When Dan Quinn left Dallas for the sunny streets of the nation’s capital last winter, the Cowboys had a significant hole to fill on their coaching staff. Quinn had successfully rebuilt the Dallas defense into a force to be reckoned with. Sure, they were prone to massive breakdowns against quality opponents, but overall, they ranked as one of the league’s best, year in and year out.
Complicating matters in the search for Quinn’s replacement was the situation with the rest of the coaching staff. Mike McCarthy was entering the final season on his five-year deal and the rest of his staff was situated to play out the final year of their deals in 2024 as well. The Cowboys wanted their Quinn replacement to join the ranks and similarly play on an expiring deal this season.
As if that wasn’t bad enough the Cowboys made it clear they weren’t interested in being spenders over the offseason either. Whoever came in to fix the defense would have to do so with rookies and the carryovers Dallas had on hand.
It’s safe to say the terms weren’t very attractive and the list of candidates would be somewhat limited as a result. So, when Mike Zimmer’s name came up as the solution, many felt elated such an accomplished coach would even consider the Cowboys, let alone agree to the terms and hop aboard. But that’s what Zimmer did.
Zimmer’s hire didn’t result in parades, but he did receive a fair degree of support from many in Cowboys Nation. As a former coach of the Cowboys, Zimmer had ties to Dallas and as a successful head coach in Minnesota, he had the respect around the league.
Regarded as a disciplinarian, Zimmer looked like he was just what the doctor ordered for the Cowboys. Discipline had long been an issue on the Dallas defense under Quinn, with players freelancing all too often. It resulted in wide swings in run defense and avalanche-like breakdowns against the league’s more nuanced attacks.
Zimmer didn’t just offer discipline and accountability, but he brought a track record of success against offenses like Kyle Shanahan’s. Shanahan offenses have been Dallas’ Achillies heel for years and its growth in popularity has made Shanahan one the NFL’s most prominent coaching trees in the league today.
I didn't bother to make this chart nice, so I'll just lead with how I interpret it:
Further right = Better underlying pass defense results against the Shanahan tree of playcallers since 2017
Further up = Better results against all other offenses (over a much > sample) pic.twitter.com/DLan7zAT3s
— Bureau of Human-Bovine Cultural Affairs (@CowboysStats) February 2, 2024
Seven games into the 2024 season and Zimmer’s defense looks even worse than it was before. While much of the differences can be blamed on injuries to players like DaRon Bland, Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence and Sam Williams, discipline towards run fits appear every bit as bad as they were under Quinn.
Was Zimmer the wrong man for the job?
It’s understandable if hindsight prompts this question. The Cowboys have a historically bad defense and don’t appear to be on the road to recovery. Letting the injury-depleted 49ers roll over them for 30 points in Week 8 showed it doesn’t take offensive All Stars to post All Star-like performances against the Dallas defense.
But asking Zimmer to fix the defense under the Cowboys’ circumstances in 2024 is almost an impossible ask. Dallas horrifically misevaluated their situation at defensive tackle. Even when the players show a knowledge and commitment to the task, they get beaten and bullied out of position.
The ramifications of which aren’t hard to see as linebackers and safeties are regularly met with 300+ pound linemen squaring up with them at the second level, running play after running play.
Zimmer’s playbook itself takes time to digest and perfect. As a coach who likes to disguise and misdirect, he’s more complicated than many defensive coordinators around the league. It’s not something a coach can impart in just seven games and given the chronic issues on the defensive line, it’s probably not something that can be fixed in Dallas without upgrading the talent.
Zimmer was given an impossible task and the results, while worse than any of us imagined, shouldn’t be overly surprising given the circumstances. It’s possible a more vanilla scheme would be easier to digest for players, but Zimmer isn’t teaching rocket science here either. At some point the accountability has to fall onto the players themselves and these Dallas defenders look like they are the biggest problem.
Zimmer’s first seven games back in Dallas have been an unmitigated disaster but he was never supposed to be an instant fix. He’s a culture coach and a disciplinarian who needs the right pieces and viable alternatives to properly implement his defense. Neither time nor alternatives have been afforded the coach.
Zimmer needs blame because at the end of the day he’s responsible for the defense, but he’s not the problem with the defense. The problem is the impossible circumstance and dearth of talent given to him. That falls on a different man.
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