{"id":721071,"date":"2026-02-01T08:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/721071\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T08:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:51:20","slug":"dallas-cowboys-hire-2-more-coaches-for-2026-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/721071\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys Hire 2 More Coaches For 2026 Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

As preparations begin for the 2026<\/a>NFL<\/a> season, next year’s staff is beginning to take shape for the Dallas Cowboys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys struggled mightily on the defensive side of the ball this season and after firing Matt Eberflus and bringing in former division rival Christian Parker, the ex-Eagles passing game coordinator and DBs coach<\/a> is starting to fill out the rest of his crew.<\/p>\n

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Parker was the first domino to fall when it comes to Dallas rebuilding it’s approach on D. And now according to reports, the team has added a pair of assistants to help get the Cowboys back to being respectable defensively next fall.<\/p>\n

\"Jul<\/p>\n

Jul 29, 2023; Oxnard, CA, USA; Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer during training camp at the River Ridge Fields. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images\u00a9 Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)Cowboys add 2 more coaches to defensive staff<\/p>\n

Per ESPN’s Todd Archer<\/a>: “The Cowboys have agreed to deals with Derek Ansley (defensive pass game coordinator, defensive backs) and Ryan Smith (secondary), per source. Defensive staff starting to form.”<\/p>\n

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Smith spent the last three seasons coaching Cardinals cornerbacks after cutting his teeth at James Madison, Virginia Tech and Northwestern in the college ranks. While Ansley also has ties to those three schools along with extensive SEC experience at programs like Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Both coaches also have Nick Saban<\/a> ties with Ansley working as a graduate assistant and defensive backs coach in Tuscaloosa and Smith learning under Saban disciple and James Madison\/Indiana HC Curt Cignetti.<\/p>\n

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Dallas hoping to finalize coaching staff quickly<\/p>\n

During the Senior Bowl in Mobile, AL, Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said that he expects the team to wrap up its 2026 hires fairly quickly \u2014 saying the organization has hopes put a bow in it by this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal would be by the weekend,\u201d\u00a0Jones told<\/a> the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. \u201cCould it linger? It could. We\u2019ve had a lot of great visits, and we got a lot of guys who are going to be coming in. We\u2019ve made the next step that we want to bring them in here and get on board with them. Coach Schottenheimer and Christian [Parker] will get in there and see what we can do with it, and hopefully we can get a lot of good coaches in here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Cowboys’ secondary unit ranked dead last in the NFL in 2025. Next on the to-do list will be replacing<\/a> defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton who decided to follow Robert Saleh to the Titans this offseason.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by The Spun<\/a> on Feb 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As preparations begin for the 2026NFL season, next year’s staff is beginning to take shape for the Dallas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[2886,96665,230,229,257,2461,9337,15564,22491,104154,7,9113,6,18780,526,1119,10897],"class_list":["post-721071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-cowboys","tag-brian-schottenheimer","tag-christian-parker","tag-cowboys","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallascowboys","tag-defensive-backs","tag-defensive-backs-coach","tag-defensive-staff","tag-derek-ansley","tag-football","tag-matt-eberflus","tag-nfl","tag-ryan-smith","tag-tennessee","tag-the-cowboys","tag-todd-archer"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115994525581584329","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721071","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=721071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}