{"id":150397,"date":"2026-02-04T09:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/150397\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T09:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:05:13","slug":"dallas-cowboys-washington-commanders-defensive-coordinators-have-hbcu-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/150397\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders defensive coordinators have HBCU ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders defensive coordinators have HBCU ties<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> and Washington Commanders<\/a> share a fierce, historic rivalry<\/a>, and also HBCU ties among their defensive coordinators. Both teams made significant changes to their coaching staff as they hired new DCs to lead the defensive unit for both NFC squads.<\/p>\n

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The Cowboys hired Christian Parker<\/a> and the Commanders hired Daronte Jones<\/a>. Jones is an HBCU alumnus who played football at Morgan State University. He joins the Commanders after serving as the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 defensive backs coach under Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. Along with being an HBCU alumnus, he also got an early start as a coach in the HBCU ranks.<\/p>\n

He served as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for Bowie State University from 2005 to 2009. It gave him the foundation for his immense success at the college and professional levels, as he even served as LSU\u2019s defensive coordinator in 2021. He looks to revitalize the Washington Commanders\u2019 defense under Dan Quinn\u2019s system. The Commanders struggled last season after reaching the NFC Championship in the 2024-2025 NFL season.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys have hired former Philadelphia Eagles passing-game coordinator and defensive backs coach Christian Parker, who was a standout on the Eagles\u2019\u00a0defensive coordinator Vic Fangio\u2019s staff. Parker\u2019s hire is historic for the Cowboys, as he\u2019s the franchise\u2019s youngest defensive coordinator. He is also the fourth defensive coordinator in the past four seasons, which he hopes to change with his play-calling this fall.<\/p>\n

Parker served on the coaching staff for two different HBCUs in his early career. He served as defensive pass coach for Virginia State University from 2013 to 2014. He then joined Norfolk State University as a defensive backs coach from 2015 to 2016 before ultimately moving on to a defensive analyst position at Notre Dame and Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

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He then advanced to the professional level in 2019, working with the Green Bay Packers in various defensive roles before landing his big break with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was part of the staff that led the Eagles to Super Bowl 59 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. This is an interesting chapter for both teams as, historically, both franchises have supported HBCU players and have had HBCU players be huge portions of their historic success.<\/p>\n

Related: Southern University\u2019s most important games in Marshall Faulk\u2019s first season<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Bowie State University\u2019s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics passes away<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders defensive coordinators have HBCU ties appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[62533,57210,102,113,104,103,53656,57211,62530,62532,16417,5741,8250,13445,62531,62534,10388,7683],"class_list":["post-150397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-bowie-state-university","tag-christian-parker","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-daronte-jones","tag-defensive-backs-coach","tag-defensive-coordinators","tag-defensive-unit","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-hbcu","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-morgan-state-university","tag-nfc-championship","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-washington-commanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150397","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=150397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}