Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reveals an unexpected timeline for a major coaching decision on Matt Eberflus.
FRISCO The 2025 season has mercifully come to an end for the underperforming Dallas Cowboys, which triggers the next "season'' of sorts ...
Major decisions to be made about the players and the people who coach them.
A centerpiece of this next chapter for the 7-9-1 Cowboys is the fate of defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, who just supervised one of the worst units in franchise history - and the 32nd-ranked group in the NFL in 2025.
The numbers create a mountain of failure, topped by Dallas allowing an absurd 30.1 points per game. (For perspective: The best defenses this year, Seattle and Houston, allowed about 17 points per game.)
I can envision nothing that Eberflus could say to his bosses in his upcoming "performance review'' that should save his job.
Nor do I see why an extended period of deliberation is needed.
What say you, Jerry Jones? Is there a timeline on the Eberflus decision?
“No, just go through the process,” the owner said - before offering up a timeline.
“Once you go through the process, you know what you want to do,'' he continued. "I don’t think we’ll rush any of these decisions. You got to go through the process and do the work. It’s not easy, it’s tedious. We’re going to be working just as hard this week and over the next 10 to 12 days to get through all of that stuff so we feel good about everything.''
To be fair, Jones didn't specifically say the Eberflus decision would take "10 to 12 days.'' It's more accurate to note that here inside The Star on Monday, the coaches will conduct players' "exit interviews.''
So maybe on Tuesday, the Joneses get around to what seems to me like an easy call - the dismissal of Eberflus?
“It’s inaccurate to put this on the evaluation of Eberflus,'' Jones said. "It really is. I don’t want it to sound like it’s as simple as evaluating Eberflus. It’s much broader than that.”
Of course it is - and Jones is creating a red herring by suggesting otherwise. There are myriad reasons for Dallas' failure. But Eberflus' work is prominent among those.
Why would it take 12 days to see that when we've already seen it over the course of the last 18 weeks?
I can theorize that one reason for Jones to "not rush'' is due to the theater of it all. (Jerry likes his team to be "above the fold'' in the news, right?) Think back: There was a massive and unnecessary delay in parting with head coach Jason Garrett six years ago, and there was the same awkward delay a year ago with Mike McCarthy.
On this same subject, also from a year ago: I broke the story of Jones' fake head-coaching interview with Deion Sanders, a ruse desiged to garner Cowboys headlines and to get Sanders a raise at Colorado.
Both those "benefits'' occurred. But at the same time, Jerry never bothered interviewing real candidates, names ranging from Ben Johnson to Bill Belichick.
Pussy-foot around again and defensive coordinator candidates might be off the shelf. (As it happens, three of the head coaches who just got fired on Monday - Arizona's Jonathan Gannon, Atlanta's Raheem Morris and Las Vegas' Pete Carroll, a long-time Schotty mentor - are former defensive coordinators.)
Eberflus' story here is about silliness and stubbornness.
The move from the sideline to the coach's booth? Silly "deck-chair-shuffling on the Titanic.''
His strange season-closing quote that in review of this season, "I wouldn't do anything differently'? Stubbornness to a fault.
(Speaking of stubbornness: I fear one reason Jerry is slow to fire 'Flus is related to this coach having been hand-picked by the owner - and the owner's reluctance to concede to a terrible mistake.)
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer said the process of evaluations "starts immediately ... There will be some very clear things that we need to address. ... I’ve got thoughts. Jerry has thoughts. We all have thoughts, but you have a chance to slow down, take a deep breath and ask probing questions to get to the bottom of what the real answers are.”
Jerry calls this process "not easy.'' Schottenheimer insists it's about "slowing down.''
But "slow'' is a relative term. And so is "easy.''
As it relates to the firing of Matt Eberflus? There's no reason for it to happen "slowly.'' And personal feelings aside, there is every reason for it to be "easy.''