The Lion has spoken!
There are three games left in the Dallas Cowboys' season and the jury is still out if Mike McCarthy and Mike Zimmer are coaching for their jobs.
With that being said, speculation has grown in waves over the last month that McCarthy and Zimmer will be back next season. Jerry Jones told 105.3 The Fan this week that he thinks the best is yet to come with his head coach and defensive coordinator.
It speaks volumes, too, that Dak Prescott and Micah Parsons - the two foremost faces of the franchise - have both stated publicly that they want McCarthy back. Both Prescott and Parsons believe McCarthy deserves another year, when the team's woeful injury luck hopefully regresses to the mean and the front office pilots a more aggressive offseason.
Keeping Prescott and Parsons happy should be high on Dallas' priority list. Parsons, especially, considering he'll be negotiating a new contract.
Well, after giving McCarthy a vote of confidence, Parsons has made it abundantly clear whether he wants Zimmer back in 2025.
Micah Parsons clearly wants Mike Zimmer back as Cowboys' defensive coordinator
Parsons went into great detail this week about his contract. In saying that he doesn't intend to holdout this offseason if his deal isn't done, the All-Pro gave Zimmer a ringing endorsement.
"I think I'll still be around. I don't know what the coaching is going to be like. At some point, if I got to learn a new scheme. I would love to have (Mike) Zimmer back. ... He has done a tremendous job. I would love to have him back. But if they do change or he just feels like he's ready to go with the horses, I got to learn a new scheme. I got to be around guys. ... There's a chemistry part. ... I still gotta be there for that part."Micah Parsons via The Athletic
That should leave Jerry Jones with an easy decision. Granted, the 82-year-old has seemingly set the stage for Zimmer to return, but Parsons' comment should end any and all apprehension the front office may have about running it back with Zimmer.
The Zimmer experiment got off to an ugly start. The Cowboys got steamrolled by the Ravens and Saints early in the year and allowed 47 points at home to the Lions. They surrendered 27 points to the Kirk Cousins-led Falcons. Cousins was benched this week.
However, the defense has turned a corner over the last several games From Weeks 9-15, Dallas ranks sixth with -0.027 EPA (expected points added) allowed per dropback. Only the Cardinals have made a bigger improvement from the first eight weeks.
It's clear that players are more comfortable in Zimmer's scheme, which represented a significant change from Dan Quinn's system. It was never going to be a smooth landing. It would be shortsighted of Jerry Jones to drive a truck over that progress by cutting Zimmer loose.
With players returning from injury, a free agency and draft to add more talent, and another offseason for Zimmer to sink his teeth in, the defense should only get better.
The Lion has spoken and the D's performance over the last several weeks speaks for itself. The Cowboys must keep Zimmer.
