Blogging The Boys
The Cowboys are filling out their staff.
The Dallas Cowboys have been hard at work in building the coaching staff under Brian Schottenheimer. Just a day after officially hiring Matt Eberflus to be the defensive coordinator, they hired three assistants under him. Here’s everything you need to know about these new coaches.
Andre Curtis has a history with both Schottenheimer and Eberflus. The 48-year old coach played linebacker at Virginia Military Institute, overlapping with then defensive line coach Dan Quinn for a year, before beginning his coaching career at his alma mater.
Curtis broke into the NFL in 2006 as a quality control coach with the Giants, where he first met current Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Curtis won a Super Bowl with the Giants, a season in which Spagnuolo’s defense was one of the best in the league.
When Spagnuolo got hired as the Rams head coach, he brought Curtis with him as his defensive backs coach. After three seasons, Spagnuolo was fired and joined the Saints as defensive coordinator, once again bringing Curtis with him to assist in the secondary.
Spagnuolo left after just one year, but Curtis was retained under new coordinator Rob Ryan, who had just left Dallas. After two seasons working under Ryan, Curtis left to coach safeties for the Seahawks. The position opened up after Kris Richard was promoted to defensive coordinator to replace Quinn.
Two seasons later, Curtis was promoted to full time defensive backs coach, and new Cowboys special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen was reassigned from assisting with the Seahawks special teams to assisting Curtis. A year later, Richard was fired (precipitating his move to Dallas) and Curtis was named the defensive pass game coordinator, a role he held up until the 2021 season.
He then joined the Bears on Eberflus’ inaugural coaching staff, working with the safeties. While there, Curtis oversaw the development of both Eddie Jackson and Jaquan Brisker into top safeties. When Eberflus took over defensive play-calling during the 2023 season, Curtis began assisting with the third-down defensive strategies; for what it’s worth, Chicago finished that season 29th in third-down defense, but rebounded to 13th in 2024.
Overall, Curtis makes a lot of sense here. He overlapped with Schottenheimer in Seattle and holds three esteemed defensive minds - Spagnuolo, Pete Carroll, and Eberflus - as the main influences on him. Curtis has also overseen the rapid growth of several young players, which makes him a strong addition in Dallas.
The addition of Aaron Whitecotton brought some fanfare, and for good reason. The new defensive line coach is still fairly young, as he started his coaching career in 2013 as a defensive quality control coach with the Jaguars. As part of the inaugural staff of head coach Gus Bradley, formerly the first defensive coordinator of the Pete Carroll era in Seattle, Whitecotton was learning from an esteemed mind.
After three years with the Jaguars, Whitecotton was promoted to assistant...
