On the first day NFL teams are allowed to contact assistant coaches from other teams about head coaching vacancies, the Cowboys got two requests about their coordinators.
It should come as no surprise that Jacksonville has requested to interview both Kellen Moore and Dan Quinn for its head coach position.
Currently, only Jacksonville and Las Vegas have open jobs with only an interim head coach. There will likely be more openings at the end of the regular season.
Under the old NFL rule, teams had to wait until the season was over to interview assistant coaches on other teams. That meant that coaches on teams that went deep into the playoffs were not allowed to interview until the season was over.
This year, assistants can now interview on Week 17 or Week 18, but virtually only. The ability to interview in person takes place in mid-January.
The Jaguars fired Urban Meyer after just 13 games with the team.
Moore has interviewed before, meeting with the Eagles last season. He also had interest in taking the head coach job at Boise State, his alma mater, before deciding to stay in Dallas.
Quinn has obviously been a head coach with the Falcons, leading to the Super Bowl in 2016.
On Monday, both coaches were asked about the possibility of being a head coach in the future. "Obviously, if the opportunity shows up, that would be awesome. But we've got to take care of this thing first," Moore said. "We've got to make sure we're still rolling, and this is obviously focus No. 1. We've got to put everything into this thing, and we've got a great opportunity ahead of ourselves."
Quinn echoed that sentiment, stating that his focus has always been on fixing the Cowboys' defense first.
"I wasn't coming here to look what my next job would be," he said. "I wanted to come in here and have a blast and hopefully kick ass and make an impact."
Quinn has been able to do just that as the Cowboys' defense has made a huge turnaround from 2020, where they allowed more points (473) than any defense in franchise history. Now, they rank 19th in total defense, but first in the NFL with 33 takeaways.
