The Dallas Cowboys shocked the NFL landscape early this offseason, hiring Brian Schottenheimer as their next head coach after letting Mike McCarthy walk. This is Schottenheimer's first head coaching gig, something even Jerry Jones was quick to mention in his introductory press conference. Jones and Dallas are taking a chance on Schottenheimer, who at 51 years old has been around long enough to receive a real opportunity were he deserving.
One thing Schottenheimer has done right so far is surround himself with a veteran coaching staff. This includes former Chicago Bears head coach, Matt Eberflus, who took over for Mike Zimmer as the Cowboys defensive coordinator.
As poor as the end of Eberflus' tenure as a head coach was in Chicago, there's little doubt he's qualified to coach defense. He was the Colts DC from 2018-21 before being hired by the Bears.
Matt Eberflus plan for Micah Parsons is nothing new for the Cowboys
As Eberflus faces his next challenge, he's most excited about working with pass rusher Micah Parsons. Eberflus described an exciting new role for Parsons which, actually, should be quite familiar to him...because it's his position.
“Micah is a premium pass rusher,” Eberflus said Tuesday, via Garrett Podell of CBS Sports. “We’re going to use him that way certainly. He’s a heck of an athlete and doing a lot of different things for us on defense. When you have a guy like that, you want to be able to utilize his skill set. As we’re around him more, we’ll be able to see what that skill set is and really take advantage of that.”
There you have it! The Cowboys are going to use Parsons, who has ranked among the league leaders in sacks whenever healthy for a full season, as a pass rusher. That is genius! If you can't detect the sarcasm, I can't do much to help you here.
In the grand scheme of things the Cowboys have bigger fish to fry than Eberflus or Parsons. The latter needs a new contract – and that should not be put on the back-burner – but his production is not an issue. Dallas does need to identify some missing links, especially on offense, and stay healthy in 2025 if they hope to make another playoff run.
Parsons discussed learning under Eberflus, even calling it "challenging" to memorize a new system. Such is life in the NFL, but Eberflus won't be teaching Parsons anything he doesn't already know.