Mike Zimmer is the new man calling plays for the Dallas Cowboys defense in 2024.

I feel as if this hasn’t been talked about nearly enough, I don’t agree with a lot of things Jerry Jones does, but I like this hire.

Zimmer has been around the game of football for a number of years, he even once called the plays on defense for Dallas back in the early 2000s.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy and DC Mike Zimmer will participate in prospect interviews at combine virtually from the team facility. They won’t travel to Indianapolis. Defense is considered to be today where offense was at this stage in 2023 offseason. Work to do at headquarters.

— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) February 23, 2024

He’s Here To Coach

It may sound funny, but Mike Zimmer is a coach first.

A difference between him and Dan Quinn is that Quinn was known to want to be your friend first.

He was a good coach in his own right but cared more about being your buddy than your coach. That will change with Zimmer.

Around 10 days ago, Mike Zimmer talked about that exact thing.

“The ones that wanna be great, they wanna be coached,” Zimmer said.

“The ones that wanna be great, they wanna be coached.”

— Mike Zimmer on his approach to coaching players

FYI: He’s coached a list of legendary and notable #Cowboys players, so there’s no grain of salt to take with that.

— Patrik [No C] Walker (@VoiceOfTheStar) February 14, 2024

I loved when Dallas brought Dan Quinn back last year, I think it was a move that would benefit them, yet like the offense, struggled against above-average football teams.

Fresh Start

Appearing on the Stephen A. Smith Show, Micah Parsons touched on his excitement to play under a no-nonsense coach like Zimmer.

Zimmer isn’t here to be your friend. Cowboys great Darren Woodson even warned players that Zimmer might rub them the wrong way at first.

Greg Ellis is confirmed as joining the #Cowboys and Mike Zimmer as assistant defensive line coach.

Another reunion in Dallas.

— Patrik [No C] Walker (@VoiceOfTheStar) February 16, 2024

This is the type of change this team needs. Someone who is going to hold these players accountable.

Not just praise them when they do well against lesser opponents.

I love Micah Parsons as a Dallas Cowboy, but man I wish he would stop talking so much!

He is on track to be one of the greatest defenders of all time, and he cares more about being in the media than anything it seems right now.

Type Of Defense

Zimmer has run a 4-3 defense for the majority of his career but was the defense coordinator under Bill Parcells and ran a 3-4 scheme, so he has shown versatility.

Zimmer had proven over the years that his defense works and Dallas has more talent than any of his teams he had when he was the Vikings head coach.

The Vikings’ defense was top-12 in points allowed in each of Zimmer’s first six seasons with the team, including a top-five finish in 2015, ’17, and ’19.

“It’s a pretty damn good hire.”@keyshawn is a fan of the Cowboys hiring Mike Zimmer as DC pic.twitter.com/pRZnMtJFaP

— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) February 15, 2024

Numbers don’t lie.

This team needs to figure out a way to be more physically at the line of scrimmage, teams hammers them running it right at them.

Dan Quinn had absolutely no answer for it and it ultimately was a reason why the Packers sent them off in the playoffs.

We won’t see as many splash plays on defense as we did the last couple of years with Quinn,

The reason is that Zimmer just likes to keep you out of the end zone and make offenses work.

He’s going to sit back and make them think about how to attack them, and doing so should result in a lot of punts.

I just want to be able to watch this team and have confidence that they can get a stop when needed, get a score when needed, and be disciplined enough to not beat themselves.

Mike Zimmer should help with some of that, but Mike McCarthy and Jerry Jones are still around.