Football starts in the trenches. That fundamental truth has been repeated so often it’s become a Hall of Fame coachspeak example. And yet, it remains a constant in football.
Brian Schottenheimer seemed to understand that when he built out his offensive staff a year ago. Klayton Adams took the reins as offensive coordinator after spending years coaching the offensive line. He then paired Adams with Conor Riley, who had overseen several talented linemen jump from Kansas State to the league, including Cowboys center Cooper Beebe.
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Now, Christian Parker seems to be taking a similar approach to his defensive staff.
A day after the Cowboys added Marcus Dixon to coach the defensive line, they landed Chidera Uzo-Diribe to coach the outside linebackers, a position the franchise has never had on their staff. In landing these two coaches, Parker has now found two individuals with strong backgrounds who can help fortify this Dallas defense in the trenches.
Dixon is an exciting hire for two main reasons. He has direct ties to Parker, as the two served together on the Broncos staff for two seasons, which means Dixon is familiar with the Vic Fangio scheme that Parker has cut his teeth in. But Dixon also spent the past two years in Minnesota, working under defensive coordinator Brian Flores to create one of the best defenses in the league over that span.
While with the Vikings, Dixon worked alongside an outside linebackers coach as well, former Browns head coach Mike Pettine. For the most part, Pettine operated as a pass rush specialist and an idea guy for Flores in drawing up exotic blitz packages, something Pettine was experienced with after serving as Rex Ryan’s top assistant with the Jets.
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Dixon, meanwhile, focused more on specific techniques for the defensive line, especially in stopping the run. That was similar to his tenure in Denver, where there was also an outside linebackers coach. And when Dixon came to Minnesota, his skills were in serious demand.
Flores’ first season with the Vikings saw a promising turnaround, but the defense’s biggest weakness was against the run: they ranked 17th in EPA/rush. Dixon came to town and the Vikings have been sixth in EPA/rush over the last two years. Personnel changes played a part, too, but Dixon’s arrival coincided with a strong boost to the run defense.
Uzo-Diribe, on the other hand, is making his first foray into the NFL coaching ranks. He’s spent the past four years coaching outside linebackers at Georgia, where he’s helped develop six NFL draft picks, including four first-round picks.
Prior to that, Uzo-Diribe had brief stints coaching the defensive line at TCU, SMU, and Kansas. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Colorado, back in 2016. Just 33 years old, Uzo-Diribe has had a meteoric rise due, in large part, to his sterling results as a developer of talent.
By far the most appealing part of Uzo-Diribe’s résumé up to this point is his time at Georgia working under head coach Kirby Smart. One of the most successful college head coaches working today, Smart came up in the Nick Saban school while at Alabama. Newly-hired pass game coordinator Derrick Ansley overlapped with Smart in Tuscaloosa, too.
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The style of defense that both Smart and Saban have dominated with is one that prioritizes scheme flexibility and excels at tricking offenses. Many of the core tenets of the Saban defense are shared by the Fangio defense, specifically the use of pattern matching techniques in the secondary, which was a major reason Ansley was hired to coach defensive backs under Fangio disciple Brandon Staley with the Chargers.
While Uzo-Diribe won’t be as involved in coverage schemes as Ansley, his exposure to Smart’s coaching style makes one thing clear: he knows how to take complex concepts and make it easy to digest for players. That’s something Schottenheimer stressed as key traits for his defensive coordinator, and Parker has since filled his staff with coaches who also embody that mindset.
Uzo-Diribe also has an impressively long list of developing talented edge defenders for how young he is. Someone with that track record and exposure to elite defensive schemes is easy to get excited about. Pairing him with Dixon is just the cherry on top when it comes to Parker’s approach to the trenches.
