Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith isn’t sold on the franchise’s Brian Schottenheimer head coaching hire.
The Hall of Fame running back was pessimistic about the future of his former team as it moves from the Mike McCarthy to the Schottenheimer era.
“Next subject,” Smith said earlier this week when asked about the new hire on ESPN Radio’s “Unsportsmanlike.” “I have no reaction. I just don’t know what to say. I know we have to give the man a chance, and I’m willing to give him a chance, an opportunity to turn things around. However, if we don’t align our vision and commitment to that vision, I think we’re going to get a lot of things that we’ve seen in the past. And that doesn’t feel good.”
"Next subject." @EmmittSmith22 when asked about the Brian Schottenheimer hiring 👀 pic.twitter.com/VdCuAXbWZM
— UNSPORTSMANLIKE Radio (@UnSportsESPN) February 12, 2025
Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher with 18,355 yards, spent all but two of his 15 seasons in the league in Dallas.
He ripped the team’s pass-heavy approach of recent years.
“We need a lot more than [Boise State running back] Ashton Jeanty. All that talk about having a running back and a running game — there’s nothing wrong with our running game when there’s a commitment to the running game,” he said. “I think we’ve gotten so far away from what we all know as the Cowboys’ great teams. You don’t see that balance anymore. You see one way, and that’s disappointing.”
Smith’s comments come just days after former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, who won three Super Bowls in Dallas in the 1990s, expressed disappointment in the state of the team.
Emmitt Smith looks on before the Cowboys’ 26-24 win over the Buccaneers on Dec. 22, 2024. Getty Images“I thought we had more in us and I thought we would be back. Obviously, we weren’t,” Aikman said at the 2025 Children’s Cancer Fund gala. “But not only were we not back, but here we are almost three decades later and no one’s been back.
“I think I speak for the Cowboys faithful in saying that it’s been a long time. And this is the Dallas Cowboys, it’s an organization that has had a great history and this team has won a lot of games over the years with a lot of different players. But for whatever reasons they just haven’t been able to get it done in the postseason. I don’t think anybody is happy about that that’s been part of the Cowboys legacy and all it’s stood for for so many years.”
Brian Schottenheimer, who is now the Cowboys’ head coach, looks on from the sidelines when he was the team’s offensive coordinator during their win over the Giants on Nov. 28, 2024. APThe Cowboys have yet to make the NFC Championship — let alone a Super Bowl — since the 1995 season.
In 2024, Dallas missed the playoffs for the first time in four years, going 7-10, leading to the parting of ways with McCarthy in January.
