{"id":113969,"date":"2026-01-07T10:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T10:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113969\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T10:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T10:42:16","slug":"dallas-cowboys-defensive-coordinator-matt-eberflus-fired-after-one-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113969\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus fired after one season"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRISCO \u2014 The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> have relieved defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus of his job with two years remaining on his contract, the team announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Eberflus, in his first year as the defensive coordinator, was in charge of a defense that allowed the most points in the league (30.1 per game) and gave up the second-most yards (6,409) in franchise history. The Cowboys also allowed 511 points, the most in franchise history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving known Matt Eberflus for decades now, we have tremendous respect and appreciation for him as a coach and a person,\u201d team owner and general manager Jerry Jones said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter reviewing and discussing the results of our defensive performance this season, though, it was clear that change is needed. This is the first step in that process and we will continue to review as it applies to reaching our much higher expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Eberflus was hired after spending three seasons as the head coach of the Chicago Bears. He was fired there before the end of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys were familiar with Eberflus, as he was the linebackers coach from 2011-2017 before taking over as defensive coordinator with the Indianapolis Colts.<\/p>\n

In Eberflus\u2019 return to the Cowboys, he was hampered by the loss of several players, including star pass rusher Micah Parsons<\/a>, who was traded a week before the start of the season due to a contract dispute.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a long, hard season,\u201d edge rusher Dante Fowler<\/a> said. \u201cIt was just a difficult season, just to put it in place. We got a new defensive coordinator and tried to put the defense together and that\u2019s just what it was. We tried our best, but it wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d <\/p>\n

Eberflus\u2019 zone-heavy scheme wasn\u2019t popular with starting cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland. Both players didn\u2019t finish the season. Diggs was released with one game remaining on the schedule, and he was claimed by the Green Bay Packers<\/a>. Bland\u2019s season ended with a foot injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys had problems with their pass rush and linebacking corps and they had communication issues in the secondary. The team made trade deadline deals for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and linebacker Logan Wilson. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love Flus,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been here to know him from a personal standpoint, the defensive scheme from a defensive standpoint, I think was very, very good. Very smart. I think as players, we had a lot of hand in the pot to kinda execute and do the things that we can do. At the end of the day, man, around the NFL, around the world, Cover 3 is Cover 3, man is man and Cover 2 is Cover 2. You got to win your one-on-ones in all aspects of the game, and as players you got to compete.\u201d <\/p>\n

Williams, acquired from the Jets, earned a Pro Bowl berth. Wilson, acquired from Cincinnati, wasn\u2019t as expected. Instead, the Cowboys stuck with linebacker Kenneth Murray at middle linebacker, a position he wasn\u2019t familiar with, as he was mainly a weakside linebacker. Wilson, a middle linebacker, was touted as someone who could help with the communication, but in a Christmas Day victory over Washington, he didn\u2019t play any snaps.<\/p>\n

During the course of the season, Eberflus talked to coach Brian Schottenheimer about moving from the sidelines to the coach\u2019s box to help make quicker adjustments.<\/p>\n

In the last three games that Eberflus called the defensive signals, the Cowboys gave up 34, 23 and 34 points to close the season.<\/p>\n

This will be the fourth consecutive offseason the Cowboys seek a new defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

Dan Quinn ran the defense from 2021 to 2023 before leaving to become the head coach of the Washington Commanders. in Quinn\u2019s three seasons, the Cowboys led the NFL in takeaways twice and improved in total defense from 19th to 12th to 5th.<\/p>\n

Mike Zimmer took over for Quinn in 2024 and that group struggled with his scheme, as well. Zimmer\u2019s defense allowed 468 points, at the time the most in franchise history, until his contract wasn\u2019t renewed.<\/p>\n

Eberflus took over for a defense that struggled to create turnovers (11 takeaways, third-fewest in the NFL) and allowed 377 yards per game, third-worst in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Now, the Cowboys will look to replace Eberflus and most likely undergo a revamp of the defense.<\/p>\n

Potential candidates for the opening<\/a> include Jonathan Gannon, Jim Schwartz, Leslie Frazier, Aaron Whitecotton, Raheem Morris, Jim Leonhard and Mike Pettine.<\/p>\n

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO \u2014 The Dallas Cowboys have relieved defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus of his job with two years remaining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1044,102,113,104,103,80],"class_list":["post-113969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-cowboys","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}