Skip Bayless: Dallas Cowboys hiring Mike Zimmer ‘is not exciting to me’

“For me, speaking as a fan, Mike Zimmer for as sound as he is and that’s the operative word, he is as sound as it gets,” Bayless said on ‘Undisputed’ Tuesday. “He’s not exciting to me. He’s not charismatic to me. It’s meat and potatoes. It might be filet mignon and Yukon gold potatoes, but it’s meat and potatoes. And to me, I know him. I covered him when he was the DB coach, he can be just as dull as a Tuesday night. … This locker room still lacks a fire starter, an igniter, an emotional leadership type personality that I thought Dan Quinn was at times…

“Dan Quinn would put his hat on backwards and he had a motion to him. He had a pop to his personality that I liked. And now, we don’t have any of that on any front because Mike McCarthy is a bump on a sideline log. And Dak [Prescott] has charisma about him, he’s a great guy and I think he’s well liked. But he doesn’t have a fire starter leadership intangible to him in the locker room.”

Mike Zimmer on returning to the Cowboys as DC: ‘Excited and honored’

Despite Zimmer’s all business-like nature, he has been highly successful as a coach in the NFL. After his first stint in Dallas came to an end, he spent one season as the defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, before serving as the defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals from 2008-13.

The job he did in Cincinnati eventually landed him the Minnesota Vikings’ head coaching job. Zimmer went 72-56 in eight seasons in Minnesota, making three playoff appearances. The Vikings fired him after the 2021 season. He spent the 2022 season as an analyst/consultant for Jackson State and held the same title in 2023 at Colorado.

18 years later from his first stop in Dallas, Zimmer is “excited and honored” to be back where it started.

“I’m excited and honored to be back with a great organization,” Zimmer told Ed Werder of ESPN. “I’m thrilled to work with Mike McCarthy, for whom I have had a ton of respect in our NFC North days, and to do anything I can do to help the Joneses and the Cowboys.”