HEADLINES

Dele Harding

Cowboys Finalize 2025 Coaching Staff

February 16th, 2025 at 10:51am CST by Ely Allen

The Cowboys replaced former head coach Mike McCarthy with in-house candidate Brian Schottenheimer. Despite the consistency of Schottenheimer remaining from last year, the handling of the coaching contracts by owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones caused many staffers to explore opportunities elsewhere in the NFL, forcing Schottenheimer to build a mostly new coaching staff. The Cowboys announced their finalized staff on Friday, and though many of the hires Schottenheimer has made we’ve already reported on, we’ll list every hire in this post.

On offense, we were already made aware of the hires of offensive coordinator Klayton Adams, pass game specialist Ken Dorsey, running backs coach Derrick Foster, offensive line coach Conor Riley, and assistant wide receivers coach Tiquan Underwood. We were also aware that former offensive assistant Steve Shimko had been promoted to quarterbacks coach. and that tight ends coach Lunda Wells had been retained to the same role.

We had heard rumors that the team had been working to retain assistant quarterbacks/game management coach Ryan Feder and assistant offensive line/quality control coach Ramon Chinyoung, but Friday’s announcement confirmed that both will remain in slightly different roles. Feder will serve in 2025 as solely game management coordinator and Chingyoung as solely assistant offensive line coach.

The new offensive hire news from the announcement is the additions of Junior Adams as wide receivers coach and Dele Harding in a quarterbacks fellowship. Adams is making his NFL coaching debut after spending the last 17 years coaching at the collegiate level, most recently as (co-)offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Western Kentucky, Washington, and Oregon. Harding, a former linebacker at Illinois, began his coaching career after he finished playing at his alma mater. He spent a year as a defensive assistant for the Texans in 2022. He’s also been a fellow in the past for the Colts and Browns.

On defense, we were already made aware of the hirings of defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi, defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton, and assistant defensive line coach Bryan Bing. We’ve also posted on the hirings of Andre Curtis, David Overstreet, and JJ Clark, but clarifications have been made about their roles. We initially reported that Curtis would serve as defensive pass game coordinator, which is true, but he will add safeties coach to his title, as well. Similarly, we reported Clark in a quality control role, but he will also have the title of defensive assistant. Overstreet was initially reported as assistant defensive backs coach, while the Cowboys’ announcement lists him as secondary/cornerbacks coach.

Overstreet will work alongside Darian Thompson, a quality control/assistant linebackers coach for the team last year who was retained as the new secondary/nickels coach. Lastly, former Rams and Jets defensive tackle Tanzel Smart has been hired as a defensive assistant/quality control coach, like Clark. Smart last appeared in a game in 2023 and was cut from the Jets at the roster cut deadline in August.

Both special teams roles, coordinator Nick Sorensen and assistant coach Carlos Polk were already reported.

There we have it: the Cowboys 2025 coaching staff. Schottenheimer doesn’t get the benefit of familiar faces on staff after Jones’ handling of the contracts, so a mostly new staff has been built. We’ll see what the new staff can do in 2025 after a down, injured year last season.

Texans Finalize 2023 Coaching Staff

February 25th, 2023 at 9:20am CST by Ely Allen

The Texans have made changes to most of their coaching staff this offseason, following the hire of new head coach DeMeco Ryans and then the additions of offensive and defensive coordinators Bobby Slowik and Matt Burke. Houston has since announced that the finalization of its coaching staff for the 2023 season, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC2. We’ve covered several of the minor staff updates as they’ve happened in real time, but here are the final updates that we have not yet reported.

On the offensive side of the ball, Houston announced a few names from former head coach Lovie Smith‘s staff that have been retained under Ryans. Running backs coach Danny Barrett will be sticking around after coaching rookie running back Dameon Pierce to an impressive first season of play. Also being retained are offensive assistants Jarrod James and DeNarius McGhee. McGhee has been with the team in this position since 2020, while James joined the staff last year.

Three other coaches were officially hired to the offensive staff. We had seen rumors that former Colts offensive line coach Chris Strausser was the favorite to coach the same position for Ryans in Houston, and that rumor was confirmed today as he was announced with the finalized staff. Also announced was assistant offensive line coach Cole Popovich, who hasn’t coached in the NFL since he parted ways with the Patriots in 2021. He spent last year as the offensive line coach at Troy. Lastly, Ryans and Slowik have brought on Bill Lazor as a senior offensive assistant. Lazor didn’t coach last year after being fired by the Bears but brings experience as someone who’s been an offensive coordinator for three NFL franchises.

On the defensive side of the ball, Houston kept a few mores names from Smith’s former staff. Cornerbacks coach Dino Vasso will return to coach a talented group that includes veterans Steven Nelson, Desmond King, and Tavierre Thomas, as well as youngster Derek Stingley. Ryans has also chosen to retain defensive assistant Ben Bolling. Other defensive assistants Ilir Emini and Dele Harding were not retained by Ryans and Burke. Lastly on defense, it had been rumored that former 49ers defensive passing game specialist and secondary coach Cory Undlin would be reuniting with Ryans in a similar role with the Texans. This latest announcement shows that Undlin will not have a position coaching role but has been officially hired as the team’s defensive pass-game coordinator.

There are a few more updates to wrap things up. We knew that special teams coordinator Frank Ross was being retained in Ryans’s new staff, but now we have word that assistant special teams coordinator Sean Baker will also be sticking around. We also have the official title for former Kent State director of football operations and Yale chief of staff Jake Olson. He will serve as assistant to the coaches in Houston. Lastly, Smith’s special assistant to the head coach for football performance, Tobijah Hughley, has not been retained under Ryans’ new staff.

There it is. The Texans are now ready to herald a new era under Ryans and his staff. The teams needs a lot of work following a 3-13-1 season, and now Ryans has the group of coaches on which he’ll rely to usher in this new age of Texans football.