Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys wide search for a new defensive coordinator is over, with the news coming across on Thursday afternoon that Philadelphia Eagles defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator Christian Parker was the man for the job.
Two years removed from seeing their own former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore win a Super Bowl within the division for the Eagles, and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn leave for the Washington Commanders and take them to the NFC Championship game in year one as their head coach, the Cowboys decided to dip their toes in these NFC East waters. They pulled from their biggest rival to set a new direction on defense following the disaster that was the one-and-done Matt Eberflus experience in 2025. The Cowboys do so on the heels of the Eagles winning the NFC East for consecutive seasons, breaking an over two decade stretch where no team repeated as the division winner. Dallas will be hellbent on putting their name at the top of the division in 2026 to start a new streak of different winners, and potentially weakening the coaching strength of the Eagles with this move to address easily the biggest weakness for the Cowboys is a great place to start at the moment.
There are a lot of reasons to really like this move for the Cowboys, and a lot to learn about yet another scheme change the Cowboys had little choice but to make given their defensive results this past season. Let’s take a closer look at some of these reasons.
One of the strongest initial reactions to the Cowboys poaching Parker from the Eagles staff is that this will not be the last big step that the 34-year-old first-time coordinator will make. This is a coach already being touted as future head coach material. Although that sentiment was true of Mike Zimmer in 2024 having previously already been a head coach before his one season as the Cowboys defensive coordinator, the dynamic the Cowboys have created here between head coach and defensive coordinator is closer to the Mike McCarthy/Dan Quinn years.
Quinn was also a head coach prior to being defensive coordinator in Dallas, but more importantly in this context became a head coach again afterwards, something that could be in the cards for Parker’s future. Although both McCarthy’s offense and Quinn’s defense put up numbers and did their jobs on a consistent basis, once both coaches were no longer with the Cowboys there was a lot made public about some of the power struggles that existed within the team with a head coach and coordinator that was head coaching material (and previously went to a Super Bowl). The cohesion between the Cowboys offense and defense to play complementary football was never quite right enough to make a run in the playoffs, and it’s reasonable to think this dynamic was at least a part of the reason why.
In 2023, Brian Schottenheimer had a...
