Mike Zimmer ‘Will Fight Your A**!’ Cowboys Scouting Report on New Coach
Meet the new boss ... same as the old boss.
The Dallas Cowboys opted for familiarity when searching for a new defensive coordinator to succeed the Washington-bound Dan Quinn, landing on previous overseer and sideline staple Mike Zimmer.
Having spent the past two seasons in consulting roles under Deion Sanders at both Jackson State and Colorado, Zimmer is well-known to the millennial Cowboys fans as a 13-season resident on the Dallas staff (1994-2006). That includes tours as the team's defensive coordinator for the last seven seasons, which featured Pro Bowl visits for Dexter Coakley, La'Roi Glover, DeMarcus Ware, and Roy Williams. Zimmer was also a defensive backs coach during the Cowboys' last Super Bowl run after the 1996 season.
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The move has obviously drawn the attention of Zimmer's former proteges: veteran Darren Woodson's storied Dallas tenure, for example, mostly coincided with Zimmer's first stay and he warned the current crop of Cowboys that they shouldn't expect a new friend on the staff.
"He doesn't have any 'back up' in him," Woodson said in a report from Todd Archer of ESPN. "He's going to set his feet. He will fight your (butt) tooth and nail, a lot like Bill Parcells."
"You're going to do it his way. He might not be your best friend. It's not going to be cuddly and kumbaya. That's not happening. He's going to test your mettle."
Perhaps that's exactly what the Cowboys need: Dallas' more or less coasted on regular season accomplishments before disappearing in Quinn's sour swan song, an NFC Wild Card disaster that surrendered 416 yards to the Green Bay Packers in a 48-32 defeat.
Current ESPN analyst Marcus Spears had a different kind of Zimmer experience, as his first two years after arriving as the 20th pick in the 2005 draft were spent under his watch. Spears, who built a solid eight-season career in North Texas was slightly more lenient but also offered any revolting current Cowboys words of caution.
"He's a great man and he's a phenomenal football coach," Spears said. "(He's) tough but fair and he cares about his guys. It was great to play for Zim even when he cursed me out."
Zimmer knows what it's like to help the Cowboys through trying times: one of his finest efforts came in 2003 when the team finished first in yards allowed and second in scoring en route to ending a four-season drought of winning seasons. Zimmer would later serve as a constant of the Cincinnati Bengals' formation into a postseason staple under Marvin Lewis, serving in the same defensive coordinator role before embarking on an eight-year stint as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.
