Cowboys DT Quinnen Williams loves embattled DC Matt Eberflus' scheme
Dallas allowed an NFL-high 30.1 points per game in Eberflus' first season. Former CB Trevon Diggs critiqued the scheme multiple times
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FRISCO, Texas -- If there's one area to blame when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys' 7-9-1 2025 season that resulted in the team missing the playoffs for the second year in a row, it's the defense.
Dallas' offense averaged 27.7 points per game, the seventh-best in the NFL, but the defense allowed 30.1 points per game, the most in the league and the second-most points per game allowed in the 66-season history of the Cowboys. Only Dallas' inaugural 1960 squad that finished 0-11-1 was a worse scoring defense than the 2025 unit, allowing 30.8 points per game.
The lack of defensive production this season came in defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus' first season in this capacity for Dallas and All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons' first season away from the Cowboys. Owner/general manager Jerry Jones traded him away a week before the season began and didn't make any big moves to compensate for that loss until acquiring former All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams from the New York Jets at the NFL trade deadline during the Cowboys' Week 10 bye.
Williams racked up 32 quarterback pressures from the time he made his Dallas debut in Week 11 through the end of the season, a figure that ranks as the 12th-most in the NFL in that span and the third-most among defensive tackles in that time. That's why he ended up being the Cowboys defense's sole Pro Bowl player in 2025.
Despite ex-Cowboys Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs clashing about zone vs. man coverage usage all seasons before Dallas released him after Week 17, Williams vouched for the embattled Eberflus to return as defensive coordinator in 2026 as he took accountability for what went on in between the white lines this season. Eberflus himself took accountability for the defense's performance on Thursday, but he also said he wouldn't go back and do anything differently if he could.
"I love 'Flus man. I haven't really kind of been here [long enough] to know him from a personal standpoint, but the defensive scheme, the things that we did, I think was very, very good. Very smart," Williams said Monday at Cowboys locker room cleanout. "I think us as players had a lot of hand in the pot to kind of execute and do the things that we can do. Because at the end of the day, around the NFL and around the world, Cover 3 is Cover 3. Man [coverage] is man [coverage]. Cover 2 is Cover 2. You got to win your one on ones in all aspects of the game. As players, you got to compete."
The acquisitions of three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark in the Parsons trade, and Williams midseason boosted the Cowboys' run defense: Dallas was 29th in run defense in 2024 (137.1 rushing yards per game allowed) and 23rd in 2025 (125.5 rushing yards per game allowed). However, the Cowboys ranked as the NFL's worst passing defense, allowing 251.5 passing yards per game because of a lack of sack production without Parsons (35 in 2025, tied for the 11th-fewest in the league) and disarray in coverage in the secondary.
| Cowboys defense under Matt Eberflus in 2025, NFL ranks | NFL rank | |
|---|---|---|
PPG allowed | 30.1* | Last |
Total YPG allowed | 377.0 | 30th |
Yards per play allowed | 6.1 | 31st |
Passing yards per game allowed | 251.5 | Last |
Third down conversion rate allowed | 47.3% | Last |
Red zone TD rate allowed | 66.7% | 29th |
Completion percentage allowed | 68.5% | 30th |
Pass yards per attempt allowed | 8.1 | 31st |
Passer Rating | 109.6 | 31st |
* Second-most PPG allowed in a season in the Cowboys' 66-season history
That's why Williams knows it's on the defense to make great strides this offseason. He forced a career-high three fumbles in 2025, but his sack total of 2.5 tied his career low from his rookie year in 2019. That's an area he knows he needs to improve upon going forward. Williams peaked in that category in 2022 with 12.0 sacks with the Jets.
"I know that we got to get better, especially having the offense that we have," Williams said. "Whatever we got to do to get better, is going to happen. ... I just have to analyze, talk to the coaches and look at things, but I know first and foremost, to point the finger at myself, to try to get better. Especially with being able to be a game-changing tackle and get those big time sack-fumbles and affect the game at a higher level than I did this year. I think that's one step that is going to help us go in the right direction, so I'm super excited. ... I'm super excited for this coaching staff. ... Having 0 [linebacker DeMarvion Overshown] a fully healthy this offseason in his leadership. Having [defensive tackle] Osa [Odighizuwa] in his leadership. [Defensive tackle] Kenny [Clark] a full offseason in his leadership. Me in a full offseason in leadership. So we have the right guys in that unit to get things going in the right direction.
No matter who Dallas' defensive coordinator is going forward, he would like to continue playing in an attack front scheme, a scheme that asks the defensive line to play up field and be the aggressors instead of just playing off of the offensive line's blocks.
"It's super important, no matter what scheme I'm in. I want to win," Williams said. ... "What I'm asked to do, I'm willing to do if for the betterment of this team and the betterment of getting better as a defense."
