I could have "fixed" the Cowboys' defense if they had "spent" money

Former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn left Dallas to take the head coaching job with the Washington Commanders this offseason. In 2024, the Cowboys will be one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

According to a former NFL head coach, it didn’t have to be this way.

“I could have fixed (the Cowboys’ defense) in a New York minute,” Rex Ryan told ESPN’s DiPietro and Rothenberg. “But they couldn’t raise the money, or I would have been there.”

Ryan hasn’t coached in the NFL since his time as head coach of the Buffalo Bills from 2015-16, but an offseason report indicated that the Cowboys had interviewed the current ESPN analyst for the defensive coordinator position.

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Instead, Dallas hired Mike Zimmer, whose last NFL job was as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings from 2014 to 2021. The Cowboys are 1-2 to start the season and their defense ranks 30th in scoring (29.7 points allowed per game), 28th in total yardage allowed (372.7 yards per game) and dead last in rushing percentage (185.7 rushing yards per game).

Ryan, who has worked as an ESPN analyst since 2017, even went so far as to criticize Zimmer’s hiring on the ESPN radio show.

“You brought in a guy who finished 29th in the league in scoring in his last two years in Minnesota. The enthusiasm he brought with him when he left, is the guy that’s going to inspire you? That can end really badly for Dallas,” he said.

Ryan’s last job as defensive coordinator was with the Baltimore Ravens, where he held that role from 2005 to 2008.

From there, he took over as head coach of the New York Jets, leading the team to the AFC Championship game twice in his first two seasons. The Jets fired him in 2014, and the Bills made him their new head coach in 2015 before firing him the following year amid a second consecutive disappointing season.

The Cowboys play against the New York Giants on “Thursday Night Football.” Both teams go into the primetime duel with a record of 1:2.

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Record as head coach by Rex Ryan

2009 Jets: 9-7, second in the AFC East, participation in the AFC championship game
2010 Jets: 11-5, second in the AFC East, participation in the AFC championship game
2011 Jets: 8-8, second in the AFC East, missed the playoffs
Jets 2012: 6-10, third in the AFC East, missed the playoffs
Jets 2013: 8-8, second in the AFC East, missed the playoffs
Jets 2014: 4-12, fourth in AFC East, missed playoffs
Invoices 2015: 8-8, third in the AFC East, missed the playoffs
Invoices 2016: 7-8, fired, missed playoffs

I could have “fixed” the Cowboys’ defense if they had “spent” money

ByJasper

Record as head coach by Rex Ryan

By Jasper

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