Cowboys bolster defensive staff with fresh talent, including Georgia assistant and a coach with a familiar Texas lineage.
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys under head coach Brian Schottenheimer and new defensive coordinator Christian Parker continue to execute a new vision when it comes to assembling the 2026 coaching staff.
Following a "housecleaning" in recent days after Parker's hire, the Cowboys have found replacements for some of their "disinvited'' assistant coaches from the failed 2025 season in which Dallas fielded the NFL's worst defense.
The latest names: Chidera Uzo-Diribe is the outside linebackers coach; Marcus Dixon is the new defensive line coach; Derrick Ansley is the pass-game coordinator (we believe); Ryan Smith is the new cornerbacks coach.
And now another interesting name, as Robert Muschamp comes aboard.
Muschamp has recently worked as a low-level Chargers assistant and worked at Georgia previously.
Oh, and he happens to be the nephew of Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator Will Muschamp.
Chidera Uzo-Diribe is 33 as he comes over from Georgia, too.
Former Arizona Cardinals cornerbacks coach Ryan Smith, 32, who will assume the same job with the Cowboys under Parker, is part of a youth movement here. ...
As Ansley, who was the Packers pass-game coordinator, is a relative old-timer now.
Ansley, 44, worked at Alabama under Nick Saban and once served as the Chargers defensive coordinator) before joining the Packers as pass game coordinator in 2024 to present.
Dixon is 41 and comes here after helping the Vikings to enough sacks to be No. 2 in the NFL in that area in the last two years.
Also recently, the Cowboys have interviewed Zach Orr a second time, now inquiring about him as a linebackers coach instead of defensive coordinator. Orr, 33, is the former defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens under now-fired coach John Harbaugh.
There is a youthful flavor to what is being assembled under Parker, 34, as the Cowboys seem serious about putting Schottenheimer and company in a position to make major changes to this defense.