Ex-Bears coach Eberflus returns to Cowboys to run the defense; Sorensen takes over special teams

The Cowboys hired former Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus as defensive coordinator Tuesday for his second stint on the Dallas staff.

Eberflus returned to the Cowboys two months after the Bears fired him 12 games into his third season, just a day after he botched a timeout against Detroit late in a sixth consecutive loss. He was 14-32 with Chicago.

The Cowboys also added Nick Sorensen as special teams coordinator to the staff of coach Brian Schottenheimer, who was hired last week to replace Mike McCarthy.

The Bears hired Eberflus after his four-year stint as defensive coordinator in Indianapolis. He had spent the previous seven seasons as a linebackers coach with the Cowboys, who eventually added passing game coordinator duties.

The 54-year-old Eberflus spent 17 years as a college assistant before joining the Cleveland Browns as a linebackers coach in 2009. He is the fifth consecutive former head coach to serve as Dallas defensive coordinator.

In his four years with the Colts, Eberflus had a top 10 rushing defense each time. Stopping the run was a persistent problem for the Cowboys the past four seasons under defensive coordinators Dan Quinn and Mike Zimmer.

Sorensen was fired after one season as defensive coordinator in San Francisco after the 49ers had a significant drop-off on that side of the ball and finished 6-11 a year after going to the Super Bowl.

Before getting promoted to that role with the Niners, Sorensen spent the previous two seasons working mostly with the secondary and running the team’s weekly meetings focused on creating and avoiding turnovers. San Francisco finished in the bottom third of the NFL with 17 takeaways.

Sorensen was on Jacksonville’s staff in 2021 when Schottenheimer was the passing game coordinator, and they were on the staff together in Seattle from 2018-20.

Sorensen replaces John Fassel, who came to Dallas with McCarthy in 2020 and had a number of notable special teams successes mixed with some puzzling fake punt attempts that failed. Tennessee hired Fassel for the same job.

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