other men you love them. It’s pretty cool to see that.”

As Schottenheimer enters his second year, he said there are a number of things he will do differently but did not offer up specifics. Those will come after more reflection, perhaps after the Cowboys name a new defensive coordinator, following Matt Eberflus’ firing on Jan. 6.

For as good as the culture was in 2025, a coach’s future is determined by wins and losses, which Schottenheimer knows well. The Cowboys lost four of their last five games. Two came at AT&T Stadium and the offense was as much to blame as the defense.

They went from playoff contender on Thanksgiving to out of contention with three regular-season games left.

As much as Jones professed Schottenheimer as a reason for hope, the end results in 2026 need to be better. Jones also admitted his disappointment in not making the playoffs.

Patience does not seem to be an NFL virtue with 10 head coaching openings this offseason, but since firing Chan Gailey after two playoff seasons (1998-99), Jones has shown patience with his head coaches. Jason Garrett coached nine full seasons. Mike McCarthy coached five. Schottenheimer is signed through 2028.

“The culture is going to always be ‘first things first’ because there’s going to be adversity in football. There’s going to be adversity in life. There’s going to be things that you deal with,” Schottenheimer said. “But the specifics of football, whether it’s the coverage units on special teams, whether it’s the ball security. The giveaway/takeaway [statistic] is huge. … You look at the teams making the playoffs, most of them are in the high plus-7, 8, 9 and above. And we’re not [minus-9; 29th in the NFL]. Look at the teams around us and most of those guys aren’t going to the playoffs.

“You have to get specific with those issues that we’ve had and address those. I love that. I really do. I enjoy that part of the offseason process that you go through and you kind of figure out, ‘OK, what do we do well? What do we have to get better at?’ And it’s more than that. It’s about the plan to get better in those areas.”