When you fire your defensive coordinator (or let him walk, or let him go on a sabbatical, or whatever the Cowboys decide to do with Matt Eberflus), it’s often because the entire organization failed, and not just the guy nominally responsible for the defense. It follows that when you’re looking to fix that defense, you’re going to have to look at more than just the coaching. Because if you don’t, you’ll quickly find yourself back in the position you wanted to get out of in the first place.
While saying goodbye to Eberflus is the right decision, the danger is that it provides the Cowboys with a waaaay too convenient excuse for everything that went sideways with the defense this season, and thus provides carte blanche for the Jones family and the front office to continue doing business as usual.
In Dallas, the general thinking heading into 2025 was that changing out the defensive coordinator and getting key players back healthy should be enough to be a Super Bowl contender again – despite not even having sniffed an NFC Championship game in decades. As such, the Cowboys front office was perfectly content to think that
- a defense that ranked 28th in defensive passer rating and 31st in points allowed just needed some Matt Eberflus fairy dust to become a Top 10 unit.
- a defensive line that ranked 28th in rushing yards per attempt just needed to invest in some over-the-hill free agent defensive tackles and the Cowboys would be a lock for the next NFC Championship game.
- in a league that’s all about the pass, trading away a generational pass rush talent for some run stuffers and picks was a brilliant idea.
- a pro scouting department that in 2024 brought in Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook to help out in the running game, traded a fourth for Jonathan Mingo, and has an increasingly spotty draft record should continue acquiring talent in 2025 without changing their way of working.
- an organization that thinks it went “all-in” in 2024 and ended up at 7-10 can continue doing business as usual and doesn’t really need to change much.
The odds were stacked against ‘Flus from day one. It’s convenient to think that his scheme is the root cause of it all, but this is a complete organizational failure that goes way beyond just the DC, and it looks like even Jerry Jones is beginning to realize that.
Will the Cowboys get it right this time? I wouldn’t bet on it, but it’s not impossible. Three teams very recently demonstrated what it takes to turn around a bottom 10 defense into a top 10 unit – in just one year.
- 2023 Detroit Lions: From 2023 to 2024, the Lions improved their defensive passer rating (DPR) from 91.5 to 82, climbing from 20th to 1st in the league – in just one year.
- 2023 Philadelphia Eagles: From 2023 to 2024, Philly improved their DPR by an impressive 15.1 points (from 97.6 to 82.5) jumping from 29th in the league to the No. 3 spot – in just one year.
- 2024 Jacksonville Jaguars: From 2024 to 2025, the Jags improved their DPR by a staggering 23.6 points (from 103.4 to 79.8) rocketing from 31st to 5th overall – in just one year.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys DPR got even worse (99.5 to 109.7) from 2024 to 2025, dropping them from 28th to 32nd in the league.
So what did the Lions, Eagles, and Jaguars do to fix their defense in just one season? The had a single-minded focus on fixing the pass defense, and in the following I’ll compare and contrast what those three teams did with what the Cowboys did in three key areas:
Defensive Coordinator
The Lions stuck with Aaron Glenn, who had been in Detroit since 2021, and who would translate the defensive turnaround in 2024 into a head coaching gig with the Jets. Philly brought in Vic Fangio, a veteran defensive coordinator, who – in addition to a brief stint as a head coach in Denver – had been defensive coordinator for six different NF teams since 1995. Jacksonville plucked the 41-year old Anthony Companile from Green Bay’s coaching staff (9th-ranked team by DPR, 3rd-ranked by run defense) and promoted him from linebackers coach/running game coordinator to defensive coordinator.
The Cowboys opted to go with Matt Eberflus, who had just been fired in Chicago. To his credit, as a defensive coordinator in Indianapolis, he inherited the 30th-ranked scoring defense (2017) and turned it around to the 10th ranked scoring defense in 2018, and maintained a borderline top-10 scoring defense throughout his tenure in Indy (‘19: 18th, ‘20: T10th, ‘21: T9th). However, it’s likely that his familiarity with Dallas (LB coach 2011-2017) and the Joneses played a much bigger role in his hiring than any defensive accomplishments.
In summary, no clear evidence that maintaining continuity, hiring an experienced hand, or going with a young and promising guy are the right routes, just maybe avoid hiring a guy just because it feels comfortable.
