How did we get here? After an extensive search and an entire offseason spent investing in the defense, it is arguably worse than last season's unit that made the wrong kind of NFL history.
First-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker has nowhere to hide after his unit allowed 419 yards and let an offense led by Jalon Daniels, an undrafted rookie quarterback, convert 7 of 13 third downs.
The defense is failing to execute basic principles, but Jerry Jones is not looking to make a change, telling reporters after the 24-16 loss that it'd be "premature" to strip Parker of play-calling duties and that he still has confidence in the 34-year-old.
That's notable, but don't mistake Jones' conviction for blindness.
“We are still, in my mind, right where we started relative to our defense,” was Jones' true money postgame quote. (h/t Jon Machota, The Athletic).
Jerry Jones' Christian Parker patience won't last forever
That postgame admission says plenty. Cowboys fans will remember a similar timeline playing out last season with Matt Eberflus.
Jones' patience with Eberflus slowly eroded as the season progressed. He went from publicly expressing confidence that his old friend (Flus was a Dallas assistant in the 2010s) would right the ship to dropping increasingly obvious hints that a change could be coming. By the second half of the year, Jones' comments made Eberflus feel like a dead man walking.
Parker obviously isn't there yet. But Jones openly admitting that the defense is no better off than it was at the start of the season feels like the first crack in the foundation. If the results don't change soon, history suggests his patience won't last forever.
The question is, if the defense does not improve once the likes of Jalen Thompson, Cobie Durant, DeMarvion Overshown, and P.J. Locke return from injury, will Jones make an in-season change?
Jones broke old habits by hiring Parker. Historically, they have hired coordinators who've had previous head coaching experience or, at the very least, had skins on the wall in the league. Look at their previous three DCs: Dan Quinn, Mike Zimmer, and Eberflus were all former head coaches with more than 10 years of experience in the NFL.
The 83-year-old went out on a limb with Parker, but it hardly felt like a gamble at the time. You would have been hard-pressed to find a member of the media who didn't peg it as a home-run hire. Parker was viewed as a potential franchise-changer for a defense that desperately needed one.
That perception extended well beyond Dallas. Parker had been identified in league circles as a rising star who was destined to become a defensive coordinator and, eventually, a head coach. It felt like a matter of when, not if.
In fact, the conversation after Dallas hired Parker wasn't whether he would succeed. It was how long the Cowboys would be able to keep him. There was legitimate speculation that Parker could be one-and-done in Dallas if he turned around the defense and parlayed that success into a head-coaching job.
Four games in, that conversation feels like a year ago.
Dallas can't afford to let Christian Parker grow into a competent DC
Jones is in an unenviable spot with Parker. He's completely out of his depth right now. The floor is nowhere near as high as everyone thought. He may grow into a good defensive coordinator a year or two from now, but the Cowboys aren't operating on that timeline.
They have a 33-year-old quarterback playing at the peak of his powers. They can't keep setting great Prescott seasons on fire because of an inept defense.
Five years ago, the Cowboys could have afforded to let Parker take his lumps and grow into the job. They don't have that luxury anymore. Every wasted season now is another year burned from the shrinking window of Prescott's prime.
There's still a lot of season to go. Maybe things get better, and Dallas wins what's shaping up to be a really bad division. But if things continue on the current trajectory, we might be talking about the Cowboys being in the market for a new DC for the fourth year in a row.
Jerry's patience won't last forever.
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