Once a ‘hotshot’ with the Jets, coach Brian Schottenheimer returns with Cowboys
As someone who was an assistant coach for a quarter-century before finally landing his first head coaching job in the NFL, Brian Schottenheimer is going to have his fair share of reunions, and the Dallas Cowboys’ matchup against the New York Jets on Sunday is no different.
Not every former team is worth reminiscing about — several of his NFL stops lasted just one year — but this one is a bit more special.
In 2006, Schottenheimer became one of the youngest coordinators in NFL history when Eric Mangini anointed the 32-year-old as the offensive coordinator for the Jets after five seasons as quarterbacks coach for Washington and San Diego under his father, Marty.
“It was my first time being a coordinator,” Schottenheimer said. “When you first sit in that chair, whether it’s the head coach, coordinator, quarterback coach, position coach, whatever, you think you have all the answers. I remember sitting in San Diego and Cam Cameron was our coordinator, and thinking, ‘I’d do it this way or I’d do it that way.’ And then you get in that seat and you’re sitting there and something comes across your desk, and you’re like, ‘Damn, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do right now.’”
Schottenheimer would not only survive a head coaching change from Mangini to Rex Ryan in 2009, but he’d end up making it six seasons in New York, making him a rare breed of longevity in the history of the team.
“I think [I am] the longest-tenured coordinator there since the early ‘70s,” Schottenheimer said. “It can feel like dog years at times because they have such great fans, and it’ll be fun to be back there. So, I guess I was the coordinator there for 42 years.”
Coaching Brett Favre, Mark Sanchez
There were a fair share of ups and downs in his six-year — or 42-year, as he likes to call it — tenure. From leading Chad Pennington to the playoffs in his first season and going to back-to-back AFC championship games with Mark Sanchez, to a 4-12 season in 2007 and a collapse after a strong start in 2008, there was a lot of crucial learning that Schottenheimer experienced with the franchise.
“You’re literally learning on the job,” he said. “I think we had some growing pains. We struggled through some times there, but ended up figuring it out and doing a great job with it. I think that’s my first exposure to leading people. Coaching Brett Favre [in 2008] when you’re 33 and he’s 40, you better be good at what you do and be able to connect with people because that’s a unique age difference, and we had a lot of success together.”
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When Schottenheimer reflects back on his time in New York, it’s not with complete joy. There’s some regret sprinkled in there as well, but he likes to call them learning opportunities that helped prepare him for when he’d finally get that head coaching opportunity 14 years after he walked out of the Jets facility for the last time.
Now, as he prepares to face off against the franchise for the first time as a head coach, the reflection period takes on a different meaning.
“I learned a lot back then thinking that I had all the answers,” he said. “Here I was a hotshot, 32-year-old coordinator that after one year is getting head coaching opportunities. This is a very humbling business. I think as I look back, those were some great memories and some great experiences, but I never stopped learning. I think the minute you take yourself too seriously in this business, you’re asking for problems.”
When he was rolling in New York, Schottenheimer was getting calls for interviews to potentially be a head coach in the league. At the time, he figured his opportunity was just on the horizon. But after things ended in New York and he started bouncing around to different spots, those calls stopped coming.
Waiting for head coach opportunity
He thought that his chance to be the head man had come and gone, but he doesn’t look back on that decade and a half with sadness or emptiness anymore.
“I really don’t,” he said. “I am more prepared now. I thought I missed my window, I thought my window had passed me by. Winning divisions in Seattle [in 2020] and you are not getting interviews. The phone is not ringing when you are having success. I was coordinator of one of the best offenses in the league. Not calling plays was certainly a factor. I did think my window of opportunity might have passed me by.”
Instead, his Cowboys (1-2-1) will help usher him back into a stadium that he once helped open in 2009 when they take on the Jets (0-4) at noon Sunday. Even though this season’s start has had its bumps and bruises, Schottenheimer’s offense ranks No. 1 in the NFL in total yardage, and his leadership continues to draw praise from the front office and locker room.
With all of the lessons in hand from his time in New York, it will be a special reunion for his coaching career when he walks back on that MetLife Stadium sideline, this time on the opposite side.
“It’ll be good,” he said. “There’s still some people in the organization that I’m really close with.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 11:25 AM.
