The Cowboys' new defensive look, September 2025, 4-3 defense vs 3-4 potential look as of today

[75boyz]

The problem I have with Eberflus is his passive scheme and refusal to blitz. JJ McCarthy was the worst performing QB under the blitz and yet we played a soft zone all game. Those are the type of scheme decisions that get you fired regardless of personnel. Would he have done better? Probably, but he deserved to be fired before the season ended. Parsons would not have changed this defense at all.

So again I would counter was it all scheme and formation or was it a lack of personnel talent to execute anything other.
I mean come on man, when you watch that Carolina drubbing that ain't coaching.
As you mentioned, the Vikings game
and McCarthy's success I'll throw in Russell Wilson's game 2 that CATCH17 mentioned as well.
The sacks or coverage ain't there because the guys in charge of sacking and covering suck at their jobs.

The irony is I'm not some huge Flus advocate. I really could care less actually but I will continue to stand by IF given better personnel to work with that he would have achieved better results.

They sure seem to be replacing most of last year's players that's for sure.

 

[Havic]

So again I would counter was it all scheme and formation or was it a lack of personnel talent to execute anything other.
I mean come on man, when you watch that Carolina drubbing that ain't coaching.
As you mentioned, the Vikings game
and McCarthy's success I'll throw in Russell Wilson's game 2 that CATCH17 mentioned as well.
The sacks or coverage ain't there because the guys in charge of sacking and covering suck at their jobs.

The irony is I'm not some huge Flus advocate. I really could care less actually but I will continue to stand by IF given better personnel to work with that he would have achieved better results.

They sure seem to be replacing most of last year's players that's for sure.

Both

Scheme decisions as I mentioned with the Vikings was the final straw if I had any left to begin with at that point in the season.
Could his scheme succeed with the right personnel? I still think no. Chicago had much better personnel on defense and his decisions cost him his job ultimately

 

[Ironicalicon]

So the question is could Eberflus possibly coach up the new defensive roster to a better performance as compared to last year's roster that he had to coach?

And nope, not an Eberflus cheerleader.
What it all boils down to is you gotta have talent to begin with BEFORE any of the coaching up can take place.

And what will be so like Jerry's Cowboys is if all this supposed new talent turns out to be not so talented after all and how long will Parker keep his fresh new positive reviews?

Food for thought. I mean he is the 5th DC in 5 years and all.

I get your point and it's a real question but what pissed me off about Uberfluke was his inability to try different things. He would even go as far as to stop doing what had success because it wasn't "his way".

 

[75boyz]

Both

Scheme decisions as I mentioned with the Vikings was the final straw if I had any left to begin with at that point in the season.
Could his scheme succeed with the right personnel? I still think no. Chicago had much better personnel on defense and his decisions cost him his job ultimately

I see your point.
I'll be man enough to say as much about him if the 49ers defense is ranked 30th to 32nd this year.

But Ill stick to my guns that it begins with talent and THEN comes coaching.
You have to have the talent in the NFL to begin with.
While coaching is a huge reason for success you still gotta give that coach something to work with in order for his scheme to work.

jmo

 

[Havic]

I see your point.
I'll be man enough to say as much about him if the 49ers defense is ranked 30th to 32nd this year.

But Ill stick to my guns that it begins with talent and THEN comes coaching.
You have to have the talent in the NFL to begin with.
While coaching is a huge reason for success you still gotta give that coach something to work with in order for his scheme to work.

jmo

Talent and next coaching absolutely. The only coach in recent memory that could just put players in right positions to succeed was Bill B, even if they werent the most talented they were exactly where they needed to be to win.

 

[JayFord]

I doubt we’ll see a straight 3-4 more than 10% this season but Parker has already stated that

Im wondering if it’ll be more 4-2-5 or 3-3-5 that we run out of

 

[75boyz]

Talent and next coaching absolutely. The only coach in recent memory that could just put players in right positions to succeed was Bill B, even if they werent the most talented they were exactly where they needed to be to win.

Yep, and the perfect example. Right on.

 

[75boyz]

I get your point and it's a real question but what pissed me off about Uberfluke was his inability to try different things. He would even go as far as to stop doing what had success because it wasn't "his way".

