FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Brian Schottenheimer will make his head coaching debut with the Dallas Cowboys a week after losing elite pass rusher Micah Parsons, probably his best player, in a trade with Green Bay.
The longtime NFL assistant and son of the late Marty Schottenheimer, a 200-game winner in the league, doesn't seem inclined to blink, even in the face of the NFL opener in prime time against defending champ and NFC East rival Philadelphia on Thursday.
“I stared right down the barrel of the gun and
said, ‘Hey, I want to win a Super Bowl,’” Schottenheimer said Friday, a day after the blockbuster deal. “That doesn’t change. We get excited about the pieces that we’re adding. I don’t sit around and think about, ‘Man, this is my first year as the head coach.’ This is part of the business. I’m comfortable with that.”
The immediate piece is defensive tackle Kenny Clark, a nine-year veteran on the verge of his 30th birthday and coming off a season that was less productive than unusual as he played through a toe injury. The longer-term payoff is an extra pair of first-round picks over the next two years.
Owner and general manager Jerry Jones said the Cowboys decided long ago they might want to fortify a porous run defense in a deal involving Parsons if they couldn't agree on a contract extension for the 2021 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, who was introduced in Green Bay on Friday.
That's the message Clark got when he talked to Jones, who flew the three-time Pro Bowler to his new football home on his private jet.
“That this trade wasn’t getting done unless I was in it,” Clark said of what Jones told him. “That made me feel wanted right there. I’m happy to be here. I’m blessed.”
Clark says he hopes to play against the Eagles, who eliminated Clark's Packers in the wild-card round last January. While he brings a reputation as a community-oriented player, Clark said he can't get caught up in trying to ease the pain for a fan base bummed over losing a popular and productive player.
“That’s not my concern,” Clark said. “My concern is come here, play football, be the best defensive tackle I can be and play ball.”
Clark didn't participate in practice, instead taking the field after his teammates were already there, walking alongside linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, who is on the physically unable to perform list while rehabbing a knee injury.
Clark, who spent his first nine seasons with the Packers after they drafted him in the first round in 2016, was in shorts and wearing his new No. 96. He wore No. 97 in Green Bay.
“Like I said, it was shocking,” Clark said. “I didn’t really have much to say to nobody. Everything just happened so fast. It is what it is. I’m here. This franchise will get everything I got.”
And fans will expect plenty as they adjust to a defense that no longer has a two-time All-Pro.
“Man, you gotta just watch the film,” Clark said. “I don’t do too much talking. Watch the film. My game speaks for itself.”
The locker room was mostly empty after Clark's 15-minute session with reporters, but two young defensive ends who considered Parson a mentor were still there.
Donovan Ezeiruaku, a rookie second-round pick who left a strong impression in his first training camp, was upbeat. Marshawn Kneeland, a promising second-year player, was a bit more subdued. They didn't gloss over the emotions of the previous day.
“I feel like I speak for a lot of the guys, obviously, being surprised, being like, ‘Whoa, that’s our guy,’” Kneeland said. “But we had meetings with coaches and they tell us, ‘Hey, this is football.’ All of us get that opportunity to go up there and prove, yeah, we’re great, too.”
Schottenheimer prides himself on communicating with players, and said he was quick to get on the phone with several after the trade went down.
Among them was cornerback Trevon Diggs, who displayed his bond with Parsons by being his unofficial spokesman as Parsons declined to speak with reporters almost the entire offseason, save for one day early in training camp in California.
Diggs' emoji of choice for X after the trade was a broken heart. Receiver CeeDee Lamb picked the cying emoji. Neither star player was in the locker room when it was open to reporters the day after the deal.
“I wanted them to hear my voice,” Schottenheimer said of talking to about a dozen players individually the day of the trade before addressing the entire team Friday. “You never know how guys are going to take news like that.”
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