Jerry Jones: Brian Schottenheimer was a "hit the ground running" hire

The Cowboys' decision to hire Brian Schottenheimer as their new head coach hasn't been met with much praise around the football world.

After taking an extended period of time to part ways with Mike McCarthy, the Cowboys conducted a brief search process before promoting their offensive coordinator into the top job for the first time in his career. When the hire was announced, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the question of "what's in the best interest of the quarterback" factored into the choice and said on Thursday that he is looking for Schottenheimer and Dak Prescott to win right away.

"We're not building for the future here. Brian's hiring was not a future get a coach and get him ready to play. That's not what that was. This is a hit the ground running [hire]," Jones said, via the team's website. "This gave us the best way to get our players that we've got right now and look at the future to get the benefit of a new coach and the enthusiasm that goes with it."

Bringing McCarthy back would have assured the kind of continuity that Jones seems to be looking for with Schottenheimer and the former coach had three 12-win seasons before last year's 7-10 mark, so the bar will be high for Schottenheimer right off the bat.