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.
Pass game coordinator Andre Curtis
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.
DL coach Aaron Whitecotton
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 defensive line coach. However, Bradley was fired midseason, and Whitecotton was forced to find a new home. He joined the Bills on Sean McDermott’s inaugural staff, reuniting with former Jaguars defensive coordinator Bob Babich and assisting with the defensive line.
After three seasons, he took the same position with the 49ers under defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who had coached linebackers in Jacksonville under Bradley and Babich. Saleh left to be the Jets head coach one year later, and he brought Whitecotton as his defensive line coach, the first time Whitecotton had led a position group.
Over the next four years, Whitecotton was instrumental in the rapid development of several star defensive linemen, including Bryce Huff, John Franklin-Myers, Will McDonald IV, Jermaine Johnson, and Quinnen Williams. Whitecotton also spent three of those seasons working with Carl Lawson, currently a pending free agent for the Cowboys who has already expressed a desire to return.
Schematically, Whitecotton has a lot in common with Eberflus. He comes from the school of Pete Carroll, whose own defensive scheme, like Eberflus, is derived from Monte Kiffin; of note, Kiffin actually served as a senior defensive assistant for one season in Jacksonville while Whitecotton was there.
In Whitecotton’s final three years with the Jets, his defensive line ranked in the top 10 in both pressure rate and sacks each season. Given how Eberflus prefers to win with just four pass rushers, adding a coach like Whitecotton is a major coup.
LB coach Dave Borgonzi
Dave Borgonzi always seemed like a lock to join the Cowboys once Eberflus was made official; the two have coached together for 10 of the last 14 seasons. Borgonzi, whose brother was just named the general manager of the Titans, played linebacker at Amherst College before working at Syracuse and Harvard, first as a graduate assistant and then as a defensive backs coach.
Not long after Eberflus was hired in Dallas back in 2011 as the linebackers coach, following Rob Ryan from Cleveland, the team added Borgonzi as a defensive assistant specializing in the linebackers. In 2013, he was moved to the offensive side, but then left for the Buccaneers.
In four seasons with the Buccaneers, Borgonzi served as a defensive assistant on Lovie Smith’s staff, another disciple of the Monte Kiffin school of defense. When Eberflus became the coordinator for the Colts in 2018, he reunited with Borgonzi, having him coach the linebackers. Borgonzi followed Eberflus to Chicago in the same role.
In breaking down Eberflus’ defensive scheme, the linebackers were noted as a position of extreme importance, which is why Eberflus – himself a linebackers coach by trade – has been so keen on retaining Borgonzi everywhere he goes.
Borgonzi has been viewed as a rising star, fielding multiple interviews for coordinator positions throughout his time working under Eberflus, but he’s remained by his mentor’s side. Expect him to play a key role in installing the new scheme and getting the linebacker corps – which may or may not feature breakout star DeMarvion Overshown in 2025 – up to speed.
