After the departure of defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who became the head coach of the Washington Commanders, the Dallas Cowboys have turned to Mike Zimmer as their new defensive coordinator. And as he works on installing his defense, he had a pretty clear message for his players.
During a recent press conference, Mike Zimmer explained that it’s a little bit different taking over a strong and talented defense that performed well last season, but he also made it very clear that he still expects players to learn his system and do things “the way I want it done.”
“It’s like I told the defense the first day I got here. I said, this is a different deal for me. Usually when I come in, the defense is not good. You know? They’re pretty darn good,” Zimmer said according to ESPN. “So it’s a little different for me because we have to advance some of the things they were doing good and try to improve on the things they weren’t doing as good. But for the most part they’ve played pretty darn good, and we’re going to try to accentuate that and maybe be a little bit more technique-oriented, maybe a little bit more disciplined. Some of those things.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to do it the way I want it done. I know if you try to come in and do somebody else’s thing, it just doesn’t go well.”
The Cowboys had a top-10 defense in the league last season, allowing just 20.2 points per game. We’ll have to see how they do this season under Zimmer.
[ESPN]
