Amid the NFL Wildcard Weekend festivities last week, the Dallas Cowboys kept themselves front and center with the drama surrounding their decision on Mike McCarthy. Ultimately, the two parties have gone their separate ways and the team has begun a search for their next head coach.

The names of the candidates in this search have carried on the spectacle with Deion Sanders gaining steam throughout the days after McCarthy’s exit. However, Kellen Moore, Robert Saleh and Leslie Frazier are the only targets thus far that have interviewed or had a tangible connection with this vacancy.

Heading into the weekend of the NFL Divisional Round, Kellen Moore quietly emerged as the leader after completing a virtual interview on Friday – confirming what CowboysCountry.com has long been writing about his candidacy.

Not much changed until a surprising shift Monday morning.

DraftKings saw a shocking new favorite emerge in the Cowboys’ head coach search as Brian Schottenheimer now holds -250 odds to become the next leader in Dallas. Moore’s odds dipped to +250.

Schottenheimer has spent the past three seasons with the Cowboys, taking on the offensive coordinator job in 2023 once Moore left the organization. However, he has not held any play-calling responsibilities in his time at The Star.

He is a veteran coordinator (though he’s never been a head coach) and he’s also the son of the legendary Marty Schottenheimer, who was among Mike McCarthy’s first mentors.

And worth noting: It’s McCarthy who brought Brian to Dallas.

Now, why Schottenheimer? There could be a desire here to provide some continuity for quarterback Dak Prescott. Schottenheimer is the closest thing Dallas can provide their franchise centerpiece in that sense with McCarthy now out of the picture.

We know there is a Jones-family-led comfort level with “Schotty” inside the building, in addition to the likelihood that he “fits” with Dak.

However, many think this would be an uninspired move in totality for Dallas. Schottenheimer, again, has no head coaching experience and to some critics fails to check some of the boxes when looking at what the Cowboys need going forward.

So … we get how this is becoming a “thing” (keeping Brian here in some capacity) inside the building. But how did it get so public so fast?

As near as we can tell, Dallas radio host Shan Shariff is the first media person to make the connection with any authority … and the oddsmakers jumped into action from there.

To this point, Schottenheimer reportedly has not interviewed nor has one in place with the team. Nonetheless, his sudden emergence in this process has provided a fascinating turn to what many assumed about this search.