Growing theory about Kellen Moore could validate Troy Aikman’s harsh criticism of the Dallas Cowboys as completely accurate
The Dallas Cowboys befuddled the NFL world when Brian Schottenheimer, their offensive coordinator for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, emerged as the favorite to become their next head coach. Schottenheimer is the only of four coaches who have officially interviewed with the Cowboys to go for in for a second conversation with the Jones family. As […]
The Dallas Cowboys befuddled the NFL world when Brian Schottenheimer, their offensive coordinator for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, emerged as the favorite to become their next head coach.
Schottenheimer is the only of four coaches who have officially interviewed with the Cowboys to go for in for a second conversation with the Jones family. As someone who hasn't interviewed with any other NFL teams, Schottenheimer is an underwhelming head coaching candidate for fans hoping for change in any shape or form.
But perhaps a growing theory on how the Cowboys' meeting went with Kellen Moore explains why the front office turned to Schottenheimer and it would prove franchise legend Troy Aikman right.
Did Kellen Moore turn down the Cowboys?
Though it's purely speculation from my part, I asked myself this question once the Cowboys turned to Schottenheimer this week. In addition to Moore, the front office interviewed Robert Saleh and Leslie Frazier before the Schotty buzz kicked off. Though Saleh appeared a legit head coaching candidate, it's hard to consider Frazier such as he hasn't gained interest from any other NFL teams either.
In other words, Moore appeared to be the favorite all along. But once they seemingly turned elsewhere, I couldn't help but wonder if, like Mike McCarthy did upon reaching free agency, Moore had also said thank you, but no, thank you.
Ed Werder from ESPN fed into that theory on the official Cowboys show "Media Mash," when he revealed the Moore interview didn't even get close to lasting the allowed three hours under NFL rules.
"First of all, I don’t think they spent a whole lot of time interviewing Kellen Moore at this point," Werder said on the show. They had a three-hour maximum, and they didn’t come close to using all of their time."
Based on the candidate pool from the Cowboys' interviewees, it's hard to imagine it was Dallas who didn't take the conversation all that seriously. Perhaps Moore took the interview out of respect but let them know he wasn't that interested in the job.
"You assume that they know him quite well," Werder added. "He was their quarterback, he was their assistant coach, a draft pick. That being said, they have a three-hour limit at this point to conduct a Zoom with a guy who's about to call plays for the Eagles against Washington, and they can't meet with him again until their season is over and they did not use all three hours—they did not even come close."
I'm just speculating here and have no inside information to back it up but I believe there's an argument to make that's how things went down.
Sure, they already know each Moore but they know Schottenheimer too, and meetings have been reportedly longer than Wicked and Dune combined. They might be up to around nine hours' worth of meeting.
These meetings cover everything from staff to plans for OTAs, minicamp, training camp, and much more. It lasting well under three hours is a strong indication that's not happening.
If Moore said no, Aikman's words echo in Dallas
Do you remember what Troy Aikman said on ESPN when the Cowboys' coaching search kicked off?
"As far as (the Cowboys being) a coveted job, I don't know that that's accurate, the Cowboys are obviously a high profile team (…) but most football people that take over as head coach they want to do it on their terms and that's hard to do (in Dallas)," Aikman said on live TV. "If you take Dan Campbell, for example, is Dan Campbell Dan Campbell if he's with the Dallas Cowboys? It's hard to imagine that he is."
Keep in mind, McCarthy essentially turned down the Cowboys. If Moore did as well and Schottenheimer winds up with the job, it's going to be near impossible to disagree with the two-time Super Bowl champion.
