It was a roller coaster ride that ended in disaster for the Dallas Cowboys last season. Well, it was mostly on defense, but even Matt Eberflus has one former Cowboys head coach backing him up -- kind of.
That was Jason Garrett, the former Cowboys head coach from 2010-2019. He was the interim in 2010 after Wade Phillips was fired, but took the full-time job in 2011. He's now an analyst for Sunday Night Football on NBC, and he took the time to visit with Shan Sheriff and RJ Choppy on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas.
Garrett said there were so many resources used on the offensive side of the ball that it really didn't matter who the coach was on defense. It all started when the Cowboys lost their All-Pro pass rusher, Micah Parsons, and there was no going back after that.
"For whatever reason, we move on from (Micah Parsons), and you get the two first-round picks, and then becomes the rebuilding off of that. So, I think the defense was reeling for how that whole thing started and how the resources seemed to be allocated to the offensive side of the ball and not much to defense last year."
Jason Garrett indicates the 2025 defense was in rebuild mode no matter what
There's no doubt the emphasis was all defense this offseason and in the draft. The Cowboys' major upgrade on that side of the ball makes them a legitimate football team to do something special.
Everything that could've gone wrong did go wrong for Eberflus. Nobody could rush the passer or stop receivers. The Cowboys gave up 35 receiving TDs last season, second-highest to the New York Jets. If you're any defense in the NFL, you don't want to be in the vicinity of the Jets.
Then again, we can't blame Eberflus for Jones having a contract dispute with Parsons. We can't blame Eberflus for his pass rusher getting traded. He had the impression that Parsons was going to make his job easier, and it ended up drowning him without a true backup plan.
Actually, anybody who would've inherited that defense was going to be equally criticized. Eberflus just so happened to be stuck in the middle.
Jones did have a backup plan in place, but it took until the end of the trade deadline when they traded for four-time Pro Bowler Quinnen Williams.
Now, Parker is relying heavily on veterans like Williams, Kenny Clark and Rashan Gary. They're already setting the tone for how practice should look. After all, Williams and Clark were the two guys Jerry Jones wanted to stop the run. He got them, and then he got to rebuild the rest of his front seven and his secondary.
Even if fans feel sour toward Eberflus, which they have a right to be, Garrett has a point here. The defense was rebuilding, no matter how we want to look back on it. Did they give up the most points in a season in franchise history and waste another prime year for Dak Prescott? Yes.
The 2025 season was one to wash away, but was it a necessary sacrifice to get where the Cowboys are today? Maybe.
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