The Dallas Cowboys are apparently purging their defensive staff. After word has surfaced the club has parted ways with defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, it appears more coaches are headed to Linked In in the very near future. Defensive line coach Jim Tomsula came to Dallas with a tremendous reputation, but he was unable to get anymore out of the Cowboys’ group than what was expected.
In many ways, they regressed. Dallas attempted to run a hybrid 30-40 front, which took their premiere defensive player DeMarcus Lawrence out of his three-point comfort zone. Free agent signings Dontari Poe and Everson Griffen were huge disappointments and Dallas failed to develop fifth-round rookie Bradlee Anae to the point he was inactive for almost every game of the year. In the end, the Jones family had seen enough without wanting a repeat and Tomsula has been let go.
The Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy released a statement on both firings.
Tomsula has been an NFL coach since 2007, spending eight years as defensive line coach with the San Francisco 49ers where he was present for the early years of Aldon Smith’s career. He was a head coach for the 49ers for one season in 2015 and in 2017 joined Washington to coach their defensive line. For three years he’s dealt with numerous high-pedigree draft picks and had that group humming, but could not replicate the feat with Dallas’ group.
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