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The search to find a coordinator for the Cowboys defense to replace Dan Quinn, who took over as the head coach of the Commanders last week, has taken quite the odd turn. While Dallas has been looking at former head coaches who could take over the role, one particularly notable former head coach is now said to be interviewing for the job, according to a report from CBS Sports: former Jets and Bills head coach Rex Ryan.
Certainly, Ryan has history as a defensive coach that would make him well qualified for the job. He was a defensive line coach for the Ravens for six years, then spent another four years as Baltimore’s defensive coordinator when the team posted some of the best defenses in the NFL. Ryan went on to put together uninspiring tenures as a head coach with the Jets (from 2009-14) and with the Bills (2015 and 2016).
More recently, Ryan has been an analyst for ESPN, and had some choice words for the Cowboys defense after the playoff loss to the Packers last month, as many were pointing the finger at quarterback Dak Prescott.
“Don’t you dare blame Dak Prescott for this game, no,” Ryan said after the game. “The defense stunk. I don’t care—Dak Prescott, and I get it … it’s Dak Prescott’s fault. The hell it is. This defense stunk. And that’s, why’d they lose, why’d they look like crap? Why’d they get outcoached? I don’t know. But it points to the defense, period.”
Experienced Coach Heading up Cowboys Defense?
Dallas is pretty clearly taking the approach of finding an experienced coach to put in charge of the defense, though the team did interview defensive line coach Aden Durde for the job. Durde has never been a coordinator before.
It was reported on Monday that Dallas had in a pair of experienced coaches to talk about taking over for Quinn. Oddly enough, one was Ron Rivera, the very man that Quinn replaced as head coach in Washington. Rivera has nine years of experience as head coach of the Panthers and another four as head coach of the Commanders.
Rivera was a defensive coordinator for the Bears from 2004-06 and for the Chargers from 2008-2010.
The other candidate was former coach Mike Zimmer, who has a long history with the Cowboys that dates back to the Dave Campo era. Zimmer stayed on as defensive coordinator with the Cowboys when Bill Parcells took over in 2003, and served in the role for the Cowboys from 2000-06 altogether.
Zimmer had stops in Atlanta (2007) and Cincinnati (2008-13) as defensive coordinator before getting the job as head coach of the Vikings in 2014. He coaches Minnesota through the 2021 season.
Mike McCarthy on Thin Ice
Hiring a defensive coordinator with extensive head coaching experience can only make things a bit more uncomfortable for current head coach Mike McCarthy, who is in the final year of his contract and is known to be on the hot seat entering 2024.
McCarthy has gone 42-25 in four years as head coach of the Cowboys, but is only 1-3 in the playoffs. While there has been speculation that the Cowboys coordinator job could be undesirable because of McCarthy’s contract situation, owner Jerry Jones said this is not the case.
“I don’t anticipate that being an issue at all,” Jones said, via the team’s website. “If they take the job, they will be coordinator of the Cowboys. They would be looking at that right there and all that goes with that. If they’re aspiring, they know there’s a chance to be a head coach someplace, because the one that just left is.”
Of course, there is also the chance that McCarthy gets canned and someone like Rivera, Zimmer or Ryan gets bumped up to the head coaching job in Dallas.
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