After Sunday night’s loss to the Vikings, the Cowboys are all but eliminated from the playoffs. Dak Prescott even admitted as much. Understandably, all the ire has turned to Matt Eberflus yet again, and Jerry
Jones even seemed to make room for the possibility of making a defensive coordinator change once the season wraps up.
That decision would be easy to justify, too. While Eberflus has produced really good defenses throughout his career, it hasn’t been good in Dallas. The Cowboys enjoyed a brief boost in efficiency after the trade deadline, but it quickly fell apart, and they’re back to being one of the worst defenses in the league.
So while Eberflus remains the coordinator, here are nine names off the top of my head that would make the defense considerably better next year, should they decide to make a change.
Jim Schwartz
Let’s start with the whale: Jim Schwartz is currently wrecking quarterbacks’ Sundays as the Browns defensive coordinator. Getting him to Dallas would not exactly be easy.
That said, the Browns are 3-11 and rumors continue to persist around head coach Kevin Stefanski’s job security. If he gets fired, Schwartz would be very available. Even if Stefanski sticks around, he may opt to shake up his staff, or Schwartz may want to jump ship for somewhere more stable. The Cowboys aren’t exactly the model of stability, but Brian Schottenheimer has earned plenty of good will by now, and Schwartz would immediately be welcomed warmly.
Schwartz’s scheme would also mesh well with the current roster. He cut his teeth under Jeff Fisher and Gregg Williams, and emphasizes physicality and aggression over everything. Schwartz loves playing press man coverage and, while not blitz-happy, his Browns do currently rank 10th in blitz rate. He’s more selective with his blitzes, like Mike Zimmer last year, but uses simulated pressures to find ways to win with four.
Stealing Schwartz away from the Browns would be as close to a home run as the Cowboys could get. His track record on defense is impeccable, and he was named the Assistant Coach of the Year back in 2023, his first year with the Browns.
Jim Leonhard
One of the NFL’s best defenses over the last two years is undoubtedly the Broncos, where Vance Joseph has enjoyed a career revitalization after once being fired by the Broncos as head coach. While Joseph isn’t going anywhere for a lateral move, his top assistant might.
Jim Leonhard is the Broncos’ assistant head coach and pass game coordinator on defense. He’s been there the past two seasons, during which time Denver is third in the league in EPA/play allowed. Before that, he was the defensive coordinator for his alma mater Wisconsin, during which time the Badgers were 46-20 and dominated on defense.
Leonhard also became Wisconsin’s interim head coach during the 2022 season. He finished 4-3 down the stretch and looked to be the favorite for the full-time job before Wisconsin stunned everyone and poached Luke Fickell from Cincinnati. Now that Fickell is 17-21 in four seasons, though, many Badgers fans feel regret over that decision.
Leonhard is a rising star in the coaching ranks. He’s likely to be a head coach soon, possibly even replacing Fickell in a year from now, but will also be on plenty of teams’ radars for defensive coordinator jobs. But the Cowboys have an in: Leonhard played for the Jets from 2009 to 2011, during which time Schottenheimer was the offensive coordinator.
Leonhard would be able to modernize the defense the way Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams have done for the offense. Together, that grouping could create a potent team. The only real downside is Leonhard’s success in Dallas would almost surely be short-lived before he gets poached, but that’s a good problem to have.
Mike Pettine
The Vikings have one of the best defenses in the NFL, so why not find a guy from their staff? Brian Flores is unlikely to leave Minnesota for anything less than a head coaching gig, but Mike Pettine currently serves as the assistant head coach and outside linebackers coach. What’s better is he has ties to Schottenheimer.
Pettine was a longtime disciple of Rex Ryan, working alongside him in Baltimore for several years before becoming his defensive coordinator with the Jets. During that time, Pettine’s defense went up against Schottenheimer’s offense every day, as Schottenheimer was the Jets offensive coordinator at the time.
Pettine later spent two years as the Browns head coach, which went about as well as any other Browns head coach, before spending the 2017 season as a consultant with the Seahawks. While his stint in Seattle predated Schottenheimer’s time there, Pettine learned a lot from Pete Carroll in that span, and Schottenheimer has spoken regularly about his bond with Carroll.
Pettine has been with the Vikings every year under Kevin O’Connell’s tenure, predating Flores, but he may be looking for another coordinator gig. And if Flores isn’t leaving for a head coaching gig soon, Pettine may have to look outside the building for that chance. Why not reunite with a coach he’s known for some time?
Ken Norton Jr.
We all know Jerry Jones likes to go back to the well of what worked before, and the Cowboys defense hasn’t been quite the same since Dan Quin left. So why not poach an assistant from Quinn’s Commanders staff, even though Washington’s defense has been as bad, if not worse, than Dallas?
Ken Norton Jr. currently coaches the linebackers in Washington but he has seven years of experience as a defensive coordinator with the Raiders and Seahawks. Before that, he spent five seasons coaching linebackers for the Seahawks, having followed Pete Carroll to Seattle from USC, where he began his coaching career.
That creates connections to both Quinn, whom Jones misses dearly, and Schottenheimer. After the 2017 season, Carroll let go of both his coordinators and brought in Schottenheimer on offense while elevating Norton. He lasted one year longer than Schottenheimer, but Norton produced some solid defenses even as the Legion of Boom began to crumble with age.
Not only does Norton have ties to Quinn and Schottenheimer, but he’s also Cowboys royalty. A second-round pick in 1988, Norton won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys and was named to the Pro Bowl three times. That serves as the cherry on top of what makes this hire so realistic (if the job comes open, of course).
Norton would also be a decent hire, though not the best option on this list. He’s experienced, savvy, and would bring back a scheme that saw so much success here in Dallas. It wouldn’t be the flashiest hire, but it would undoubtedly improve this defense.
Leslie Frazier
Before Schottenheimer was officially promoted to head coach, Leslie Frazier interviewed for the job. It was also reported at the time that he may be the defensive coordinator. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but if at first you don’t succeed…
Frazier has spent the past two years as the assistant head coach with the Seahawks, serving as a consigliere of sorts to defensive wunderkind Mike MacDonald. Before that, Frazier was the defensive coordinator for six seasons with the Bills, helping lead that franchise to some of their most successful seasons ever.
Frazier is well-traveled, having begun his coaching career in 1988. He also won a Super Bowl as a cornerback for the legendary 1985 Bears, when he led the team in interceptions. And now, he’s had a front row seat in Seattle as MacDonald has turned Seattle back into one of the more dominant defensive teams in the league.
This isn’t a hire that would steal the headlines, but Frazier has proven time and time again he knows what he’s doing. And his proximity to so many winning programs in recent years is hardly an accident.
Patrick Graham
If the Cowboys are interested in capturing some of the magic of the Brian Flores defense, but don’t like Mike Pettine, the other option is current Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. Currently in his fourth season with the Raiders and working under his third head coach, Graham has survived multiple regime changes.
He’s done so because he’s produced results. After a rough first season on the job where Graham was still installing his scheme, the Raiders defense started to click. Across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Las Vegas was 13th in EPA/play allowed and, crucially, seventh in EPA/rush allowed.
This season, things have fallen apart in a major way. Reports out of Sin City point to a philosophical clash between Graham and his new head coach, one Pete Carroll, himself a defensive-minded coach. It seems as if Graham and the Raiders are set for a split after the season, and a fresh start may be just what the coach – who interviewed for the Jaguars head coaching vacancy this past offseason – needs.
Graham’s scheme is similar, though not identical, to that of Flores. They both came up in the Bill Belichick ecosystem with the Patriots, and Graham was Flores’ first defensive coordinator as head coach of the Dolphins. Like Flores, he brings a fluid scheme that emphasizes flexibility and aggression.
Cory Undlin
Few coaches have had quite the run on defense that Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans has had. With the 49ers, he shut down quarterbacks left and right, and he immediately replicated that success with a Texans franchise that had previously been languishing in dysfunction. Ryans’ scheme is hardly a complex one, but more so focused on lining up and playing hard. Eberflus preaches the same thing, but Ryans’ players actually do it.
One man who’s been by Ryans’ side for it all is Cory Undlin. He was the 49ers’ pass game specialist and secondary coach for Ryans’ two seasons leading San Francisco’s defense, and he followed Ryans to Houston as the pass game coordinator. There, he’s played an integral role in the rapid developments of young superstars that include Derek Stingley, Kamari Lassiter, Calen Bullock, and Jalen Pitre.
Undlin is more than just Ryans’ right hand man, though. He coached the defensive backs for the Broncos during the Peyton Manning era and also coached the defensive backs under the aforementioned Jim Schwartz en route to winning a Super Bowl with the Eagles. His track record of success speaks for itself, and Undlin may be ready for his own shot at leading a defense.
Aubrey Pleasant
Not too long ago, Aubrey Pleasant was the next coaching superstar. A fast riser, Pleasant served on Mike Pettine’s Browns staff before going to Mike Shanahan’s Washington Commanders. When Sean McVay left that staff to lead the Rams, he took Pleasant with him as cornerbacks coach. Then the Michigan native was hired as the defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator for his hometown Lions under newly-appointed head coach Dan Campbell.
That’s where the rocket ship to the top was thrown off course. During the 2022 season, as Detroit’s secondary struggled and played a part in several bad losses, Campbell let Pleasant go during the season in a move he openly struggled with making. Pleasant went back to the Rams, where he’s spent the past three seasons as the pass game coordinator.
During that time, Los Angeles has lost Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, and Bobby Wagner, among other notable contributors. Despite that, the Rams have remained strong contenders in the NFC and their defense currently ranks third in EPA/play. Clearly Pleasant knows something about developing talent and scheming up success.
Paul Guenther
The Cowboys defense was starting to come together towards the end of last season as they began to buy into Mike Zimmer’s complex, yet effective, scheme. Why not go back to that well with Zimmer’s longtime protege, Paul Guenther, who spent last season as the team’s defensive run game coordinator?
Guenther was not retained in Dallas after the Eberflus hire, and he took an off-field role with UNLV under newly-hired head coach Dan Mullen, who famously coached Dak Prescott at Mississippi State. He was then made the interim defensive coordinator shortly before the start of the season when Mullen’s initial choice abruptly resigned. That put Guenther in the odd position of running a defense that someone else – who ran a radically different system – had installed.
And while Guenther’s defense at UNLV hasn’t exactly played lights out this year, they’ve played well enough to win. The Rebels went 10-3, losing twice to Boise State (the second time coming in the conference title game). Guenther’s defense held the opponent under 20 points in four games, which is quite the feat in college football’s world of explosive offenses everywhere.
Guenther would represent a return to the Zimmer scheme that was starting to mesh with the personnel a year ago at this time. Crucially, it would mean a return to things like blitzing and playing press man coverage, both of which fit the personnel of this team and neither of which Eberflus seems willing to do with any regularity.
