For three seasons, Matt Eberflus was head coach of the Chicago Bears. After 12 games in 2024, he was fired. The 54-year-old has been a head coach or defensive coordinator in the NFL since 2018.
Eberflus will keep that streak alive in 2025 after news broke from Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network. The former Bears head coach is joining the Dallas Cowboys as their defensive coordinator. From 2011-2017, Eberflus was the linebackers coach in Dallas.
Matt Eberflus will be the defensive coordinator for the Cowboys
The #Cowboys are closing in on a deal for former #Bears HC Matt Eberflus to be their new defensive coordinator, sources say.
The favorite all along, Eberflus joins Brian Schottenheimer’s staff and returns to Dallas — where he was LBs coach from 2011-2017. pic.twitter.com/Chfd1nEQ2L
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 28, 2025
Since 1992, Matt Eberflus has been coaching at the FBS level or NFL. He joined his alma mater in ’92 with the Toledo Rockets as a graduate assistant. Eberflus held various positions with Toledo before he accepted the defensive coordinator position at Missouri in 2001. He was with the Tigers for eight seasons before he joined the Cleveland Browns as a linebackers coach in 2009. Eberflus was with the Browns for two seasons before he became a linebackers coach with the Cowboys in 2011.
For seven seasons, Eberflus was a linebackers coach for the Cowboys. In 2018, he was hired by the Indianapolis Colts as their defensive coordinator. The 54-year-old held that position for four years before he was hired as the Bears’ head coach in 2022. After three seasons with Chicago, Eberflus was fired by the Bears. Jerry Jones and the Cowboys hired Brian Schottenheimer as their head coach. It’s his first time holding the position.
Having a former head coach on a rookie head coach’s staff is extremely valuable and Eberflus fills that role for the Cowboys. Matt Eberflus is not the most exciting hire but it’s the best that Dallas can do at this point in the offseason.
