{"id":463191,"date":"2026-10-11T19:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T19:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/463191\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T19:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T19:40:15","slug":"brian-schottenheimers-jake-ferguson-comments-put-dallas-cowboys-championship-culture-talk-under-a-harsh-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/463191\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Schottenheimer’s Jake Ferguson comments put Dallas Cowboys’ championship culture talk under a harsh spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\tHome<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\/<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNFL<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDallas Cowboys<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys head coach loves to talk about accountability. After a Thursday night loss to the Buccaneers, his starting tight end has become the clearest test of whether he means it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Oct
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOct 8, 2026; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer looks on during the game between the Cowboys and the Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Put Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer in front of a camera and a few microphones, and he\u2019ll tell you he\u2019s all about building a championship culture. He\u2019ll tell you he\u2019s all about accountability.<\/p>\n

Schottenheimer has called out players publicly before. Last season he explained the Jaydon Blue issues and why Blue wasn\u2019t playing. He was cut after the preseason. Earlier this year, he said Tyler Guyton would have to compete with Nate Thomas for the left tackle spot. Later, he said Terrence Steele would have to compete with Thomas on the right side.<\/p>\n

Neither of those competitions ever got going, however. <\/p>\n

I find that relevant now that questions are emerging about accountability because of the performance of TE Jake Ferguson\u2014and Schottenheimer\u2019s words on it. <\/p>\n

Schottenheimer stands by Jake Ferguson after Buccaneers loss<\/p>\n

After the Cowboys\u2019 Thursday night loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Schottenheimer made his position on his starting tight end known.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be very, very clear, Jake Ferguson is a big, big part of what we\u2019re building here offensively moving forward,\u201d said Schottenheimer via The Athletic\u2019s Jon Machota<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s got a number of touchdowns, and the next ball that gets thrown him, I have no doubt in my mind that he is going to catch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t sound like Dallas is shaking up the tight end room.<\/p>\n

And if the Cowboys don\u2019t shake things up, and if Ferguson\u2019s snap count doesn\u2019t take a significant hit, you have to ask: where is the accountability? Where is the championship culture?<\/p>\n

Ferguson\u2019s touchdowns can\u2019t hide everything else<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that Ferguson scores a lot of touchdowns. That was the case last season, and he\u2019s off to a good start on that front again this year.<\/p>\n

However, the rest of his game has slipped. Ferguson continues to be a liability in the run game, missing blocks and getting beat in others. His hands are also a problem. Drops haven\u2019t been the main issue, but fumbles have. Excluding running backs, Ferguson is the NFL player with the most fumbles since 2024, and he puts the ball on the ground at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n

He also rarely gives you anything after the catch anymore. Since his knee injury in 2024, he hasn\u2019t looked like the yards-after-catch threat he was in 2023. Those days are long gone.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem of all, if you ask me, is that the Cowboys have a clear-cut emerging option who could take a chunk of those snaps.<\/p>\n

Brevyn Spann-Ford has earned a bigger role<\/p>\n

Spann-Ford has proven to be a violent, effective blocker in both the run game and the pass game. He has also proven to be a reliable pass catcher.<\/p>\n

At minimum, the Cowboys TE2 deserves the opportunity to play more than Ferguson. At minimum, Ferguson needs to feel a consequence for his decline in play, because that decline has been steep.<\/p>\n

Never mind the $52 million contract extension Ferguson signed last year. That\u2019s for the front office to worry about. The coaching staff\u2019s job is to hold its own players accountable, and based on Schottenheimer\u2019s early comments, that isn\u2019t happening at tight end.<\/p>\n

Accountability has to go beyond the podium<\/p>\n

At least, Schottenheimer didn\u2019t completely close the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, everything\u2019s being evaluated,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cAs we look at this process, no one is sicker than Ferguson about his dropped pass that turned into an interception. We know what a great player he is, but at the same time, we\u2019re evaluating all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said there will certainly be some adjustments or changes coming.<\/p>\n

I get it. Schottenheimer doesn\u2019t want to blast his tight end in front of reporters, and there\u2019s a case to be made for protecting a player publicly. But calling Ferguson a \u201cbig, big part\u201d of what Dallas is building while expressing zero doubt about him doesn\u2019t sound like a coach preparing to make a change.<\/p>\n

At some point, Schottenheimer calling out players has to go beyond a comment or two in a press conference. He likes to talk about the next championship opportunity. He likes to talk about a winning culture. If the Cowboys want to be the best offense in the league, they can\u2019t keep living with these mistakes at tight end, even less so from a $52 million player.<\/p>\n

I need to see it. In Week 6, the snap count at tight end has to change.<\/p>\n

\"Play<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Oct\t\t<\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys News<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBrian Schottenheimer made a mistake days in advance of Dallas Cowboys\u2019 shocking loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs, and paid for it\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys head coach did a lot of things wrong on gameday versus the Tampa Bay Bucs. But his messaging ahead of the game was off from the start. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home \/ NFL \/ Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys head coach loves to talk about accountability. After a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[153,7581,102,113,104,103,10061],"class_list":["post-463191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-american-football","tag-brian-schottenheimer","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-jake-ferguson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}