The Dallas Cowboys took a chance on former Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus when they hired him to be their defensive coordinator for the 2025 season. Perhaps Eberflus is a solid defensive mind overwhelmed by the daunting tasks that come with overseeing everyone as a head coach.
Instead, Eberflus was so bad that he turned Dallas' defense into one of the worst units in the league. That should have been enough to bring an end to his NFL coaching career purely based on merit, but the San Francisco 49ers helped him make a fairly lateral move and join their squad.
Despite already hiring former Atlanta Falcons head coach and successful Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to oversee that unit, they also brought in Eberflus as "assistant head coach of defense" to replace Gus Bradley. Somehow, Eberflus got another NFL job after that nightmare season.
Cowboys fans will laugh at 49ers hiring Matt Eberflus as assistant coach
Eberflus' best achievements as a defensive coach over the last decade or so include making the Colts a slightly above-average unit before his Chicago hire and turning the Bears from a laughable defense to a below-average one. What he did last season in Dallas was so wretched that it should have disqualified him from a high-level position in 2026.
Between an overreliance on a very basic zone coverage that was easy for quarterbacks to read, a lack of creative blitz packages, and an insistence on starting players that were not worth a starting spot in the NFL, Eberflus proved to be much worse than Mike Zimmer.
What made this season even worse is the fact that it came during a resurgent campaign from Dak Prescott, Javonte Williams' career year, and George Pickens' breakout. All of that was for nothing, and Eberflus is the prime suspect as to why it went wrong.
Kyle Shanahan clearly likes coaches who play zone-heavy schemes, as that explains his infatuation with Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans as well as his dissatisfaction with Steve Wilks. However, bringing in Eberflus to oversee Morris seems like a recipe for disaster if the former is given influence.
Eberflus' name will forever be tarnished in the eyes of Cowboys fans who were justifiably upset with such a lifeless performance ruining one of Prescott's finest seasons. With Christian Parker installed as his replacement, precisely no one in this fanbase is sad to see him go.