FRISCO - Part of new Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer's point in his recent proclamation about the fate of his 2025 team was a prideful boast about his coaching staff.
And when he said it? No doubt the assistants around here felt their ears perk up and their eyebrows raise and their chests puff out.
"We're going to win,'' Schotty said. "And when we win, they're going to want to steal our coaches, because we're going to win.''
The coaching-related concept, in a nutshell? The 2025 Cowboys are going to shock the world (as all teams believe they will) and eventually, lower-level staffers will become coordinators and coordinators will become head coaches and everybody's going to someday be enshrined in Canton.
More immediately? Schotty's statement demostrates a clarity of vision and an energetic vibe and a confidence to load pressure upon his 51-year-old shoulders ...
Even though he's never done this before.
Schottenheimer, you'll notice, isn't talking about a "rebuilt.'' He's too hungry for that, and his boss, Jerry Jones, at age 82 may be too old for that.
So there is a "The Time Is Now'' feel to what Schottenheimer is doing - even though this is his first go-around as a head coach - and to a great degree, there is that same feel in much of what the front office has done in roster-building.
There are some realities to deal with, of course.
In the NFC East alone, the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles have what seems to be a better roster than Dallas has. And the Washington Commanders just went to the NFC Championship Game (and lost to Philly) ... a destination Dallas hasn't reached in 30 years.
So Schotty's bunch is challenged, at this point, to simply be better than third-best in its own division.
But he has waited a long time for the chance; almost a coincidental 30 years, in fact. And the confidence is not fake.
"That's fine,'' he said of the idea that a successful Cowboys staff will be raided by rivals. "If they come for my coaches, it means we did everything as it should be.''
It seems like quite an "if.'' But Schotty's got the building - and maybe Cowboys Nation - believing.