It's safe to say that the Dallas Cowboys are regretting their choice to hire Christian Parker right about now. Through five weeks, the Cowboys are last in both defensive EPA per play and EPA success rate, and only the Detroit Lions (whose secondary is injured) are allowing more yards on a weekly basis.
The Cowboys knew the risks of hiring a first-time coordinator to call plays, but this is what they wanted after Matt Eberflus: fresh blood. Many of the DC candidates they looked into before hiring Parker had no previous play-calling experience, except for a couple of exceptions Jerry Jones found.
In addition to Parker (who may soon be on the chopping block), this is who Dallas spoke to:
- Daronte Jones (two interviews, landed in Washington)
- Jonathan Gannon (two interviews)
- Jim Leonhard (landed in Buffalo)
- Ephraim Banda
- Demarcus Covington
- Aaron Whitecotton
- Zach Orr
- Charlie Bullen
The only person with previous play-calling experience here was former Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon, who was a Super Bowl-winning DC in Philadelphia. So he ended up in Green Bay, but the Cowboys requested to speak with another experienced coordinator you may not be aware of.
The Cowboys requested to interview Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, but Atlanta blocked the request. While it's no guarantee Jerry Jones actually would've hired Ulbrich, I bet he wishes Dallas would've had the opportunity given what his defense has accomplished this season.
Jeff Ulbrich would have been the perfect defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys
Prior to his stint in Atlanta, Ulbrich spent four seasons as the defensive coordinator under Robert Saleh in Atlanta, and he briefly stepped in as the interim head coach after Saleh was fired. And in that time, he helped Saleh top-five defenses in 2022, 2023, and 2024 despite going 3-9 as interim coach.
Then, in his first season back with the Falcons, Atlanta went from second-to-last in the NFL in sacks the year prior to second, as they logged a franchise-record 59 sacks last season. And thanks to rookies Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr., he was able to bring back a pass rush that was lifeless.
And in hindsight, this hire would only get better. The Falcons lost Walker to a season-ending ACL tear and Pearce to an eight-game suspension following a February arrest, so their pass rush was incredibly shorthanded entering the season, and almost everybody expected regression to follow.
But instead, it's only made the unit better. Atlanta leads the NFL in both pressures and pressure rate, as new additions such as Cameron Thomas, Samson Ebukam, Za'Darius Smith, and Gervon Dexter Sr. have stepped up to ensure they still have a pass-rush despite only rushing four most of the time.
If that's what he was doing with a bunch of rotational edge defenders, there's no telling what Ulbrich would've been able to do with Rashan Gary, Malachi Lawrence, Von Miller, and Donovan Ezeiruaku as his primary pass-rushers--especially with Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark manning the interior.
Jeff Ulbrich is one of the better defensive minds in the NFL, and now he could get head coaching buzz, so it's really a bummer this Cowboys' interview request was blocked when it was because he certainly would've gotten more out of this personnel than Christian Parker has.
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