DALLAS — Recently hired head coach of the Dallas Cowboys Brian Schottenheimer has made his first big hire. The Cowboys are bringing in former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus to call the signals on defense.
Eberflus was fired by the Bears after a Thanksgiving loss to the Detroit Lions this season. The Bears went 14-32 through nearly three seasons with Eberflus as the head coach, with a best finish of 7-10 in 2023.
The defense, however, wasn't the main culprit for the Bears' struggles under Eberflus. He improved the unit from a league worst in points allowed his first season to the No. 13 ranked defense this past season.
Eberflus also has experience in Dallas. He was a defensive assistant for Dallas from 2011 to 2017. He also coached as the defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts from 2018 to 2021, where they improved from one of the worst defenses in the league to a top 10 defense in multiple categories.
With talented members of the defense like Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs and Daron Bland, Dallas is poised to be a strong defensive team for the near future. Eberflus typically runs a 4-3, with a heavy dose of zone defense, but he’s prone to switch it up with aggressive blitz packages.