Dallas Cowboys’ Stephen Jones discusses building coaching staff, free agency and more
While the offseason has technically been underway for nearly a month for the Dallas Cowboys, the work hasn’t stopped for executive vice president Stephen Jones and his front office staff.
The first task on their agenda was to build a coaching staff after the parting of ways with head coach Mike McCarthy and his assistants earlier this month. That began with the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer as head coach on Jan. 24. Just a few days later, the Cowboys moved quickly on finalizing two hires with Matt Eberflus as defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen.
“Both those guys are outstanding coaches in this league,” Stephen Jones said on Wednesday at the Senior Bowl practices. “Obviously, Eberflus is recognized as one of the best defensive minds in the league. I think [Schottenheimer] thought it was a great fit, and to be able to bring him back and his defensive expertise. I think if you look it up, you’re going to see that his defenses are always at the tops in terms of where his defenses rank, whether it’s total yards, whether it’s [points] allowed, whether it’s turnovers, all the things that are key to winning football games.”
“He checks those boxes and to be able to get him to be a partner with Coach Schottenheimer, I think is huge for the Dallas Cowboys and our future.”
Eberflus’ last stop as a head coach in Chicago did not pan out as he was fired after three lackluster seasons. But having the head coaching experience under his belt is a plus to add to the Schottenheimer staff in Jones’ eyes in order to help the first-time head coach navigate his new landscape.
“Of course, Coach Schottenheimer, being a first-time head coach, I think that’s all the more important,” Jones said. “And he’s had his bumps and he knows the pros that comes with it, and he also knows the challenges. And I think he’ll be there at the end of the day for Coach Schottenheimer and I think he’ll do a great job for him.”
Sorensen arrives from the San Francisco 49ers where he was the defensive coordinator in 2024. His experience in multiple places on various coaching staffs is what led to the excitement around bringing him in.
“And then Nick Sorensen, he’s versatile,” Jones said. “He’s been a great special teams coach, but he’s also been a great defensive coordinator in this league. He’s a coach of men and that’s the type of people you look for, guys who can lead men, get their play style to where we need to have it to win championships. He’s done that. He’s proven, he’s played in this league. He’ll have much, much respect in our locker room and I think he’ll bring a lot to the table.”
Jones, Schottenheimer and the rest of the front office are working to finalize an entire coaching staff in the coming days as they will meet with multiple prospective assistants to build the rest of who Schottenheimer will work with in his first year on the job.
“I don’t think Coach Schottenheimer has been asleep since he’s taken the job, but we’re all involved in the process and we want to have great coaches to coach these men,” Jones said. “You want to have guys who lead men, so these hires are very important. It’ll be a great complement to what Coach Schottenheimer brings to the table and we think he’s going to have a great staff.”
Jones indicated that a hire for offensive coordinator could be coming soon. While Schottenheimer will be the one calling plays, he will be seeking out someone that can marry his pass concepts with the run game in an effective way.
“The key this day and time is to marry that run game to the pass game and Coach Schottenheimer is all over that,” Jones said. “He wants to find a guy who’s going to be able to marry his philosophies to the run game. We want to be able to run the ball. Everybody says that we want to run the ball and we want to stop the run, and certainly that’s what we want to do.”
“That’s what great championship football teams do, and I know Coach Schottenheimer wants to do that. I think it’s real important that we find in this hire a coach that’s going to be outstanding in the run game area.”
In other topics, Jones said that there haven’t been any conversations with veteran guard Zack Martin as he prepares to hit free agency while also contemplating retirement from the NFL.
Moving forward, not only will the Cowboys be busy sorting out what to do when free agency hits in mid-March, but they will also have multiple players that are entering contract years in 2025 including defensive end Micah Parsons, cornerback DaRon Bland, kicker Brandon Aubrey, tight end Jake Ferguson and more.
Once the coaching staff is in place, it will be then that the front office moves toward that next task on the agenda.
“Obviously, we had to get this coaching situation sorted and it was our number-one priority because it had to happen ASAP,” he said. “And then you gather the team together and then you start to prioritize the likes of a Micah Parsons or a DaRon Bland or whoever else that may be.”
Could the Cowboys take a different approach to their long-standing tendency to not be a fierce competitor in the free agency market? Some comments from Monday’s press conference introducing Brian Schottenheimer as head coach may lead some to believe that the front office could throw some investments around, but that will remain to be seen.
Regardless, the front office knows exactly what that talking point is all about.
“We’ll take a look at everything because we’ve got to change the narrative and we understand that.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 2:17 PM.
