‘We All Got To Own’: Stephen Jones Addresses Dallas Cowboys’ Four Defensive Coordinators In Four Years

FRISCO, Texas — Stephen Jones said the Dallas Cowboys having four defensive coordinators in four years “is not good,” speaking Monday on 105.3 The Fan’s “K&C Masterpiece” a day after a 33-30 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The Cowboys COO and executive vice president said the front office has to look at how it can do that better.

Dallas is 3-5. Jones said ownership of that record runs through the whole organization.

“This is an organizational thing, top to bottom,” Jones said. “We all got to own where we are, which is three and five, and we all know that we have to be better.”

Jerry Jones is the Cowboys’ owner and general manager. Stephen Jones said he and his father are the ones who sign off on the scouting staff, the coaching staff, and the roster.

“I mean, we just constantly look at that,” Jones explained. “No one wants to win more than Jerry and myself. And certainly we’re the ones who put our scouting department together and put our coaching department together and put our approval on the personnel that we bring through here and make decisions on who gets paid and who doesn’t get paid in a salary cap era. So we’re right there with anybody, and we have to always take a look at where we can be better.”

Stephen Jones On Dallas Cowboys’ Defensive Coordinator Turnover

Dan Quinn ran the Cowboys’ defense from 2021 to 2023 before leaving to become the Washington Commanders’ head coach. Mike Zimmer was next, coordinating the defense in 2024. Matt Eberflus held the job in 2025, when Dallas allowed an NFL-high 30.1 points per game, and the Cowboys fired him Jan. 6.

Dallas hired Christian Parker on Jan. 23. Parker, 34, had spent the previous two seasons as the Philadelphia Eagles’ pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach, and this is his first job as a coordinator. Jones said the right chemistry on the staff and the roster is what the front office has to get right.

“I think that it’s just putting together the right chemistry on a football team, whether it’s your coaching staff, whether it’s the players that we’re putting with this staff,” Jones said. “We constantly look at that and make sure we’re putting this thing together the right way. I do think we’ve got a great scouting department led by Will McClay back there that has done a great job with personnel.”

“I think probably one thing that’s frustrating, you never want to have the turnover that we’ve had, if you can help it,” Jones added. “I mean, for us to have had four defensive coordinators in four years is not good. I mean, you don’t get consistency that way. And we certainly have to look at how we can do that better.”

Jones On Moving On From Mike Zimmer, Matt Eberflus

On Sunday, Arizona scored 30 points in the second half, 20 of them in the fourth quarter. When Jones described how the Cowboys weigh changes, he pointed to the long tenures of past head coaches. Jason Garrett coached Dallas from 2010 to 2019, and Mike McCarthy coached from 2020 to 2024.

“Well, we’ve always looked at that, whether it’s the tenure of Jason Garrett, which was long, the tenure of Mike McCarthy, which was full contract,” Jones said. “At the same time, we’ve been willing to make changes when we felt it was the wrong decision. The last three years, the defensive coordinator, obviously Dan left because he had a great opportunity and he had been there three or four years and was doing a great job. And then, unfortunately, we rolled through Coach Zimmer and Coach Eberflus. We didn’t feel like those were the right choices, and we made the decision.”

“So we can certainly balance that and make that call, and obviously hard decisions for us because both Coach Zimmer and Coach Eberflus have been through here and were people that we thought a lot of and obviously had a lot of respect for, and a lot of that went into our decision-making with Coach Zimmer and Coach Eberflus,” Jones detailed. “But at the same time, we made a very difficult decision to move on from that after a year.”

Dallas visits the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Nov. 8, at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon CT on FOX.