Published October 13, 2026 10:13 AM
The Cowboys brought Mike Pettine in as a senior defensive assistant on Monday and that’s not the only change they’ll be making as they try to improve their defensive performance over the final 12 games.
During an appearance on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that the team has been searching “for what we can do differently that would give us better results.” One of the things they’ve settled on is moving defensive coordinator Christian Parker from the sideline to the booth on gamedays.
“We’re gonna coach the defense not on the field, but up above. Parker’s going up above,” Jones said.
Jones said that the changes are not a sign that they believe Parker is overwhelmed in his first year as the coordinator, but the defense has looked overwhelmed far too often and Jones will eventually run out of levers to pull in hopes of finding a way to fix a unit that the team expected to be much better than it has been thus far.