Cowboys’ Christian Parker hire looks worse than ever after Jonathan Gannon revenge game

You could not find a football junkie who didn't love the Christian Parker hire. It marked an overdue philosophical shift for a front office that had spent years hiring defensive coordinators with previous head coaching experience.

Better yet, Parker was a Vic Fangio disciple who was widely viewed as one of the league's brightest young defensive minds and a future head coach.

Through six weeks, Parker has not led the turnaround that was promised. While the defense had its best showing against the Packers, it's still a bottom-five unit in every meaningful metric.

On the opposite sideline, Jonathan Gannon had Dak Prescott in hell. As of Monday morning, Green Bay is now fifth in the NFL in defensive EPA per play, per Sūmer Sports. Micah Parsons is still on IR, by the way.

Now is as good a time as any to remind folks that Gannon took a second interview for the Cowboys' DC opening before Schottenheimer settled on Parker.

Whether or not Gannon viewed Sunday night as a revenge game, you have to think he had the matchup circled for a long time. Either way, the decision to hire Parker over Gannon looks like a huge whiff in hindsight.

Cowboys would love to have Jonathan Gannon coaching their defense right now

It's funny how the NFL works. While the Cowboys were applauded for poaching Parker from Philly, Green Bay was largely scorned for appointing Gannon, who had just been fired as the head coach of the Cardinals after compiling a 15-36 record over three seasons and seemingly losing the locker room.

There weren't many Cowboys fans — if any — banging the table for Gannon. In fact, comparisons were made to Matt Eberflus, particularly over concerns about whether Gannon had the personality to motivate his players and connect with the locker room.

Perhaps the Eberflus experiment clouded everyone's judgment. In hindsight, way too much stock was put in those concerns.

Gannon had already built a long track record of coaching successful defenses, most notably in Philadelphia. The Eagles fielded one of the NFL's best defenses during their run to the Super Bowl in 2022, and he had Arizona punching above its weight class for most of his tenure.

One variable the Cowboys clearly overlooked was Gannon's history against Dak Prescott. There's a misconception that Vic Fangio gives Prescott the most fits of any defensive play-caller, when Gannon is actually the Prescott Stopper. Sunday night hammered that home.

For whatever reason, Prescott has not been able to figure out Gannon's coverages. The Cowboys played Arizona three times during Gannon's tenure. They never scored more than 22 points and averaged 18.3 points in those matchups.

Why didn't the Cowboys want a DC who's had Prescott's number?

Just last season, Prescott was pressured 15 times and sacked five times in a 27-17 loss to Gannon's Cardinals. The Dallas offense managed just 13 points on Sunday. And they were limited to seven points in the first three quarters before Green Bay softened its looks in garbage time.

I don't know about you, but I'd be happy with a DC who's capable of shutting down a quarterback of Prescott's caliber. Gannon just did exactly that, holding one of the league's most productive offenses to 13 points.

That's the kind of game-planning Dallas desperately needs right now. Gannon had a plan for one of the game's best quarterbacks, and his players executed it despite being without Micah Parsons, Edgerrin Cooper, and Javon Hargrave.

Meanwhile, the defense Dallas entrusted to Parker continues to make life easy on opposing quarterbacks. That contrast is becoming harder to ignore by the week.

While Parker's group grew into the game and turned in a really nice second half, they still allowed over 100 passing yards on Green Bay's first possession. Not a typo. And they allowed the Packers to convert their first seven third downs, including two conversions of 13 yards. Only one of those conversions was less than five yards. It's still a bad defense.

The defense ultimately played well enough to win the game, but let's not mistake incremental progress for evidence that Parker has figured this thing out. Come back to me a month from now, and maybe, maybe, we can have a conversation about the D turning a corner.

Gannon just showed the Cowboys firsthand what they passed on, while Parker is still searching for answers with a defense that has badly underachieved.

Right now, choosing the 34-year-old over Gannon is aging worse by the week.

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