The Cowboys are wasting little time assembling a staff for new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, hiring Nick Sorensen as their special teams coordinator. Sorensen is replacing John Fassel, who held the position for the past five seasons. After spending the 2022 and 2023 seasons as a defensive assistant in Santa Clara, Sorensen was promoted to the 49ers defensive coordinator position in 2024.

The results weren’t great, leading the 49ers to relieve him of those duties, though they didn’t fire him. Sorensen was still under contract with the 49ers for the 2025 season but San Francisco publicly stated that he would not be the defensive coordinator. The team did want him to return in a different capacity.

The demotion allowed Sorensen to seek employment elsewhere finding refuge with a former colleague.

Sorensen broke into the league as an assistant special teams coach with the Seahawks in 2013 and held the position before adding assistant defensive back to his resume in 2016.

He was then promoted to DB coach for the 2017 season. The following year, he would help welcome Brian Schottenheimer to the Seattle staff as offensive coordinator where the two would spend the next three seasons battling each other in practice daily.

The connection would continue in 2021 as both coaches would find roles on the Jaguars staff under then-head coach Urban Meyer; Schottenheimer as Jacksonville’s quarterbacks coach and Sorensen as special teams coordinator.

Sorensen played 10 seasons in the NFL as a defensive back, appearing in 131 games before turning to coaching.