Draft
- In 2024, Detroit drafted two cornerbacks with their first two picks (1st: Terrion Arnold, 2nd: Ennis Rakestraw)
- In 2024, Philly drafted two cornerbacks with their first two picks (1st: Quinyon Mitchell, 2nd: Cooper DeJean)
- In 2025, Jacksonville drafted two defensive backs with their first two picks (1st: CB Travis Hunter, 3rd: S Caleb Ransaw; Jaguars did not have a 2nd-round pick)
- In 2025, the Cowboys drafted a tackle and a pass rusher with their first two picks (1st: OG Tyler Booker, 2nd: DE Donovan Ezeiruaku)
Granted, the Cowboys had signed Daron Bland and Trevon Diggs to multi-million dollar contracts, added injured CB Shavon Revel in the third round of the draft, and were hoping that all three would return healthy at some point. But that didn’t work out quite as anticipated, leaving the Cowboys starting UDFA Reddy Steward (4 starts), fifth-round pick Caelen Carson (2), seventh-round pick Trikweze Bridges (1), and Kaiir Elam (7, released mid-season).
Perhaps the 2025 draft is where the Cowboys should double dip on defensive backs.
Free Agency
Not every draft pick pans out. Injuries and performance issues have limited the playing time of some of the draft picks listed above, and the teams revamping their pass defense seemed to be aware of this risk, which is why all of them added extra secondary help in free agency.
Here’s a look at the defensive players each team signed on the first or second day of free agency (not the bargain-bin free agency that comes later, though you may be hard-pressed to tell the difference by some of the results).
| Detroit (’24) | Philadelphia (’24) | Jacksonville (’25) | Dallas (’25) | |||||
| Free Agency Day 1 & 2 | DT (DJ Reader) | 2yr – $27.25 | DE (Bryce Huff) | 3yr – $51.1 | CB (Jourdan Lewis) | 3yr – $30 | LB (Kenneth Murray) | Trade: 1yr – $7.4 |
| CB (Carlton Davis) | Trade: 1yr – $14.5 | S (CJ Gardner-Johnson) | 3yr – $27 | S Eric Murray | 3yr – $19.5 | DL (Solomon Thomas) | 2yr – $6 | |
| DE (Marcus Davenport) | 1yr – $10.5 | LB (Zack Baun) | 1yr – $3.5 | CB (Kaiir Elam) | Trade: 1yr – $2.6 | |||
| CB (Amik Robinson) | 2yr – $9.25 | DE (Payton Turner) | 1yr – $2.5 | |||||
| LB (Jack Sanborn) | 1yr – $1.5 | |||||||
| Average Annual Value | 43.3 | 29.4 | 16.5 | 17.0 |
The Lions doubled down on corners, adding two more in free agency, the Eagles added a safety, the Jaguars signed a corner and a safety. Each of those signings was for around $10 million average annual value. The Cowboys, notoriously stingy in free agency, traded for Kaiir Elam, a former first-round pick on a rookie deal, and were hoping that a change of scenery would allow Elam to show the type of performance he didn’t show for three years in Buffalo.
Now, there might be an argument to be made that a good pass rush is half your pass defense, but even in 2024, when the Cowboys were third in total sacks and still had Micah Parsons, they ranked 28th in defensive passer rating.
And while people spent weeks after the trade deadline trying to convince themselves Jerry Jones fixed the defense by adding two quality defensive tackles via trades, there is only marginal evidence the Cowboys defense has gotten any better. Points allowed per game has dropped slightly from 30.8 (Wks 1-9, NFL rank: 31st) to 28.6 (Wks 11-17, NFL rank: 30th), while defensive passer rating improved slightly from 110.2 (31st) to 106.2 (27th).
The Cowboys are looking for a new defensive coordinator, but that alone hardly guarantees them anything. To improve the defense, the Cowboys need to upgrade the talent in their secondary. The Lions, Eagles, and Jaguars very recently showed exactly how that can be done. But talent is expensive in the NFL, either in terms of draft capital or in contract value, and if you want an upgrade in your pass defense, you’ll need to invest in both.
But can you trust the Cowboys to get it right?
In early 2024, Jerry Jones said the Cowboys were going all in 2024.
“We will be going all in. I would say that you will see us this coming year not build it for the future.”
At the end of 2024, Jones promised better days to come in 2025.
“… Rest assured we’ll be figuring out ways to look for what we’re doing wrong and improve on that. … The bottom line is that we’ve got to get better. We will get better. There are better days ahead.”
And just a few days ago, he promised an improved defense for 2026.
“We will get better on defense. I promise you that.”
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice …
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