Jerry Jones explains why Cowboys fired DC Matt Eberflus

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones understood that he needed to move on from defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus due to the team’s struggles on the defensive side of the ball. On Tuesday, Jones released a statement that explained why he fired Eberflus after one season.

“Having known Matt Eberflus for decades now, we have tremendous respect and appreciation for him as a coach and a person,” Jerry Jones said. “After reviewing and discussing the results of our defensive performance this season, though, it was clear that change is needed. This is the first step in that process, and we will continue that review as it applies to reaching our much higher expectations.”

Dallas finished the 2025 season with a 7-9-1 record, and a big reason for that was the lack of production on defense. The Cowboys allowed 511 points, and it’s the first time in franchise history that they surrendered over 500 points in a season.

Before the Cowboys lost to the New York Giants in the final game of the season on Sunday, Jones pointed out that Matt Eberflus shouldn’t be blamed for all the issues the Cowboys have on defense. “Don’t blame this all on [Matt Eberflus],” Jones said, per Tommy Yarrish of Dallas Cowboys.com. “This took five or six years to get here. This is a product of several years of combinations of philosophies. A lot of people in that sense, and you can broaden who has influenced where we are the most. But I can make a case for you that we haven’t had satisfactory defense for five or six years.”

Matt Eberflus takes responsibility for the Cowboys’ issues on defense

Last week, Eberflus took responsibility for the defense not living up to expectations. “Ownership and accountability is right with me,” Eberflus said. “I’m the defensive coordinator. It’s always that. So, if there’s things that need to be improved, it falls on the coach, and it falls on the assistant coaches and working with the players, making sure we’re doing the best we can to put them in position. I take full accountability for that.”

Eberflus joined the Cowboys last offseason after spending nearly three seasons as the head coach of the Chicago Bears. He had previous experience with the Cowboys, as he was on the team’s coaching staff from 2011 to 2017, working as the linebackers coach and passing game coordinator.”

We’ll have more on this story shortly.