Dallas Cowboys coaching search: Who will be the next head coach under Jerry Jones?

After five seasons with Mike McCarthy at the helm, the Dallas Cowboys are looking for a new head coach.

The next head coach will be tasked with succeeding where so many of his predecessors have failed. The Cowboys last won a Super Bowl after the 1995 season under Barry Switzer, who coached the team that Jimmy Johnson built to his third championship in four seasons.

Since Switzer resigned in 1998, six Cowboys coaches have accounted for a total of four playoff victories in 27 seasons that include zero Super Bowl or NFC Championship appearances. Despite that history, expectations will remain high in Dallas with a roster built and paid to win now, with expensive offensive weapons Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb and defensive star Micah Parsons, who is due his own lucrative contract extension.

Those expectations will include not only returning to, but winning a Super Bowl in Dallas to end the Jones era with at least one more Vince Lombardi trophy.

The offseason coaching merry-go-round is in full swing with news of the Chicago Bears hiring former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, in addition to Mike Vrabel joining the New England Patriots. That leaves the Cowboys as one of five teams still in the hunt for a head coach, along with the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints and Las Vegas Raiders.

Who are the Cowboys’ coaching candidates?

While the other four teams each have a long list of candidate talks, The Cowboys have officially interviewed only three candidates: former Jets head coach Robert Saleh, former Minnesota Vikings head coach and Seattle Seahawks assistant Leslie Frazier and Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who held the same position in Dallas from 2019-22.

They also reportedly plan to interview their own offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, according to several reports.

The Cowboys are also reportedly tied to other candidates, including former players Deion Sanders and Jason Witten. Witten has won two state championships for four seasons as a high school coach in Texas since retiring in 2020 from a 17-season NFL career as a tight end for the Cowboys and Raiders. He has no coaching experience beyond the high school level.

Sanders played 14 Hall of Fame seasons as an NFL cornerback, including a five-year stint and a Super Bowl championship with the Cowboys. He has since embarked on a college coaching career that has taken him from Jackson State to Colorado, where he has spent the past two seasons coaching the Buffaloes to a 13-12 record.

Schottenheimer has emerged as a betting favorite to secure the job, for whatever it’s worth. Of course, stake lines do not necessarily reflect what is happening in the building. But like Sanders and Witten, Schottenheimer has knowledge of Jones, which historically goes a long way in Jones’ hiring decisions.