The Dallas Cowboys are looking for their fourth defensive coordinator in as a few years. You already know that because it has been mentioned rather a lot within the lead-up to, and clearly all through, this course of to date.
Isolating a filter, so to talk, on the time in query although, that is solely the second time they’re doing it in a single explicit method. To be clear that is solely the third defensive coordinator search that Dallas has been part of as Dan Quinn is part of the “4 in 4 years” narrative, however throughout the three searches solely two have occurred with a sitting head coach. The primary time was forward of Mike McCarthy’s closing season when the staff gave him Mike Zimmer and the second time is now after Brian Schottenheimer’s preliminary marketing campaign.
We might get just a little bit deeper with this concept if we actually needed to as nicely. Whereas the Cowboys had been in search of a defensive coordinator with a sitting head coach in Mike McCarthy, they had been additionally doing so with the entire world figuring out that the season they had been trying to rent for was the ultimate one on McCarthy’s contract. That lame duck standing hung over everybody related to the 2024 staff, however we aren’t right here to debate that as a lot as we’re to contextualize what the search processes had been like relative to at least one one other, and extra importantly, how they differ.
It’s good to see a large internet being forged
This complete concept actually crystallized for me final week after seeing a tweet from Mauricio Rodriguez. I vividly recall the “search” that Dallas underwent two years in the past, however for some motive seeing the names introduced it totally to the entrance of my thoughts.
Probably the most critical candidates who the Cowboys concerned for a similar stage of search two years in the past had been Ron Rivera, Rex Ryan, and the eventual job winner in Mike Zimmer. Needless to say on the time two (Ryan and Zimmer) had not lately been teaching and the opposite was the person who created their want as Dan Quinn took his job in Washington.
Conversations across the 2024 staff invariably result in a sweeping beneath the rug of kinds and that is no totally different. The candidates had been doubtless so restricted due to the scenario with McCarthy. That isn’t and wasn’t stunning, but it surely was of the staff’s personal doing.
All of this context is vital as a result of not solely have we seen the names of the aforementioned Jim Leonhard, Daronte Jones, and Ephraim Banda, however the Cowboys search is fairly expansive at this level as time has handed. Jonathan Gannon, Zach Orr, Christian Parker, Charlie Bullen, and Demarcus Covington have all joined the fold. Jeff Ulbrich hasn’t as a result of the Atlanta Falcons wouldn’t let him, however that is a kind of uncommon cases the place the Cowboys deserve credit score for merely attempting as they tried to interview him.
This record is refreshing in a variety of methods. Quantitatively we’re already nicely above what the staff regarded into two years in the past, however with reference to numbers the ages of those coaches matter as nicely (all due respect to Rivera, Ryan, and Zimmer).
Ron Rivera was 62 years previous in 2024. Rex Ryan was 61. Mike Zimmer was 67.
Matt Eberflus is presently 55 years previous. Heck, Dan Quinn was the youngest of all concerned when he was employed in 2021 (he was 50). Mike Nolan was 60 when Dallas employed him in parallel with Mike McCarthy in order for you me to maintain going.
Being older isn’t a nasty factor, that’s not the takeaway right here. The takeaway is that it’s a deviation from the norm. The Cowboys are attempting one thing new and totally different. What is especially spectacular about that is that these are, except Aaron Whitecotton who the staff can be reportedly contemplating, outdoors and exterior names.
The Cowboys have burned up advantage of the doubt for lots of people and have a good distance in direction of rebuilding belief, however this does seem to be motion in the appropriate course. Now we simply must see who they decide.
