Cowboys hiring former Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer as their defensive coordinator.
Mike Zimmer has returned to the NFL, where it all began.
Dallas is hiring Zimmer, a former Minnesota Vikings head coach and veteran Cowboys assistant, as its next defensive coordinator, according to NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero.
Zimmer was selected from a list of high-profile interviews that included former Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera and former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan.
Zimmer has long been regarded for managing tough defenses and taking a gritty approach to coaching, which should be ideal for replacing Dan Quinn, who went on to become the Commanders’ head coach after three seasons leading a top-five scoring defense in Dallas.
Following a two-year break, Zimmer will take up the role.
He was the Vikings’ head coach from 2014 to 2021, building a top-10 scoring defense five times and making the playoffs three times during his eight-year career, including an ill-fated trip to the NFC Championship game.
Zimmer was fired after an 8-9 season, leaving him with a 72-56-1 career record.
He spent five years in Minnesota coaching against one of his current bosses, Mike McCarthy, who was then with the Green Bay Packers. Although both won the division twice while vying for the NFC North, Zimmer has the advantage with a 5-4-1 head-to-head record during that time.
The 67-year-old Zimmer also spent the 2007 season coordinating Atlanta’s defense and served as the Bengals’ DC from 2008-2013, but on the heels of 15 years in the college ranks starting as a 23-year-old assistant in 1979, it was Dallas where he began his NFL coaching career.
Zimmer started out as an assistant coach for the Cowboys in 1994 and was promoted to defensive backs coach for the 1995 season, the last of their three Super Bowl campaigns during the decade.
He served in that role through the 1999 season, after which he earned the nod as Dallas’ defensive coordinator for the first time — a role he held for seven years.
The Cowboys twice had a scoring defense in the top four in the NFL under Zimmer, including a 2003 campaign that saw them top the league in points allowed and finish second in yardage.
His final year there, 2006, was also Bill Parcells’ NFL swan song.
Overall, Zimmer spent 13 years with Dallas, working under three different head coaches: Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, Dave Campo, and Parcells.
Now he’ll work under a sixth Cowboys head coach, as McCarthy and Zimmer set aside their NFC North rivalry in favor of dominating the NFC East together.
Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland, and Demarcus Lawrence are among the defense’s superstars who can assist in this endeavor.
After years apart and a couple of years away from the NFL, Zimmer has a homecoming in Dallas, which the two parties hope will result in a return to the Super Bowl glory that marked the beginning of his first stint there.
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