FRISCO, Texas – It's not often that you see defensive coordinators in the NFL jump to the special teams' side of the ball, but that's exactly what Nick Sorensen will be doing as the new Cowboys special teams coach.
In Sorensen, the Cowboys are getting a veteran coach with experience on defense and special teams in his past, serving as the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers last season. From a personnel standpoint, Sorensen is focused on making sure his players understand what their role is.
"I think in the end, it's all football, and I think that's the fun part," Sorensen said. "I think the challenge is not just the personnel, but it's also you've got to find ways to make it make sense to the player to where it can kind of translate to them."
The good news for Sorensen is he's joining a special teams unit that understands the importance of their role, and he's learning that quickly through initial conversations with his players. Now, it's about taking what his players learn from the third phase of the game and translating it to the other two.
"Just talking to the core players who have played here, they understand it," Sorensen said. "And that's number one, and then two, how can you equate that to what they have to actually do in the game and be able to transfer that to making plays whether it's blocking or tackling or just making those plays."
He's also going to coach a unit that has some of the best players in the league at their respective positions, including All-Pro kicker Brandon Aubrey.
"Oh yea, absolutely," Sorensen said when asked if getting one of the best kickers in the league was part of his thought process on the Cowboys job. "And returner, and punter. Loaded. What a group of guys here that have really done it at a high level for a number of years, it was a big bonus."
"He's a huge weapon, obviously."
Aubrey has credited a lot of his success in the kicking department to long snapper Trent Sieg and punter/holder Bryan Anger, who both go into the 2025 offseason as unrestricted free agents. Sorensen is well aware of how well the three work together and wants to bring back Sieg and Anger for 2025.
"I think it's a big deal, Trent [Sieg] and Bryan [Anger] have done a great job, they've worked their butts off, I haven't found anyone who says anything bad about them," Sorensen said. "They've really, really got a lot of respect for those guys, and you know, it is a business, and we'll see what happens, obviously we'd love to have them back and hopefully we can."
Sorensen will also have the fastest man in the NFL at his disposal as his kick returner in Pro Bowler KaVontae Turpin, who he got familiar with from the opposite sideline during his time with the 49ers defensive staff.
"He's a scary guy to go against," Sorensen said. "I remember even going against him these last couple years it was talked about in the team meetings. Even being a part of defense, everyone knows that he's a threat and he strikes that fear in the offense too but as far as the kicking game, he's a threat, big time."
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer worked with Sorensen from 2018-2020 with the Seattle Seahawks and 2021 with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Sorensen isn't surprised to see that Schottenheimer hasn't changed from when they last worked together.
"He's always been like this, he's always been really smart, cared about people, had great energy, so what he's bringing is who he is," Sorensen said. "I've always felt like he'd be a great head coach and being a part of it for his first time is exciting and I have no doubt he's going to do a heck of a job."
Schottenheimer's assembly of his staff has included a mixture of youth and experience, and Sorensen believes that the equilibrium between the two will end up working out in the long run.
"We all want to win, and you've got that good mixture of guys that have done it a long time, guys that are new, guys from college, I think that's awesome," Sorensen said. "You need to have that balance, it's really cool."
Sorensen has only been in Dallas for a week, but the early message from Schottenheimer to his assistants has been clear: everything revolves around the players, and this staff needs to be able to get the most out of them.
"It's about the players and it's driven by the players, being connected to them and being a family," Sorensen said. "Just bringing that energy every single day and doing everything we can to work hard and win games because in the end that's really what it's about."
