Mike Zimmer is the new man calling plays for the Dallas Cowboys defense in 2024.
I feel as this hasn't been talked about nearly enough, I don't agree with a lot of things Jerry Jones does, but I like this hire.
Zimmer has been around the game of football for a number of years, he even once called the plays on defense for Dallas back in the early 2000s.
He's Here To Coach
It may sound funny, but Mike Zimmer is a coach first.
A difference between he and Dan Quinn is that, Quinn was known to want to be your friend first.
He was a good coach in his own right, but cared more about being your buddy than your coach. That will change with Zimmer.
Around 10 days ago, Mike Zimmer talked about that exact thing.
“The ones that wanna be great, they wanna be coached,” Zimmer said.
I loved when Dallas brought Dan Quinn back last year, I think it was a move that would be benefit them, yet like the offense, struggled against above average football teams.
Fresh Start
Appearing on the Stephen A. Smith Show, Micah Parsons touched on his excitement to player under a no-nonsense coach like Zimmer.
Zimmer isn't here to be your friend. Cowboys great Darren Woodson even warned players that Zimmer might rub them the wrong way at first.
This is the type of change this team needs. Someone who is going to hold these players accountable. Not just praise them when they do well against lesser opponents.
I love Micah Parons as a Dallas Cowboy, but man I wish he would stop talking so much!
He is on track to be one of the greatest defenders of all time, and he cares more about being in the media than anything it seems right now.
Type Of Defense
Zimmer has ran a 4-3 defense for the majority of his career, but was the defense coordinator under Bill Parcells and ran a 3-4 scheme, so he has shown versatility.
Zimmer has proven over the years that his defense works, and Dallas has more talent than any of his teams he had when he was the Vikings head coach.
The Vikings' defense was top-12 in points allowed in each of Zimmer's first six seasons with the team, including a top-five finish in 2015, '17, and '19.
Numbers don't lie.
This team needs to figure out a way to be more physically at the line of scrimmage, teams hammers them running it right at them.
Dan Quinn had absolutely no answer for it and it ultimately was a reason why the Packers sent them off in the playoffs.
We won't see as many splash plays on defense as we did the last couple of years with Quinn,
Reason being is, Zimmer just likes to keep you out of the end zone and make offenses work.
He's going to sit back and make them think about how to attack them, and doing so should result in a lot of punts.
I just want to be able to watch this team and have confidence that they can get a stop when needed, get a score when needed, be disciplined enough to not beat themselves.
Mike Zimmer should help with some of that, but Mike McCarthy and Jerry Jones are still around.
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