Cowboys players handed Matt Eberflus one last slap in the face on his way out

The Dallas Cowboys had one of the best offenses in the league in 2025, but the team finished the year with a 7-9-1 record and missed the playoffs.

The reason why is that the defense was abysmal. While Dallas didn’t blame all of its defensive issues on former defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, the team did move on from the coach this offseason.

Recently, Cowboys players sent Eberflus a parting gift, and it’s not the kind he’ll be excited to receive. In the NFL’s annual franchise report cards, voted on by the players of the respective team, Dallas’ defensive coordinator position received the letter grade C.

While that’s just an average grade, it stood out next to the rest of the team’s grades, because players had a much better assessment of the rest of the franchise.

NFLPA survey reveals Dallas Cowboys players didn’t think highly of Matt Eberflus

Of the 18 categories, Cowboys players only graded five of them below a B. Those five were Home Game Field (C), Training Room (D), Training Staff (C), Team Travel (C), and Defensive Coordinator, receiving the aforementioned C. Notably, defensive coordinator is the only one of those five that points directly to a coach, and that coach is Eberflus.

Brian Schottenheimer, as head coach, received an A-, and offensive coordinator Klayton Adams was graded an A. Even the position coaches received a B grade, and the strength coaches received an A- across the board.

It was Eberflus who was identified by the players as the weak link of the coaching staff.

That's certainly a big reason why he’s no longer with the team, and Dallas' defensive numbers hammer that home, as they ranked 30th with 377 yards allowed per game, and dead last with 30.1 points per game allowed, per ESPN.

Between that product being on the field and players also seemingly not wanting to go to bat for Eberflus, Dallas had no choice but to move on from the defensive coordinator.

Before Eberflus was fired, Jerry Jones expressed that continuity on the coaching staff was important, but the franchise still knew that making a change had to happen. Now, the Cowboys are hoping that the excitement surrounding new DC Christian Parker will raise both the floor and the ceiling of one of the worst defenses in franchise history.

It's actually kind of surprising that Eberflus didn't receive a harsher grade, but a C sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the coaching staff. He was simply that wretched.