MOBILE, Ala. – As Stephen Jones and the Cowboys brass evaluate NFL draft prospects in Mobile at the Senior Bowl, he's also been busy working to fill out the rest of Brian Schottenheimer's staff.
Strides have been made in that department, starting on Tuesday when the Cowboys brought a familiar face back to Dallas as their defensive coordinator in Matt Eberflus. Eberflus, who coached in Dallas from 2011-2017.
"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 yards allowed, whether it's turnovers, all the things that are key to winning football games." Jones said.
"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."
Prior to rejoining the Cowboys, Eberflus was the head coach for the Chicago Bears for three seasons. Not only does he bring defensive prowess with him to Dallas, but he also brings head coaching experience, something that can benefit first-time head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
"I think that helps… I think that's all the more important," Jones said. "And he's had his bumps and he knows the pros and the kind, all the good that comes with it, and he also knows the challenges. And I think he'll be there for at the end of the day for Coach Schottenheimer and I think he'll do a great job for him."
On the defensive side of the football, Jones is a believer in how Eberflus views the players that the Cowboys have on their roster and sees the vision of how his defense will operate.
"Matt sees a defense that's going to play with a lot of energy," Jones said. "It can be a tough word, but in our game that's what it's all about, is play with violence and do what we need to do on the defensive side of the ball to win football games."
"He sees a vision for our great players, whether it's a Micah, whether it's a Trevon Diggs, whether it's DaRon Bland, whether it's Mazi [Smith], he sees all the upside there and how that's going to fit into what he, at the end of the day, what he does."
The Cowboys also made a decision on their special teams coordinator, hiring Nick Sorensen, who was the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers in 2024. Sorensen coached special teams in Seattle and Jacksonville at earlier stops in his career, and now returns to the third phase of the game in Dallas.
"He's versatile…He's been a great special teams coach, but he's also been a great defensive coordinator in this league," Jones said. "He's a coacher 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 in terms of what he can bring to the Dallas Cowboys."
Next on the docket: Hiring an offensive coordinator, and that's been an ongoing process.
"We're working on that as we speak," Jones said. "Certainly, we all know who the mastermind is of our offense is going to be, We've made that real clear, it's Coach Schottenheimer, but he's certainly going to find an OC that certainly compliments what he does."
Jones and the Cowboys have already begun interviews with candidates for the position and have a clear outline for what they're looking for in Schottenheimer's offensive counterpart.
"I think most of these guys always want to check the run game box," Jones said. "Most of these guys are very, if you will, fluent when it comes to throwing the ball around the yard. But you always want a great offensive line coach, a great running game coordinator. And of course, the key this day and time is to marry that run game to the pass game."
The run game is an area that the Cowboys struggled at certain points with during the 2024 season. With Brian Schottenheimer at the helm, Jones wants it to be a large part of their offensive identity.
"We want to be able to run the ball," Jones said. "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."
The third major move Jones and the organization made while in Mobile was signing vice president of player personnel Will McClay to a five-year extension. All in all, Jones feels the steps that the team has taken in the past week have helped them become aligned from top to bottom as an organization.
"I think we're fully aligned, "Jones said. "You have to be, I mean that's key to me to winning championships. Will has to have the same vision that coach Schottenheimer has and the front office has to have that same vision."
"Obviously we hadn't gotten it right in quite some time because at the end of the day, our goals, what our fans want, which is we want to win playoff games, we want to win championships, we want to win Super Bowls."
Dallas' formula to try and achieve that goal includes a mixture of continuity and change, and Jones knows that they haven't found the right balance between the two just yet.
"We want continuity, but we also want change. And obviously what we've done hadn't gotten the job done. We accept that. We accept that our fans can have frustration that we hadn't gotten that job done and you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect something to change."
"We need to change, but at the same time, we've got a lot of things right, and so there's a lot of continuity we want to keep as well. So the combination of continuity but also change is why Coach Schottenheimer is our coach."
