{"id":658400,"date":"2026-01-06T12:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/658400\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T12:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:27:11","slug":"dallas-cowboys-news-tyler-smith-wants-clarity-on-where-hell-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/658400\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys news: Tyler Smith wants clarity on where he\u2019ll play"},"content":{"rendered":"

It could start with defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, who ran one of the worst defenses in franchise history in 2025.<\/a> The Cowboys finished Eberflus\u2019 first year on the job allowing an NFL-high 30.1 points per game and 6,409 yards, third worst in the league. The Cowboys also gave up a franchise-record 511 points.<\/p>\n

And another change might occur with special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen, who didn\u2019t get the best of endorsements from the No. 2 man in the organization, co-owner Stephen Jones,<\/a> during a radio interview late last week on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM).<\/p>\n

Jones praised an offense that finished seventh in the NFL with a 27.70 scoring average. Jones said the offense had an identity, unlike the defense and special teams units.<\/p>\n

\u201cBottom line, we need an identity on the defensive side of the ball,\u201d Jones said on The Fan. \u201cI don\u2019t think we established that this year. Whether it\u2019s coach Eberflus or whoever it is, we have to create an identity. I think everybody would say that coach Schottenheimer has a ton of energy, he\u2019s very authentic and has an identity. We\u2019ve got to play to that in all three phases. I think we did in one phase this year. I don\u2019t know that we established that in the other two phases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the team meeting, players underwent exit interviews with Schottenheimer and members of the coaching staff and front office. Schottenheimer said he\u2019ll meet with his coaches on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys work their asses off all year and they got great insight and great input for us,\u201d Schottenheimer said after losing to the Giants in the regular season finale on Sunday. \u201cThere is nothing out of bounds. They can say, \u2018Hey you were the worst head coach I\u2019ve ever seen in my life. I\u2019ve ever been around.\u2019 And that\u2019s not going to hurt my feelings, it\u2019s not. I want to know. I\u2019m going to ask why, if they feel that way so I can fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It could start with defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, who ran one of the worst defenses in franchise history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,436,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-658400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-news","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115848154027107839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}