The Cowboys’ linebacker corps is in a period of flux. Micah Parsons is now the unequivocal alpha dog of the unit after a rookie season for the ages, but there’s an awful lot of uncertainty around him. Leighton Vander Esch and Keanu Neal, both 2021 starters, are poised to enter free agency, second-year man Jabril Cox is coming off a major injury, and Francis Bernard and Luke Gifford have only been minor contributors to this point.
Now Dallas looks to be beefing up their coaching staff with a former Cowboys linebacker. And no, it’s not Sean Lee. The Cowboys are expected to hire Joe Bowden to the coaching staff, according to various reports.
Bowden played nine seasons in the NFL- eight with the Oilers and Titans during that franchise’s relocation and name change, and his final season of 2000 with Dallas. He played in all 16 games for the Cowboys that year.
Bowden, a Dallas native who played high school ball in Mesquite, has served on several coaching staffs since hanging up his cleats. He spent four years as a Rams assistant linebackers coach and one year working with inside linebackers at San Francisco. He’s been back in the college ranks since 2017, coaching ‘backers with Missouri Baptist and Tennessee State.
With Parsons and Cox still on the rise and the Cowboys expected to add more young linebackers via the draft, the 51-year-old Bowden will have plenty of raw material to work with as he rejoins the pro game.
But it’s not a given that Bowden’s role in Dallas would be as a linebackers coach. Technically, the Cowboys already have Scott McCurley in that position. Could head coach Mike McCarthy and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn be creating a new title for Bowden? Or could there be some other shuffling happening with the recent departure of special teams assistant Matt Daniels to Minnesota?
Like much of what else we know about the rest of the linebackers at The Star, it remains to be seen.
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