Cowboys hiring of Whitecotton as DL coach, Eberflus as DC offers some direction for rest of offseason

Matt Eberflus and Andrew Whitecotton are great starts for the Cowboys defense.

The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff underneath first year head coach Brian Schottenheimer has come together quickly, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. Given the fact Schottenheimer will call the offensive plays himself, the Cowboys had the most work to do defensively after just one season of Mike Zimmer. They have put in the work with the hiring of Matt Eberflus as DC, passing game coordinator Andre Curtis, LB coach Dave Borgonzi, and DL coach Aaron Whitecotton. Returning Eberflus to Dallas after a previous stint as the Cowboys linebackers coach from 2011-17 has been noted as one of the biggest wins of the offseason so far. The hiring of position coaches rarely generates the same amount of buzz as a coordinator, but second to Eberflus in terms of excitement level has been Whitecotton.

There is a lot to like about the résumé Whitecotton has built as a young coach, the more experienced coaches he’s learned under in previous stints with the Jaguars, Bills, 49ers, and Jets, and most importantly some of the players he will have to work with on the Cowboys roster.

The addition of Aaron Whitecotton brought some fanfare, and for good reason. The new defensive line coach is still fairly young, as he started his coaching career in 2013 as a defensive quality control coach with the Jaguars. As part of the inaugural staff of head coach Gus Bradley, formerly the first defensive coordinator of the Pete Carroll era in Seattle, Whitecotton was learning from an esteemed mind.

After three years with the Jaguars, Whitecotton was promoted to assistant defensive line coach. However, Bradley was fired midseason, and Whitecotton was forced to find a new home. He joined the Bills on Sean McDermott’s inaugural staff, reuniting with former Jaguars defensive coordinator Bob Babich and assisting with the defensive line.

After three seasons, he took the same position with the 49ers under defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who had coached linebackers in Jacksonville under Bradley and Babich. Saleh left to be the Jets head coach one year later, and he brought Whitecotton as his defensive line coach, the first time Whitecotton had led a position group.

Over the next four years, Whitecotton was instrumental in the rapid development of several star defensive linemen, including Bryce Huff, John Franklin-Myers, Will McDonald IV, Jermaine Johnson, and Quinnen Williams. Whitecotton also spent three of those seasons working with Carl Lawson, currently a pending free agent for the Cowboys who has already expressed a desire to return.

While the state of the roster as a whole will remain incredibly fluid for the foreseeable future, the Cowboys forming a cohesion between Whitecotton and Eberflus to put a strong focus on their defensive front seven is one of the most overall encouraging moves of the offseason from a true football perspective. It is the first sign of the Cowboys being adept enough to go with the strengths and upcoming talent on their roster. As opposed to hammering the importance of running the ball on offense as they only way they see major improvement, despite still not having an established back under contract, the Cowboys are embracing what they do have and looking to maximize it.

Not only is Mike Zimmer and his specialty in coaching defensive backs gone, but so too is former secondary coach and assistant head coach Al Harris. Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland only played together in one game in 2024. Rookie Caelen Carson was thrown into action far too soon, and still has a long way to go in proving he’ll be ready for a bigger role in a new scheme. Jourdan Lewis was the most consistent bright spot at the cornerback position all year, but will turn 30 just before the start of next season and is a free agent.

The Cowboys would be foolish to still be trying to pigeonhole themselves into embracing the defensive backfield as the strength of their defense moving forward. Not without making some seriously uncharacteristic moves in free agency that no fan should be holding their breath for.

The defensive front and linebacking corps that Eberflus and Whitecotton will get their hands on looks much more promising, especially when considering both coach’s track records of maximizing talent.

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Eberflus will have second-year player Marist Liufau, Damone Clark, and at times Micah Parsons at his disposal at linebacker to focus on. Eric Kendricks and Nick Vigil are pending free agents that almost perfectly fit the profile of the types of players Dallas would love to have back as well. Hopefully, Eberflus gets the chance to also work with the insanely promising DeMarvion Overshown at some point in 2025 as well.

