With most teams, there are multiple reasons for in-season collapses.
For the 2025 Dallas Cowboys? You didn’t need Inspector Poirot to deduce that everything that went wrong had to do with the defense.
Matt Eberflus’ “Back to the 1990s” stale schemes created miscommunications and busts that were fairly epic, especially considering the talent Eberflus had to work with. It was one of the worst coaching jobs in recent NFL history, and it showed on the field. Dallas ranked dead last in Defensive DVOA by
an absolute landslide, and they allowed the NFL’s third-most yards (6,409), the second-most yards per play (6.1), the second-most passing touchdowns (35), the most rushing touchdowns (24, tied with the Buffalo Bills), the third-fewest turnovers (12), and the most points allowed (511).
Eberflus even proved incapable of maximizing the interior trio of Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark, and Osa Odighizuwa after the Williams trade on November 4, which should have been grounds for dismissal in and of itself.
This, by the way, is how a team ranking eighth in Offensive DVOA winds up with a 7-9-1 record and no postseason.
Firing Eberflus in January was one of the easiest decisions Jerry Jones and Company ever made, and the move to replace him with former Philadelphia Eagles passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach Christian Parker is highly intriguing. As a Vic Fangio acolyte, Parker is more than ready to drag this defense into the 21st century, with all the bells and buzzwords. Stunts as well as blitzes, multiple coverage concepts, and players who can perform different tasks at different positions. The defense will look very different both in terms of personnel and concept.
“Sometimes we talk too much about scheme as coaches and players, and less about the play style,” Parker said in February. “What do we want that to look like? What are our principles of play? How are we taking on blocks, how are we tackling, how are we leveraging routes on the back end, and how are we talking the ball away? How are we situationally aware? I think that’s where it starts from a Football 101 education standpoint. As we kind of put all that together, then you kind of get into the scheme.”
Football 101 would be a massive improvement on that side of the ball, because Parker has a lot of interesting players to work with — and two of the new guys make our Hidden Gems piece, with one underrated veteran, one underrated free agent, and one underrated draft pick.
But as we look at the Cowboys’ Secret Superstars for the 2026 season, we have to start with a buzzy guy in the receiver room.
Underrated veteran: WR Ryan Flournoy
CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are obviously the Cowboys’ top receivers, but Ryan Flournoy announced his presence with authority at times during the 2025 season in ways that grabbed some national attention. Nobody really expected that when Dallas took the 6’2, 205-pound Flournoy with the 217th pick in the sixth round of the 2024 draft — he had bounced from Central Missouri State to Iowa Western to Southeast Missouri State, where he grabbed 121 catches on 207 targets for 1,841 yards and 14 touchdowns over two seasons in 2022 and 2023. The Redhawks aren’t exactly teeming with NFL talent from an alumni standpoint, but Flournoy appears ready to ascend.
He had just 10 catches on 14 targets for 102 yards in his rookie season, but in 2025, as injuries to other receivers complicated things, Flournoy stood up. The first time we really saw it was in his Week 5 game against the New York Jets, when he caught six passes on eight targets for 114 yards. Then, in Week 14 against the Detroit Lions, Flouroy bombed Kelvin Sheppard’s defense for nine catches on 13 targets for 115 yards and a touchdown. Capable of beating defenders with speed and route acumen, and with a knack for getting physical to get open in the timing of the down, Flournoy looked every bit an NFL receiver when given the opportunity.
The overall stat line was affected by opportunity — 40 catches on 53 targets for 475 yards and four touchdowns — but whether in the slot or outside, and with a full route tree at his disposal, Flournoy proved his mettle in a very good passing game.
“For me, it was important just to step into a leadership role in the room,” Flournoy said in June of his 2025 season. “CeeDee and GP, great guys. Phenomenal football players, I learned a lot from them. For them to miss [time], and for me to take the No.1 role, it was fun while it lasted. Just keep working hard, that’s literally my whole mindset.
“I’m just out there playing freely. I know what’s on the play sheet, I know the calls, I know what play to run. For me, I’m not out there thinking, I’m just out there executing.”
