Matt Eberflus turns down Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator job

In a move that was certainly made with his long term future in mind, former linebackers coach Matt Eberflus turns down Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator position.

The Dallas Cowboys have once again missed out on a talented young assistant coach on the rise. According to ESPN Insider Todd Archer, the Cowboys made a formal offer to former linebackers coach Matt Eberflus to make him their defensive coordinator in an attempt to retain his services. However, Eberflus ultimately turned down the offer because he “did not want to step on the toes” of current defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli.

The promotion of Eberflus would have meant bumping Marinelli to the assistant head coach position while handing control of the defense over to Eberflus. It is now widely speculated that Eberflus will be heading to Indianapolis to serve as the Colts defensive coordinator with current New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels expected to take over as their next head coach.

While the Cowboys have made a lot of changes among their positional coaching staff, the loss of Eberflus will certainly be the hardest loss to overcome with his fingerprints all over the current structure of the Cowboys defense. More importantly, he played a very large part in the development of some of the young talent the Cowboys currently have in their linebacker and secondary corps while taking over as passing game coordinator in 2017.

The voluntary departure of Eberflus for a better opportunity was a decision that was made a while ago immediately after owner Jerry Jones decided to bring back head coach Jason Garrett. Right now the Cowboys are a very unstable situation that no promising young coach will want to attach themselves to.

With the decision to retain the main hierarchy of the Cowboys coaching staff consisting of head coach Jason Garrett and coordinators Scott Linehan and Rod Marinelli all while either dismissing or not renewing the contracts of majority of their positional coaches, Jones has essentially pushed all his chips into the center of the table on Garrett and company. With essentially an entire new positional coaching staff, there are no more scapegoats if the Cowboys fail to make the playoffs again next season.

Garrett and staff are basically on a one year deal going into next year with no long term security being afforded to anyone without some sustained playoff success to show for. If you are a young coach on the rise like Eberflus, why would you want to attach your future to a coach like Jason Garret who will be coaching for his job next year? Instead he will be getting a fresh start with a new head coach all while securing his foreseeable future.

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Eberflus decided to take a gamble on himself last year when he declined the Cowboys offer at a contract extension, knowing he was going to have offers coming in the next year or two to run his own defense. The Cowboys could be a sinking ship right now with their current coaching staff and Eberflus may have jumped ship at the right time; a decision that will certainly pay off for him in the long run.