Getty Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy
The Dallas Cowboys took a trip down memory lane on Thursday, February 8, hiring former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer to run their defense for a second time in his NFL career.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network first reported the news via social media on Thursday night.
“The #Cowboys are expected to hire Mike Zimmer as their defensive coordinator, per sources,” Pelissero wrote. “Zimmer, 67, is the third-winningest coach in #Vikings history and long respected for his defensive prowess. A big hire for Dallas, where Zimmer previously coached from 1994-2006.”
Zimmer takes over for former Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who left Dallas following the team’s disappointing playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers in January to assume the head coaching position with the Washington Commanders.
Mike Zimmer Spent More Than 2 Decades as DC or HC in NFL, Including 6-Year Stint as Cowboys Coordinator
GettyFormer Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer.
Zimmer spent eight years leading the Vikings between 2014-21. The team earned a regular-season record of 72-56-1 over that span and made the playoffs three times, earning a postseason mark of 2-3, per Pro Football Reference.
Zimmer ran the Cowboys defense for years between 2000-06, then held the same job with the Atlanta Falcons in 2007 and the Cincinnati Bengals from 2008-13 before joining the Vikings.
Minnesota fired Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman following an 8-9 regular-season campaign in 2021. The Vikings hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell as replacements, who led the franchise to an NFC North Division title in 2022 but struggled to a 7-10 record last season after QB Kirk Cousins suffered an Achilles rupture roughly halfway through the campaign.
Zimmer has been out of the NFL for the past two seasons, though he hasn’t been out of football. Deion Sanders hired Zimmer as an analyst at Jackson State in 2022, where the former Cowboys cornerback and 2011 Hall of Fame inductee was serving as head coach at the time.
Mike Zimmer Left Vikings Organization on Strange Terms
GettyFormer Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer is the new defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.
Zimmer left Minnesota as one of the most successful coaches in franchise history, but the descent toward his departure was lined by awkwardness that occasionally bordered on the bizarre.
A former player criticized Zimmer for promoting his son to co-defensive coordinator in 2019, accusing the coach of nepotism. In December 2022, a deep dive by ESPN’s Tim Keown into the new Vikings culture under O’Connell revealed that star wide receiver Justin Jefferson had never visited Zimmer’s office during two years together in Minnesota.
Zimmer also offered players an off-putting speech late in his final season at the helm.
“After a key loss in the final weeks of the season, [Zimmer’s] tone started to shift,” Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune reported in January 2022. “Sources said the coach gave a … presentation about all the bad things that happened to him in his eight years with the Vikings (Adrian Peterson’s suspension in 2014, Teddy Bridgewater’s knee injury in 2016 and so on), leaving players dumbfounded.”
Not soon after, Minnesota dismissed Zimmer, as the relationship had clearly run its course. The former Vikings coach now finds himself back in a prominent role on arguably the most famous team in the NFL with an opportunity to write a new chapter in his long career in professional football.