Balance is important in leadership, and hopefully for the Cowboys, Mike Zimmer’s addition as defensive coordinator can restore some to the Dallas’ dynamic. By all accounts, the Cowboys roster loves Mike McCarthy. The four-year head coach has endeared himself to the locker room as a leader and as a friend.
Too many tough guys and the troops may revolt. Too many softies and the troops may never take leadership seriously. This good cop/bad cop routine works in crimefighting, battle, parenthood and even coaching.
Dallas’ former defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, had a similar role on the team. Quinn was often seen as one of the guys. He had a knack for relating to players and communicating on a player level. There’s nothing wrong with this style of coaching. Being labeled a “players coach” is actually a compliment in most cases. It’s just when there’s too many players’ coaches and not enough disciplinarians, things have a tendency to get sloppy.
Sloppy and undisciplined are two adjectives that accurately describe the Cowboys’ defense from 2023. Players routinely abandoned their assignments. They missed their run fits and botched their coverage. They sporadically reverted to hero ball, playing run-and-chase rather than execute the actual assignment. It led to a lot of momentum-driven results where one week they would look like the best defense in the NFL, and the next week they resembled the worst defense in the history of mankind.
The addition of Zimmer should change that.
In many ways, Zimmer is the opposite of the man he replaces in Dallas. He’s not dapping players up in practice or even offering up a welcoming smile. Based on his history, he’s not trying to relate or be a friend either. Zimmer is an old school disciplinarian. He’s going to bark orders. He’s going to teach, correct, and hold players accountable.
McCarthy, who resides on the Quinn side of the spectrum, could use a tough authority figure in his locker room. With any luck, some of that toughness could trickle down to the other corners of the team.
There’s no instruction manual explaining the best way to effectively coach NFL players because every player is different, and every situation is different. But throughout his time in Dallas and later Minnesota, Zimmer has effectively coached all brands and personality types and found success with most of them. Much like with the great Bill Parcells, players didn’t always like Zimmer while they played for him, but they certainly appreciated him after the fact.
Zimmer is bringing a culture change to Dallas. It’s something this team has been missing for some time now and should be the perfect complement to McCarthy’s player friendly style.
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