Blogging The Boys
With most teams, there are multiple reasons for in-season collapses.
For the 2025 Dallas Cowboys? You didn’t need Inspector Poirot to deduce that everything that went wrong had to do with the defense.
Matt Eberflus’ “Back to the 1990s” stale schemes created miscommunications and busts that were fairly epic, especially considering the talent Eberflus had to work with. It was one of the worst coaching jobs in recent NFL history, and it showed on the field. Dallas ranked dead last in Defensive DVOA by an absolute landslide, and they allowed the NFL’s third-most yards (6,409), the second-most yards per play (6.1), the second-most passing touchdowns (35), the most rushing touchdowns (24, tied with the Buffalo Bills), the third-fewest turnovers (12), and the most points allowed (511).
Eberflus even proved incapable of maximizing the interior trio of Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark, and Osa Odighizuwa after the Williams trade on November 4, which should have been grounds for dismissal in and of itself.
This, by the way, is how a team ranking eighth in Offensive DVOA winds up with a 7-9-1 record and no postseason.
Firing Eberflus in January was one of the easiest decisions Jerry Jones and Company ever made, and the move to replace him with former Philadelphia Eagles passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach Christian Parker is highly intriguing. As a Vic Fangio acolyte, Parker is more than ready to drag this defense into the 21st century, with all the bells and buzzwords. Stunts as well as blitzes, multiple coverage concepts, and players who can perform different tasks at different positions. The defense will look very different both in terms of personnel and concept.
“Sometimes we talk too much about scheme as coaches and players, and less about the play style,” Parker said in February. “What do we want that to look like? What are our principles of play? How are we taking on blocks, how are we tackling, how are we leveraging routes on the back end, and how are we talking the ball away? How are we situationally aware? I think that’s where it starts from a Football 101 education standpoint. As we kind of put all that together, then you kind of get into the scheme.”
Football 101 would be a massive improvement on that side of the ball, because Parker has a lot of interesting players to work with — and two of the new guys make our Hidden Gems piece, with one underrated veteran, one underrated free agent, and one underrated draft pick.
But as we look at the Cowboys’ Secret Superstars for the 2026 season, we have to start with a buzzy guy in the receiver room.
CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are obviously the Cowboys’ top receivers, but Ryan Flournoy announced his presence with authority at times during the 2025 season in ways that grabbed some national attention. Nobody really expected that when Dallas took the 6’2, 205-pound Flournoy with the 217th pick in the...
