New Cowboys special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen comes with unique background

It is going to be difficult for the Cowboys to replace John Fassel.

The Dallas Cowboys landed their new special teams coordinator on Tuesday, hiring Nick Sorensen to replace John Fassel. Sorensen has ties to new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, having worked on the same Seahawks and Jaguars staffs, but his résumé is otherwise pretty unique for a special teams coach.

Sorensen is set to begin his 13th season as a coach, but his first year in Dallas will mark just his second as a special teams coordinator. He also comes to the Cowboys after a one year stint as the 49ers defensive coordinator.

So what is there to know about this new coach?

Let’s start from the beginning. Sorensen, a Virginia native, committed to Virginia Tech to play quarterback. After two seasons alternating at the starting role, Sorensen was permanently benched when the Hokies landed freshman phenom Michael Vick. Soon after, Sorensen was moved to defense, playing a hybrid safety/linebacker role.

Sorensen went undrafted in 2001 despite being fourth on the team in tackles during a national championship run. He spent two seasons with the Rams, where Sorensen played alongside defensive lineman Jeff Zgonina, who coached the Cowboys defensive line this past season. He then had a four-year stint with the Jaguars, primarily seeing work as a special teams player and even being named a team captain.

Sorensen then spent four years with the Browns before a neck injury led to his retirement. Of note, though, is the fact that his last two years in Cleveland saw Rob Ryan running the defense and Matt Eberflus coaching the linebackers. Both coaches would move to Dallas the year after Sorensen retired, of course.

A few years after Sorensen retired, he joined the Seahawks as the assistant special teams coach. Seattle won the Super Bowl his first year on the staff and returned to the Super Bowl the next year. After three seasons assisting Brian Schneider with the special teams, Sorensen also added the title of assistant defensive backs coach. He then transitioned fully to coaching defensive backs and held that role for the next four seasons in Seattle.

Schneider, Sorensen’s former special teams mentor, left the Seahawks for the same job in Jacksonville under new head coach Urban Meyer. After four months on the job, and shortly before training camp began, Schneider abruptly stepped away from the team. Meyer pivoted to Sorensen, giving him his first coordinator job. The move also reunited him with Schottenheimer, who had spent the previous three seasons as the Seahawks offensive coordinator, and was working as the Jaguars’ new quarterbacks coach and pass game coordinator.

In case you, like so many Jaguars fans, have purged that season from your memory permanently, it did not go well. Meyer was fired before the season even ended, and kicker Josh Lambo later sued Meyer for assault and battery, among other things. Needless to say, Sorensen’s only season as a special teams coordinator wasn’t great – Jacksonville finished 31st in special teams DVOA – but it’s hard to attribute much of that to Sorensen himself, especially considering he didn’t even join until late in the offseason.

After Jacksonville, Sorensen wound up in San Francisco as a defensive assistant specializing with the linebackers. The move reunited him with Schneider, who had just joined as the special teams coordinator. A year later, Sorensen was promoted to pass game coordinator to help new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks maintain the bones of the 49ers defense despite being an outside hire.

When Kyle Shanahan made the controversial decision to fire Wilks a couple days after losing in the Super Bowl, he promoted Sorensen to defensive coordinator. Shanahan also brought in fired Chargers head coach Brandon Staley to help mentor Sorensen. It did not go well, as the 49ers dropped for fourth in defensive DVOA under Wilks to 13th under Sorensen.

In fairness, though, San Francisco was dealt a slew of injuries, mostly on the defensive side. Star linebacker Dre Greenlaw played in just two games, while safety Talanoa Hufanga – one of the enforcers of the defense – didn’t make his season debut until December. Nine other defenders finished the year on the injured reserve as well.

Following the season finale, Shanahan decided to move on from both Sorensen and Schneider, though the head coach publicly expressed a desire to retain Sorensen as their new special teams coordinator. However, after conducting interviews with other candidates, while Sorensen did the same, both sides ultimately chose to go in different directions.

That brings Sorensen to Dallas. His experience is a bit light, with just one year running his own special teams unit and coming off the worst defensive year of the Shanahan 49ers era. He’s stepping into some big shoes, as Fassel is one of the most respected special teams coaches in the NFL, but Sorensen does inherit the league’s best kicker in Brandon Aubrey.

It’s unclear how much Sorensen’s schemes will differ from Fassel’s, who was known for an aggressive approach that favored trick plays. But his relationship with Schottenheimer – from their days in Seattle under Pete Carroll to the trying year under Meyer – should at least provide a strong level of trust moving forward with this unit.