I didnt mean to imply Flus is some mastermind DC by any means because I saw the same things you saw and it pissed me off too.
Then I did the old defensive coordinator what if self talk thing.
And that is what if Flus got to the point nearing seasons end that he knew he was damned if he did or damned if he didn't because of all the sucky players he had? By that I mean it didn't matter what position he put them in or defensive play call because they could not execute it anyway because they lacked the talent to do so.
I believe it reached that point near season's end.
The talent totally sucked and it made the scheme/formations look even worse.
So in that regard it was a combination of coaching and lack of talent.

My opinion.

 

[CWR]

I was under the impression pickups last year like Jack Sanborn, Kenneth Murray, Solomon Thomas, and Kaiir Elam were Eberflus-approved. Could be wrong though.

You're right. They may have forced him to shop at Walmart but he picked some of those groceries and was way off.

 

[Praxit]

...Murray is finally gone! wow, i wonder who got stuck with him?

 

[Praxit]

We basically have whole NEW defense for 26'. Dang, I'm already chomping bit for camp 26'

 

[lwehlers]

Better coaching staff. Better players. All equals better defense next year.

well we are hoping that parkers coaching staff is better than last year and that players will know there assignments and be in the right place at the right time.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

I will continue to stand by IF given better personnel to work with that he would have achieved better results.

This ^^^^^^^ not to mention you sabotaged his defense by trading his BEST PLAYER right before the start of the season. I would argue that neither he nor the defense ever adjusted/recovered.

 

[75boyz]

This ^^^^^^^ not to mention you sabotaged his defense by trading his BEST PLAYER right before the start of the season. I would argue that neither he nor the defense ever adjusted/recovered.

Yep, excellent point. That is what he went into the offseason thinking is that his dee would be built around Micah.
So yep, your argument here is spot on imo.

Now if the 49ers dee is 30th to 32nd then I will be man enough to mention Flus.
I wonder how many here will fess up if the 49ers have a really good defense...

 

[CyberB0b]

The defense looks good on paper, but it's paper thin. 1-2 injuries away from another disaster. It's a good start, but doesn't make up for the last 4 years of ineptitude.

 

[ShiningStar]

Eberflus did what Jerry wanted. Jerry was not interested last year. This year hes making football moves. Lets see what happens.

 

[darthseinfeld]

So the question is could Eberflus possibly coach up the new defensive roster to a better performance as compared to last year's roster that he had to coach?

And nope, not an Eberflus cheerleader.
What it all boils down to is you gotta have talent to begin with BEFORE any of the coaching up can take place.

And what will be so like Jerry's Cowboys is if all this supposed new talent turns out to be not so talented after all and how long will Parker keep his fresh new positive reviews?

Food for thought. I mean he is the 5th DC in 5 years and all.

Probably not. Flus was a really good coach at one point, but he really phoned it in last year. There were alot of problems werent the result of talent

 

[30yearsstillwaiting]

Better coaching staff. Better players. All equals better defense next year.

We can only hope

 

[Whiskey Cowboy]

So again I would counter was it all scheme and formation or was it a lack of personnel talent to execute anything other.
I mean come on man, when you watch that Carolina drubbing that ain't coaching.
As you mentioned, the Vikings game
and McCarthy's success I'll throw in Russell Wilson's game 2 that CATCH17 mentioned as well.
The sacks or coverage ain't there because the guys in charge of sacking and covering suck at their jobs.

The irony is I'm not some huge Flus advocate. I really could care less actually but I will continue to stand by IF given better personnel to work with that he would have achieved better results.

They sure seem to be replacing most of last year's players that's for sure.

The problem here is what he was calling clearly wasn't working. He could've shifted his philosophy and at least tried to do something different, but it was the same basic defense that got us killed all year. There's no risk in experimenting if what you're doing isn't getting the job done.

Don't get me wrong, the talent on the field was terrible. I just think that lack of talent was compounded with lazy, uncreative defensive coaching which resulted in the historically bad results that we saw.

 

[blindzebra]

So the question is could Eberflus possibly coach up the new defensive roster to a better performance as compared to last year's roster that he had to coach?

And nope, not an Eberflus cheerleader.
What it all boils down to is you gotta have talent to begin with BEFORE any of the coaching up can take place.

And what will be so like Jerry's Cowboys is if all this supposed new talent turns out to be not so talented after all and how long will Parker keep his fresh new positive reviews?

Food for thought. I mean he is the 5th DC in 5 years and all.

There is an old saying about making chicken salad that applies here. Good coaches don't force a system without having the players to execute it, they adjust to what they have. There were so many mental errors last year and that falls on the coach. If every kid in a classroom fails a test is it the kids' fault or the teacher?