FRISCO, Texas – Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones said on 105.3 The Fan Tuesday morning that defensive coordinator Christian Parker will move from the sidelines to the coaches' booth moving forward to call Dallas' defense.
Parker's move upstairs is the latest change the Cowboys are making following their Week 5 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to fall to 2-3. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer vowed there would be changes going forward, with this being one of them.
Last season, former Cowboys DC Matt Eberflus also made the move from the sidelines to the coaching booth ahead of the final three games of the regular season in 2025. Parker's move comes 10 weeks earlier.
Another one of the changes that the Cowboys are making moving forward comes in the form of an addition on the coaching staff. On Monday, Schottenheimer announced that the team was hiring former Browns head coach and long-time NFL defensive coordinator Mike Pettine as a senior defensive assistant.
"This is something we would have done [earlier] had Mike been available," Jones said of the hire. "It fits so well because of the knowledge of the scheme, and the time he's had with Schottenheimer, the time he's had with Parker. Frankly, he's coached directly three of our players."
When Pettine was the defensive coordinator for the Packers from 2018-2020, he hired Parker for his first NFL coaching job as a defensive quality control coach in 2019. Pettine and Schottenheimer both worked on the Jets' staff from 2009-11, Pettine as the DC and Schottenheimer as the OC under Rex Ryan.
Jones sees the decision to hire Pettine in his senior role is one that will help the entirety of the defense.
"It's one that is commonly used, it's one that you get to take advantage of, yet not be directly involved with positions and has more to do with the scheme than it does with coaching direct technique." Jones said.
It's also one that will help Parker, a first-time coordinator, who has had some ups and downs to start his tenure in Dallas. The Cowboys currently rank 31st in the NFL in yards allowed per game (395.4). Jones said that hiring Pettine isn't because he feels that Parker is "overwhelmed" in his new role.
"No, I don't think that's the right word," Jones said when asked if he thought Parker was overwhelmed. "I think he's covering a lot of ground… We've changed out scheme, we've changed out for all practical purposes all of the coaching, we've changed out a great number of players, and those are not all rookie players, they're veteran players. So you put all that together and you've got some work to do in putting that all in place relative to the challenges you have."
