Dallas Cowboys: 5 Moves that must be made to improve in 2021

4. Move on from Mike Nolan

The hiring of Mike Nolan as defensive coordinator was met with a lot of excitement for one reason — he wasn’t Rod Marinelli. For years (and years) Marinelli coached a defense that came up short when they were needed the most, so a new voice was welcomed. The problem is, Nolan proved that he was not an upgrade over Marinelli at all. In fact, his performance was similar to what they had in 2013 with Monte Kiffin running the defense.

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Nolan used to be one of the premier defensive minds in football and even worked his way to a head coaching job at one point. Following an 18-37 run with the San Francisco 49ers, he returned to the sidelines as a DC with Denver, Miami, and Atlanta with his last run as a coordinator being in 2014 with the Falcons.

That season, Nolan was 24th in points surrendered and 23rd in yards — both of which were improvements for him on the prior year. He did revive his career as a linebacker coach with the New Orleans Saints but it seems as though a position coach is where he’s best suited at this point.

Where Nolan really struggled was in getting the most out of his players. Sure, there were some serious underperformers but at the same time, his adjustments were never seen and the failure of the defense falls on him. For that reason, Dallas needs to make a move and find someone who can bring this defense into the 21st century — or else, this could be another situation similar to Marinelli’s where they simply never improve on that side while the coach and ownership continue to tell us the leader of the defense is not the reason.