After coaching the likes of Will McDonald, Quinnen Williams, Bryce Huff, and Quinton Jefferson with the Jets, Whitecotton will now get to work in the trenches with Marshawn Kneeland, Mazi Smith, Sam Williams, and also Micah Parsons. Just like Kendricks and Vigil, Carl Lawson is a name to keep an eye on as a returning free agent (having played for Whitecotton in New York) and so too in a much bigger way is Osa Odighizuwa. Chauncey Golston had a career year taking advantage of every rep along the defensive line, and will be an interesting free agent to see the market for. DeMarcus Lawrence is also a player the Cowboys would likely have a hard time saying no to if he wishes to return on a veteran deal and not end his career missing the last 13 games of 2024.

Mazi Smith took significant strides in his second season, a season that was mainly about re-learning the position and his true role after being misfit in Dan Quinn’s scheme previously. Sam Williams will be coming off a training camp ACL and MCL tear that robbed him of a season poised to see a much larger role as a pass rusher, but the opportunities should still be there for the former second-round pick. This is certainly still an EDGE group that could use a further infusion of talent, but it is also one of the only spots on the current roster that feels close enough to game-ready to not raise alarm bells about a glaring need for starting level talent. Dallas won a primetime game on the road against a playoff team last year where Golston and pending ERFA Tyrus Wheat led them in defensive end snaps against the Steelers.

Defensive tackle may remain a perpetual need until the heat death of the universe in Dallas, but with the arrow pointing up for Smith and if Odighizuwa is re-signed, there is at least very solid potential at the top of the depth chart here.

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Another reason the Whitecotton hire has generated buzz within the fanbase is, perhaps somewhat unfortunately, the level of understanding towards the Cowboys’ general dysfunction from the top down being at an all-time high. This team can talk all they want about their burning desire to be known for championship glory again, but until proven otherwise, they are known for nearly three decades of playoff failures whether they like it or not.

Whitecotton’s most recent four years of coaching experience comes with a team mired in much of the exact same front office dysfunction in the Jets. If the Cowboys can be fairly described as a rudderless ship, the Jets boat may not even float anymore. Just about the only consistently good thing for the Jets in any recent history has been their defensive line showing up on a weekly basis, looking prepared, and doing their best to keep the team in games. It shouldn’t take too long to determine how much credit Whitecotton deserves for this, should he carry over this same skill set to the Cowboys.

In a slightly different sense, the Cowboys may also see the same in Eberflus embracing the opportunity to be a hands-on, nitty-gritty football coach again. Eberflus had a ton on his plate as the head coach of a Chicago Bears team with wild expectations in a brutally hard division with a rookie quarterback, and was in over his head trying to keep the entire team together until he was fired after losing on Thanksgiving Day. With the national media, local media, and fans all still fascinated by the Schottenheimer hire, the spotlight should remain on this first time head coach for quite a while – hopefully long enough to allow the assistants to focus first and foremost on actually coaching football. This is something Eberflus thrives at and has mostly made a career out of doing, previously being a fan favorite when working with the likes of Sean Lee last time in Dallas.

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We have talked a lot here about the Cowboys needing to learn from their recent failures, and find ways to back up their talk of what they desire to be on the field. If one of the defining, lasting memories of the Mike McCarthy era was the former coach’s constant desire to get better in the trenches and be a tougher football team, the team did not do well enough to sustain this image between the lines. This early in the offseason, some of the signs are at least in place that the Cowboys are learning how to do this defensively, both with coaches that have walked the walk and players being put in the best position to win.

When it comes time to look at the makeup of the roster the Cowboys will actually take into training camp and the preseason, it should come as no surprise if the front seven on defense is circled as the area they need to lean on the most for identity and a path to winning games, thanks to the foundation already being laid by Eberflus and Whitecotton.