The Dallas Cowboys ended their 11-day search for a new head coach on Friday, surprising the NFL by elevating their offensive coordinator since 2023, Brian Schottenheimer, to the top job.

Despite never holding a head coach’s position after 14 years as an offensive coordinator with four different teams, Schottenheimer becomes only the 10th coach in the 65-year history of “America’s Team.”

The choice was not exactly met with enthusiasm by football experts.

The Fansided Cowboys blog The Landry Hat wrote that the “Cowboys hiring Brian Schottenheimer as head coach proves they’re a laughingstock.” Fox Sports called the Dallas hiring process “bizarre.” And fans on social media claimed they would “boycott” the team after the “joke” of a hire.

The Cowboys conducted only two interviews with candiadtes who had previous head coaching experience.

Those were former New York Jets coach Robert Saleh, and Leslie Frazier whose four-year tenure as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings ended after the 2013 season.

Leading prospects such as former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and that team’s defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn were ignored, and both have since taken other head coaching jobs — Johnson with the Chicago Bears, Glenn in New York with the Jets.

Jerry Jones Looked Toward Patriot Way

Over the weekend, it was revealed that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also tried to pursue three former head coaches, all connected to the New England Patriots — the team that despite its recent struggles holds the NFL record for most Super Bowl championships with six. The Cowboys have won five, but none since 1995.

The Patriots, who entered pro football in 1960, the same year as Dallas — but in the then-new America Football League, while Dallas was an NFL member from the start — have made 11 Super Bowl appearances.

The Cowboys have played in the NFL’s biggest game eight times.

According to Diana Russini of The Athletic, Jones had his eye on former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, a former Patriots linebacker.

But by the time Jones decided to part ways with head coach Mike McCarthy on January 13, Vrabel was already off the market — hired by the Patriots the previous day.

Russini suggested that Patriots owner Robert Kraft was motivated to hire Vrabel quickly because he knew of Jones’ interest.

“A lot of people don’t know that,” she said in a podcast interview. Guess who knew that? Robert Kraft knew that. Robert Kraft knew the Jones family had an interest [in Mike Vrabel].”

Carroll, Belichick Also Eyed by Cowboys

But Vrabel was not the only current or former Patriots head coach considered by Jones and the Cowboys.

Pete Carroll, the Super Bowl winning former coach of the Seattle Seahawks, also coached the Patriots from 1997 to 1999, taking them to the playoffs twice and winning one of three playoff games. Schottenheimer had served as Carroll’s offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2020.

According to DallasCowboys.com, Carroll had “exceedingly great odds of pushing Schottenheimer out of the would-be throne following conversations with owner and general manager Jerry Jones this week.”

But those conversations with Jones must not have gone the way either hoped, because Carroll took himself out of the running and signed a multi-year deal with the Las Vegas Raiders.

Finally, there was one more Patriots coach reportedly on Jones radar. That was New England’s legendary, six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick who ruled over the Patriots franchise from 2000 through 2023.

Jones and Belichick have long been linked and Jones openly declared that he could “work with” Belichick. But Belichick took a job coaching college football at North Carolina.

Nonetheless, reports last week that Belichick had not signed his Tar Heels contract after almost two months raised speculation that Jones would swoop in and lure Belichick back to the NFL.

On Wednesday, Belichick finally put his signature on the UNC deal. Jones hired Schottenheimer two days later.