FRISCO, Texas – Let me ask this:
What were you doing if having just turned 34 years old one month ago today?
Me, was in New Orleans working for the Dallas Times Herald covering Super Bowl XX. Had just returned on the Thursday before the big game (Jan. 23, 1986) after having gone to Columbia, Miss., Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton's hometown, to do a piece on where he had grown up before making his way to Jackson State and becoming the Bears' first-round draft choice in 1975. The Cowboys selected Randy White with the second pick that year and then Thomas Henderson at No. 18 while the Bears, at No. 4, took the NFL's next career leading rusher to be.
Had the good fortune of running into Walter's high school football coach, Charles Boston, brother of 1960 Olympic gold-medal-winning long jumper Ralph Boston (first to break the 27-foot mark). Boston said Payton's football prowess that first year of school integration in 1970 did more to ease race relations than anything, having led the team to an 8-2 record.
Not bad for my 34.
But no way even close to being capable of doing what this 34-year-old has done, the man the Cowboys just hired to be their fourth defensive coordinator in a four-year span, ending an exhaustive search on Thursday probably to the surprise of many. Not them.
Meet Christian Parker, one of nine candidates on the team's search list and the last of the three brought into The Star for second, in-person interviews. Doesn't appear they allowed the 34-year-old Parker to leave the building, finalizing terms of the contract by early Thursday afternoon, exactly one month from today having just turned 34.
Funny the timing. And should have known better, having planned on Thursday to get a head start on this Friday column before Arctic Blast 2026 strikes the DFW area tonight. Thought would delve into the importance of the Cowboys selecting a cornerback with one of their two first-round NFL Draft picks.
Look, no more Trevon Diggs headache. Gone. No more Kaiir Elam. Gone. No more Jourdan Lewis. Long gone. No more Nahshon Wright. Patrolling right cornerback for the NFC North champion and first-round playoff-winning Chicago Bears.
On top of all that, who really knows if the third-round projection on Shavon Revel will pan out, though seems promising after returning from tearing his ACL at East Carolina in 2024. And most of all, and this occurred to me after unearthing that two-week-old quote from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who pointed out the importance of "feet" when speaking on the lone experienced cornerback on the roster, DaRon Bland, now having surgically replaced the broken screw inserted into his foot to facilitate faster recovery from the fractured fifth metatarsal he suffered before the start 2024 season with another screw.
As Jerry was quoted in my Wednesday "Mick Shots" column on Bland having a second foot surgery, "I don't like the sound of that. You have to watch feet, relative to the future."
All of which means, to me, finding a walk-in starting cornerback either by trade, in free agency or with one of those two first-round draft choices must be labeled high priority.
Now, understand the Cowboys were biding their time on hiring the next defensive coordinator; that is unless someone just knocked their socks off prior to this weekend's conference championship games. The 34-year-old knocked their socks off.
Not only that, with this need for acquiring and developing cornerback help, Parker just happens to have made his NFL bones as a secondary/cornerback assistant, first with the Denver Broncos (2021-23) and lastly for the past two years with the Eagles as also their defensive pass game coordinator. So he was a member of Philadelphia's Super Bowl championship coaching staff in 2024.
Imagine that.
Parker was part of the Broncos staff helping to raise corner Patrick Surtain II, an eventual NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2024, and safety Justin Simmons to All-Pro level. He then was part of the Eagles staff helping to raise two Pro Bowl and All-Pro corners Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean over the past two seasons
Bet the Cowboys can't wait for Parker to get his hands on the likes of Revel, Caelen Carson, Reddy Steward, Josh Butler and Trikweze Bridges.
And sure sounds as if – and makes sense because so many of the Cowboys defensive assistants were Matt Eberflus guys – the next item of business for Parker and Brian Schottenheimer is to reconstruct the defensive assistant staff. Hey, when you interview for one of these coordinator jobs, better come prepared to answer just who you might like to bring in to be a part of your staff.
From what early impressions of Parker there are, he's a pretty sharp cookie. One of these guys from a defensive standpoint with an engaging personality and loaded with people-person characteristics – right up Schotty's alley – far beyond his 34 years. Those he worked for and those he coached can't say enough good things about him. And you can sure bet the Cowboys asked, knowing he coached on Sean Payton's Denver staff in 2023 under defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, but also for one season in Denver (2021) when Vic Fangio was head coach. And it was Fangio who brough Parker to the Eagles in 2024 as the passing game coordinator.
As for another connection, former Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine (2018-20) helped bring Parker into the NFL as a quality control coach (2019-20), and Schottenheimer crossed paths with Pettine with the New York Jets when those two were serving as offensive and defensive coordinators (2009-11), respectively.
But how about this from Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni when asked recently about Parker upon his arrival in 2024.
"Christian Parker is just highly respected around the league," Sirianni said last year in training camp. "And I think to myself – I don't know exactly how old Christian Parker is, exact age – but I don't know if you would have asked around the league, a bunch of people, when I was 25 or 26, people would have been like, 'Who's that?'
"So to understand that he's had this type of respect and this type of name because of this product that he's put on the field and his coaching that he's done is pretty impressive. Obviously, Vic had worked with him, and he's been as advertised. I'm really excited about Christian, and I know our defensive backs are really excited about him as well."
And this from DeJean, one of the excited ones after two seasons.
"He's poured a lot into me and Q, too, ever since we got her," DeJean recently said. "And I appreciate him for that. And not everybody notices him and he doesn't get the recognition that I think he should. Him and coach (Joe) Kasper, what those guys mean to us in the DB room and how they coach, the intensity they bring, the passion they have for the game, it means a lot to us and doesn't go unnoticed."
Well, consider Parker noticed. And if you need numbers to do the talking, try on some of this. His secondary has been a strength of the Eagles top-five scoring defense in each of the past two seasons. The Eagles ranked first in passing yards allowed in 2024, and the 22 passing touchdowns ranked sixth best. Then in 2025 the NFC East champs finished eighth in passing yards against and first in passing touchdowns allowed (14).
Sure, understand the Eagles talent up front had something to do with those sparkling numbers. But again, remember it takes all 11 on the field to be coordinated. We've seen firsthand the past two seasons what happens when it's not.
Good grief.
Now time to roll the sleeves up and get to work. Time to put a staff together. Time to informally meet his players. Time to analyze what went wrong last year with this Cowboys defense, as if that wasn't part of his interview process here at The Star. Time to implement the system he proposed to one and all during his interview. Time to teach and communicate.
And after that, time to make the defensive calls on game day for the first time in the 14th year of his coaching career.
At all of 34.
