When Brian Schottenheimer joined as the Dallas Cowboys‘ 10th head coach, he truly believed he was ahead of the curve. It certainly helped that Schottenheimer was already familiar with the system for three seasons, had an “incredible” relationship with quarterback Dak Prescott, and had a father who had been all too familiar with the NFL coaching scene. The new head coach was, in fact, confident enough to claim that the team would start winning “quickly” after being away from a Super Bowl appearance or an NFC Championship Game for three decades. Cut to 12 months later, and nothing much has changed, which Schottenheimer also admitted.

“I’m disappointed, of course. Absolutely,” Schottenheimer said after his team finished with its second straight losing record since three straight 5-11 efforts from 2000-02. “The question is why. We need to look and figure out why. I did not think that.We did not do that, that starts with me. I understand that.

But I can promise you this, we’re going to get to the bottom of it. We’re going to work our as-es off to figure it out. We’re going to adjust and make changes that we need to do to help us get there.”

But not all of it is Schottenheimer’s fault.

With one of Dallas’ best players, Micah Parsons, being traded away before the season even started, the first-year head coach wasn’t exactly dealt a winning hand. It was evident from the team’s performances, too.

Entering Sunday, the Cowboys stood 30th in yards allowed per game and dead last in points allowed per game. What’s more, in the season finale versus the New York Giants, the team surrendered 34 points, taking their season total to 511 points, the worst in franchise history. For context, no Cowboys defense had given up more than 500 points until this season.

The only respite was the Cowboys’ offense this season, spearheaded by Prescott’s excellent numbers.

The signal caller threw for over 4,000 yards and had at least 30 touchdowns for the fourth time in his career, while also being named to the Pro Bowl for the fourth time. Prescott also became the franchise’s all-time leader with 35,989 passing yards, eclipsing Tony Romo. Furthermore, the quarterback completed at least 60 per cent of his passes in each of the first 15 games. In simple words: It was one of the best seasons of Prescott’s career, but the Cowboys couldn’t make proper use of it.

Which is why Brian Schottenheimer must assess whether they can work with the current staff and players or undertake a major overhaul.

While suggesting multiple changes, most fans blamed defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus for the poor performance this season. But is that really the case? Jerry Jones offered a different perspective on the team’s failures.

Jerry Jones explains the reason behind the 2025 downfall

Jerry Jones also spoke to the media but had no complaints against Eberflus. He claimed things had been deteriorating for the last few seasons.

“Don’t blame this all on (Matt Eberflus),” Jones said. “This took five or six years to get here. This is a product of several years of combinations of philosophies. A lot of people in that sense, and you can broaden who has influenced where we are the most. But I can make a case for you that we haven’t had satisfactory defense for five or six years.”

I think you can look back and look at decisions we made to the defense three years ago, five years ago, and look at… Why did we make some of the decisions we made on the coaches at that time? What did we expect relative to what we’re doing with our personnel?”

So that’s why that is just inaccurate to put this on an evaluation of Eberflus. It really is… I don’t want it to sound like it’s as simple as evaluating Eberflus. It’s broader, much broader than that. I think we can do some things in this offseason that are stacking up relative to our players, our personnel, availability, that type of thing. I think we can do some things to maybe make as dramatic a difference as we have could in a long time.”

He was right in saying that the defensive problems began after defensive coordinator Dan Quinn left for the Washington Commanders after the 2023 season. In 2024, the Cowboys finished 7-10 under defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.

With evaluation for the 2025 season starting on Monday, January 5, expect a major shakeup. Brian Schottenheimer has already warned. Jones is ready.