Cowboys defensive players loved Dan Quinn, who left as the team’s defensive coordinator to become Washington’s head coach. They won’t love Mike Zimmer as much, but could the defense be even better than it was under Quinn because of that?
Safety Malik Hooker seems to think it’s a possibility.
“I would say the biggest difference is the discipline that we are going to have this year,” Hooker said on Keyshawn Johnson’s All Facts, No Brakes podcast, via Ivan Lambert of USA Today.
Quinn was the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator for three seasons, and the team ranked fourth, ninth and sixth respectively in yards allowed and 19th, 12th and fifth in points allowed. He won assistant coach of the year in 2021 after taking over a defense that was the worst in team history in 2020.
“I love DQ,” Hooker said. “We still talk to this day. He’s a big reason why I am still in Dallas to this day. There is a certain way you have to coach certain guys. I feel like because of how player-oriented DQ was, guys would relate to him, and he wouldn’t have to coach a certain way that Zim does now.
“Mike Zimmer will give you a couple of chances to mess up. If you keep messing up and can’t get it right, [he] is going to get somebody else in there. Dan Quinn, on the other hand, is more player-oriented. If something wasn’t going right or we kept messing up, he’d level it down make it easier for everyone to go out there and do what they were going to do.”
The Cowboys’ coaching staff, all of whom are on one-year contracts, will begin the 2024 season on the hot seat. And, after not doing much in free agency, owner Jerry Jones is expecting the Cowboys to do more with less.