The Dallas Cowboys saw enough of Matt Eberflus in one season to say enough is enough.
The Cowboys fired Eberflus on Tuesday, January 6, after the Cowboys finished 30th in the NFL in team defense and tanked one of the best offensive seasons in franchise history and wasted a season in which quarterback Dak Prescott played as good as anyone in the NFL.
“Sources: The Cowboys are firing DC Matt Eberflus,” NFL Insider Jordan Schultz wrote on X. “During his lone season in Dallas, Eberflus’ unit ranked last in several categories — including 3rd down, red zone and passing defense.”
“Sources: Dallas Cowboys fired defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on X. “Cowboys now will be going on their fourth different defensive coordinator in four seasons.”
It’s the second consecutive year in which Eberflus has been fired. In the 2024 season, the Chicago Bears fired Eberflus as head coach after a 4-8 start to the season. Eberflus went 14-32 in 3 seasons as the Bears head coach.
His replacement, Ben Johnson, led the Bears to an 11-6 record and the No. 2 seed in the NFC Playoffs this season.
The Cowboys went 7-9-1 in 2025 and were eliminated from the playoffs with 3 games remaining in the regular season.
“I will never understand hiring a coach that was so bad he was fired mid season from another team,” Grady Knows Ball wrote on his official X account.
Cowboys Traded Best Defensive Player Before Season
Because it’s the Cowboys, someone was eventually going to have to take the blame who really had nothing to do with the failures of the team — in this case it’s the hapless Eberflus, who was an easy mark after getting fired by the Bears last season.
The real culprit behind the Cowboys’ defensive failures was do-it-all owner/general manager Jerry Jones, who traded away one of the best defensive players in NFL history in his prime when he traded edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers right before the season.
While the Cowboys later made deals for New York Jets All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson at the trade deadline, that did little to make up for the absence of Parsons, one of just 2 players in NFL history with at least 12.0 sacks in each of their first 5 NFL seasons.
Social Media Celebrates After Eberflus Fired
The drumbeat for Eberflus to be fired seemed to start in a season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and only got louder during the season, which coincidentally was also the first year for head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
Eberflus finally getting canned seemed to be a cause for celebration online.
It was backed up by facts like this: “The Cowboys allowed 30.1 points per game in 2025, the most in the NFL this season and the most by the Cowboys since 1960 (their first season in existence),” Senior NFL Researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno wrote on X.
“The Cowboys finally did the thing you do after you’ve admitted the plan failed,” Cowboys podcaster AeroGant wrote on X. “Firing Matt Eberflus isn’t bold — it’s overdue. Four DCs in four years isn’t instability; it’s an organization slowly realizing it’s been lying to itself.”
Cowboys Make Final Decision on Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus