Report: Cowboys’ Mike Zimmer says ‘all options are open’ for next move

From @ToddBrock24f7: Head coach in Dallas? Staying on as DC for the new guy? Switching teams? Retirement? The 68-year-old could be key to the Cowboys’ decisions.

Twenty-four hours after announcing a parting of the ways with head coach Mike McCarthy, the Cowboys front office has a very big decision to make in the very near future.

So, too, it seems, does Mike Zimmer.

The 68-year-old who returned to Dallas eleven months ago for a second stint as the team’s defensive coordinator, saw his contract expire along with McCarthy’s this week. And while the rollercoaster of a season saw Zimmer and his unit go through some serious up and downs, he says he’s not sure what’s waiting for him around this latest curve.

According to a Tuesday report from NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, Zimmer says that “all options are open.”

And with someone of Zimmer’s breadth of experience, that really does cover a gamut of possibilities.

Zimmer, of course, has been a head coach before, leading the Vikings for eight seasons from 2014 through 2021 and taking the team to the playoffs three times. That tenure, combined with his 13 years (1994-2006) spent on the Dallas staff the first time around- and not to mention his familiarity with how Jerry Jones runs the organization- would seem to make him a leading candidate to take the reins now.

It could even be argued that the Joneses viewed Zimmer as a potential succession-plan hire when they brought him back to Dallas last February, having already revealed then they would not extend McCarthy’s deal past the lame-duck 2024 campaign.

“I really enjoy coaching,” Zimmer reportedly told Pelissero… but that doesn’t have to mean as the head coach. After all, being a coordinator allows the jobholder to keep his head down and lock in on his side of the ball, bury himself in the Xs and Os, focus on teaching technique and finer points.

It’s entirely possible that Zimmer has no interest in doing the daily press conferences and sit-down media appearances that come part and parcel with a head coaching job… and then there’s the white-hot spotlight that’s thrown in as a bonus when you’re head coach of the most visible sports franchise on earth.

Zimmer’s Dallas defense started the season rough, perhaps taking longer than expected to come around to his vision and preferred style of play. Overall, they finished the year ranked 31st in points allowed per game, 29th in yards allowed per play, 24th in opponents’ third-down conversion rate, 28th in opponents’ fourth-down conversion rate, and a league-worst 32nd in opponents’ red-zone conversion rate.

But for all of those wholly awful numbers, there were encouraging signs as the season went on. And it must be noted that the Dallas defense was hit hard with injuries, to some of the unit’s top players and at key positions. Zimmer was implementing his brand-new schemes with a significant handicap.

How well would he be able to pick where he left off under a new head coach content to leave him in place? It’s not hard to envision the Joneses working to keep Zimmer on staff as DC to help balance out a younger, more inexperienced offensive-minded head coach.

Like, say, Kellen Moore? Remember that’s exactly what they did with Moore himself as offensive coordinator when they hired McCarthy. And although that arranged marriage didn’t end well, Moore theoretically wouldn’t be looking over his shoulder at a coordinator who’s gunning for his job, nor would he be itching to run that coordinator’s unit for him. Maybe a Moore-Zimmer union gives both men exactly they want (though it likely leaves popular defensive backs coach/assistant head coach Al Harris feeling passed over).

Or Deion Sanders? Though it seems unlikely for a number of reasons, Sanders’s name has popped up and an informal conversation has apparently already taken place between Jones and Sanders. Don’t forget, too, that Sanders and Zimmer are close, with the latter serving as an analyst-slash-consultant of sorts to Coach Prime at both Jackson State and Colorado. An official partnership in Dallas would likely be a very easy sell to both men if all the other details (and there are many) of a Sanders hire were to somehow be resolved.

Or Jason Witten? Again, there are myriad reasons why the former tight end is a very dark horse to suddenly be handed the throne in Dallas, but the rumor is out there. If Jones were to push to bring his prodigal tight end back home in the top spot, giving him an established defensive coordinator who also has head coach experience in his back pocket to share would be a real plus. And Zimmer was on staff for Witten’s first four years with the Cowboys; it’s not like they’re total strangers.

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Of course, Zimmer could get invitations to interview with other clubs, too. His one year back in Dallas may have been enough to remind the league that his defenses tend to ring up sacks (the Cowboys ranked third in 2024), apply QB pressure at a high rate (No. 1), and log takeaways (12th).

Then again, maybe Zimmer decided he’s had enough of the NFL circus entirely. He is reportedly considering just retiring from football. He’s spoken candidly about how long the season was and how his return to the grind may have been more difficult than he anticipated. Plus, he did just get engaged shortly after the first of the year; maybe gameplanning for the likes of Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts just doesn’t hold the same appeal.

As Zimmer himself said, all options are open.

But the clock is already ticking- for everyone involved- on choosing one of them.

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