FRISCO, Texas -- Brian Schottenheimer knows he will be busy in his first year as the head coach and playcaller for the Dallas Cowboys. Sometimes it will feel like he will be in a race with no finish line in sight.
He has already designed practice schedules that will give him time to be around the defense and special teams, but most of his time will be focused on quarterback Dak Prescott and the weekly game plan.
"This is not for people that don't know how to manage their time," Schottenheimer said. "If you don't know how to manage your time, this is not a good profession to be in."
The last time the Cowboys had a first-time head coach also serve as the offensive playcaller was Jason Garrett in 2012. After a second straight 8-8 finish that season, owner and general manager Jerry Jones wanted Garrett to serve as a "walkaround" head coach, so offensive line coach Bill Callahan called plays in 2013.
At the time, Jones felt like the demands of the head coaching job were a lot for an inexperienced person to handle. He does not have the same concerns with Schottenheimer.
"His depth and wealth of NFL experience," Jones said of Schottenheimer. "Now he hasn't been the head coach, which is noteworthy ... but I like his football knowledge. I like his demeanor. I think for 51 years old, he has the most unbelievable background in volume of NFL experience because he's been on [so] many staffs. He's been around it that long.
"That, plus the fact we got to work with him and around him for three years [in other roles], lets us have a good feel for how he works with players. The players' input about what kind of coach and how much confidence they have in him, how he handles solving problems, both on and off the field, people skills, all that."
Jones was much more familiar with Garrett than he is with Schottenheimer. Garrett played seven years at quarterback for the Cowboys, and he was the playcaller when he was hired in 2007.
Schottenheimer has not called plays full time since 2020 when he was with the Seattle Seahawks.
But Garrett was 45 years old when he took over as head coach for Wade Phillips midway through the 2010 season. Like Garrett, whose father Jim was an NFL assistant coach and longtime scout, Schottenheimer grew up with "coaching at the dinner table," as Jones likes to call it, with his father, Marty, who was the head coach for Cleveland, Kansas City, San Diego and Washington.
More than once this offseason, Jones has mentioned the "osmosis" of Schottenheimer's learning.
But things will happen this season that he has not prepared for.
Brian Callahan, Bill's son, was a first-year head coach last year with the Tennessee Titans.
"It's a people business and you deal with people's problems," Callahan said during a break in the East-West Shrine Game practices in March. "Sometimes it's as simple as maybe a guy has a death in the family and he's got to leave, or a guy has got some problems he's dealing with. The biggest difference for me, as an assistant coach, you're getting the information and you just kind of move on.
"As the head coach, you've got to handle all of that. You're talking to the security people, the player engagement team. There's these initial conversations and then like seven more you have to have. You're talking to the GM. So there's just these constant layers of things you've got to go through that as an assistant you never have to do."
Schottenheimer believes his three years of experience in the organization -- one as a consultant and two as former coach Mike McCarthy's offensive coordinator -- give him an advantage over most first-year coaches.
"I know all the pieces," Schottenheimer said. "In talking to some of the other first-time head coaches, if they need to get something done from a contractual standpoint, they're learning the names. If they have to get something done with travel, they're learning, 'OK, who do I go to?' I know all those people."
As for the game plan, Callahan said once his media obligations were filled on Monday, he would lock his door to focus on the following week's game plan.
"Your time is so limited," Callahan said. "You have to learn when to shut everybody out for a block of time so you can focus on the game plan part of it. But then you've got to have good people around you. I've got a good staff of guys that do a job really well, so they kind of keep things moving, and I jump in when I've got the time."
Dave Canales was the Carolina Panthers' first-year head coach in 2024. In addition to bringing his own culture to the locker room, he was teaching his offensive system to the players as well.
He found himself relying on offensive coordinator Brad Idzik and defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero "to keep things moving," Canales said at the NFL scouting combine.
"That way I can make my way around the different parts of our team and make sure that at a minimum I'm impacting the culture and environment that we're looking for -- and that we're excited to be here, and we're showing it to these players with an excitement because they'll get the way we go."
Callahan and Canales mentioned game management as a large aspect of their jobs that needed an adjustment. Canales has George Li as the Panthers' game management coordinator. They watched playoff games together last year to go over end-of-half and end-of-game scenarios, as well as when to use the challenge flag.
"He's peppering me with different situations that come up throughout the week," Canales said. "I felt covered by him to be able to give me a heads-up on things that might come up so I can be focused on making the next call. Certainly, when we're on the defensive side, then there's more open dialogue with those things, but I lean on George."
For Schottenheimer, that person is Ryan Feder, one of the holdovers from McCarthy's staff. He was an assistant quarterbacks coach last year with game management responsibilities, but he carries the game management coordinator title under Schottenheimer.
Schottenheimer called Feder a "trusted adviser."
"I think he does it as well as anybody in the business. On game day, you need one voice that you're hearing. Because obviously these things happen at critical and tense moments and things like that," Schottenheimer said. "So to have that one voice be someone that you have complete confidence in and complete trust in, really does matter."
Schottenheimer said he will listen to everybody -- players, assistants, other head coaches -- but that doesn't mean he will always implement what he's told.
"You talk to people all the time. I've been thinking about this really my whole life as a professional, what I wanted to do," Schottenheimer said. "But there's things that come up every day and I kind of wish my dad was still here -- I'd reach out to him. But you know, the coaches around the league, spending time with those guys at the league meetings, they were great. They've all been first-time head coaches.
"I think that one of the things that happens is when you build relationships like I've built over my career, and try to do things the right way, that these guys are open and willing to help, and that's great."