Underrated free agent: Safety Jalen Thompson
Okay, let’s get to the defense. Specifically, how the safeties will be deployed in Parker’s playbook. Fangio has been a master of defensive back utilization for eons, and Parker learned from the best. Now, with Caleb Downs as the obvious do-it-all guy, and Malik Hooker as the established deep safety, it will be fascinating to see how the Cowboys use former Arizona Cardinals DB Jalen Thompson after the seven-year veteran signed a three-year, $33 million contract with $22 million guaranteed, and a maximum value of $36 million.
Thompson has been effectively versatile throughout his NFL career, and even in a 2025 Cardinals defense that didn’t always make sense, he remained a tone-setter. 43% of his snaps last season came as a single-high safety, 25% came as a slot defender, 18% as a box defender, and 14% came as a split safety. So, if you were to imagine Thompson’s ultimate role as tying Downs and Hooker together, that might be the right idea.
Overall in 2025, the 5’11, 190-pound Thompson allowed 30 catches on 46 targets for 303 yards, 120 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, no interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 98.4. He also had one sack in just 15 pass-rushing attempts, 72 solo tackles, and 10 stops.
The tape was better than the metrics, especially in coverage. Thompson’s ability to flash from the line of scrimmage into the deep third is likely something Parker will use with gusto, as it’s an alpha trait.
“A physical safety, a safety that can do pretty much everything,” Thompson said in March, when asked what he brings to the defense. “I don’t consider myself just a safety; a DB in general. Nickel, corner, free safety, strong safety, wherever they need me at, that’s where I’m playing.”
This aligns with Parker’s vision of multiplicity, and it helps that new Cowboys secondary coach Ryan Smith spent his last three seasons as the Cardinals’ cornerbacks coach.
“I used to go in there and watch film with him when they transferred me down to nickel a little bit,” Thompson said of Smith. “He just brought the cool element to the game, the calmness of it all. Not really stressing about too much, just really going out there and letting your God-given talent do the job. [Smith] was a big part of my decision to come here. Great coach, great leader, and feel like I can make some plays underneath him.”
Underrated draft pick: CB Devin Moore
As for the cornerbacks, it appears that DaRon Bland and Cobie Durant will lead the charge on the outside, with Shavon Revel Jr. as a possible X-Factor if he can stay healthy. Another cornerback to watch if the health thing checks out is Devin Moore, the Florida man taken with the 114th overall pick in the fourth round of the draft.
A healthier Moore would have gone a lot higher, but the injury history is worth mentioning, because there’s a lot to wade through.
- Missed the beginning of the 2026 draft process due to December, 2025 groin surgery;
- Missed six games in 2024 with an AC joint sprain and a right shoulder injury;
- Had offseason labrum surgery in December, 2024;
- Missed five games in 2023 due to back issues and a concussion;
- Missed eight games in 2022 due to a shoulder injury.
So, yeah — it would be unrealistic to expect Moore to march through his NFL career without the injury-proneness tripping him up, but one never knows. The metrics and the tape make it an acceptable risk in the third day of the draft. Last season for the Gators, a relatively healthy Moore allowed 17 catches on 30 targets for 189 yards, 78 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, two interceptions, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 70.0.
At 6′ 3¼ and 198 pounds, Moore certainly fits the profile of an outside cornerback.
All that said, Moore knows that the injury story will follow him until and unless.
“I feel like that had me very overlooked and slept on,” he said in April. “The size, the speed, ability to bend and tackle, the length — I feel like I had been overlooked.”
Well, Moore can make the most of that now. Like just about everyone else in Parker’s defense, the rookie is already touting his versatility.
“I can play man. I can play zone. I’m smart enough to know the whole secondary. I’m versatile, and that was the main conversation [with Parker]. The NFL is a very complicated game. You can’t run man the whole game, and you can’t run zone the whole game. You have to have players out there that can mix it up with both coverages, that can give the quarterbacks and offenses different looks.”
Year 1 of the Christian Parker era? Bring your popcorn, because everything is about to change for the better.
