Cowboys promote offensive assistant Steve Shimko to QB coach

The Dallas Cowboys filled out the offensive side of their coaching staff on Monday, keeping continuity and the goal of getting the best football out of quarterback Dak Prescott in mind through the entire process. The decision as to who will actually be in the quarterbacks room with Prescott comes after Dallas already added former Carolina Panthers and Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey as an analyst. Instead of Dorsey, it will be an internal promotion for current analyst Steve Shimko.

Shimko replaces a carryover from Mike McCarthy’s staff who also worked his way up from offensive assistant to quarterbacks coach in Scott Tolzien. The former Packers QB was Prescott’s QB coach over the last two seasons. Clearly, the Cowboys value closeness and familiarity as things Prescott has highlighted as important himself, yet still allowed new head coach Brian Schottenheimer to have his say in promoting a coach with ties to his days in Seattle. In Schottenheimer’s first season as offensive coordinator for the Seahawks in 2018, Shimko was a first time NFL coach as an analyst. That Seahawks team went 10-6 and lost in the Wild Card round to the Cowboys, Prescott’s first career playoff victory.

Shimko entered the ranks of professional football after lower level stops at Rutgers, Western Michigan, and JUCO Garden City, but did have a stop in the SEC at Georgia as a graduate assistant in 2015.

Shimko served as assistant quarterbacks coach in his second season with the Seahawks, seeing the benefit of staying at a stop long enough to be promoted. Current Panthers head coach Dave Canales was the QB coach he worked under. Shimko returned to college after the 2019 season, and again stuck at Boston College long enough to go from tight ends coach to quarterbacks in 2022 and offensive coordinator/quarterback coach in 2023.

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The BC Eagles ranked top 15 in the country in rushing attempts and yards per game in 2023 with Shimko as OC and QB coach. His résumé checks all of the boxes of being a scheme and philosophy fit in what the Cowboys under Schottenheimer are looking to accomplish.

The overall youth of the Cowboys new staff has been pointed out by many as a potential positive when it comes to not only introducing new ideas, but helping this team create a new culture and identity where everything is earned. The Cowboys must find ways to show any complacency that led to a 7-10 regression out of the playoffs is on its way out of The Star.

Brian Schottenheimer’s first staff as head coach of the Cowboys has come together quickly, and for now shows a level of coherency on the football side of things this franchise has been lacking. As for how it will translate into on-field success, the best that can be said here is that all 32 fanbases are now playing the same waiting game Dallas is following the Eagles Super Bowl win.