Brian Schottenheimer OK with Cowboys' players-only meeting - ESPN

The players-only meeting recently held by the Dallas Cowboys defense has become such a talking point around the NFL that even Mike Tomlin weighed in with a concerned response.

But Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer is not pushing the panic button, saying the meeting doesn't bother him and that it «means everyone's rowing in the same direction.»

Cowboys star linebacker DeMarvion Overshown revealed Monday that the defensive players held the meeting after last week's home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Overshown said the players «went by bullet point, bullet point,» discussing whether they were meeting the team's various standards.

Tomlin, the former Pittsburgh Steelers coach who is in his first season as an analyst with NBC, was asked what he thought about players-only meetings during a recent appearance on the «New Heights Podcast.»

«I think you're dead,» Tomlin responded. «If it did occur, I'd like to not hear about it. The fact that you hear about it is what makes it B.S.»

Schottenheimer, however, praised his players for having the initiative to meet among themselves and said he was told the meeting was «productive.»

«I love it,» Schottenheimer told reporters Wednesday. «I've said from the very beginning, the best teams I've ever been around are led by the locker room. And my information that I received from some of those guys that called that meeting, it was very productive. It was very open and honest.»

After finishing with the NFL's 30th-ranked defense and allowing the most points in the league last season, Dallas has attempted to overhaul that side of the ball with multiple high-profile additions over the past 14 months.

But the Cowboys, under first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker, enter Week 6 with