'It's a Zoo!' Dalton Schultz Reveals Crazy Cowboys Culture
After finally shedding the cloud of the Deshaun Watson era, the Houston Texans seem to be on the ascent up the NFL hierarchy and look poised to make a run at the AFC in 2024.
In just one season under new head coach DeMeco Ryans, Houston had a remarkable turnaround, going from 3-13-1 to 11-8 with a playoff win and an AFC South title.
Meanwhile, their in-state rivals to the north, the Dallas Cowboys, have been a constant lightning rod for their inability to make a playoff run, as well as their constant media distractions.
And judging by recent comments from Texans and former Cowboys tight end Dalton Schultz, the issues may lie in the franchise's "culture."
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"But the focus [in Houston] is just football," Schultz said in a recent interview on The Pat McAfee Show. "Going back and telling some people [about the] Cowboys ... describing some of the interactions and stuff that you see on a day-to-day basis, surprised a lot of people.
"There’s people literally going on tours while you’re lifting in the weight room. And they’ve got a one-way mirror for people to like look at, it’s literally a zoo, dude."
When comparing his current team to the Cowboys, Schultz paints two vastly different pictures. At least in the opinion of the 27-year-old tight end who just signed a three-year contract extension with the Texans for $36 million, the Cowboys bring a lot of unnecessary distractions onto themselves.
"That’s the brand that they’ve built. That’s what Jerry Jones likes. That’s the way that they run things, and there’s nothing wrong with that," Schultz said. "It’s just you don’t realize how many eyeballs and how much that can maybe distract from stuff just in a locker room being in the facility until you go somewhere else, and you’re like, ‘Holy crap, dude, there’s none of that.’"
As Schultz explained, distractions are a real thing for the Cowboys, and could very well be contributing to their inability to advance in the postseason since the mid-90s.
Currently, that is a problem the Texans don't have.
With a humble and elite head coach in DeMeco Ryans, and young talents with the same mentality as C.J. Stroud, Tank Dell, and Will Anderson Jr., Houston is set up to succeed for the long haul.
And it could help them reach heights that their in-state rivals up north have been unable to attain.
