{"id":1004029,"date":"2026-08-16T07:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1004029\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T07:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:53:20","slug":"cowboys-christian-parker-shows-poise-in-first-play-calling-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1004029\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys’ Christian Parker shows poise in first play-calling test"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE \u2014 Ask people around the Cowboys<\/a> and they\u2019ll tell you that Cowboys first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker has a quiet confidence to him. Outside linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku confirmed that Parker, in so many words, has some swag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As an example, consider Parker\u2019s response after a Cowboys muffed punt in the fourth quarter of Saturday\u2019s 17-7 preseason win over the Seahawks<\/a>. Seattle took the ball at the Cowboys’ own 5-yard line. Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said he heard Parker over the headset.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey ain\u2019t in,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks never did get in the end zone. Parker\u2019s defense \u2014 filled with a variety of defenders who are either competing for a roster spot, or likely won\u2019t make it \u2014 responded by forcing a turnover on downs. The final play of the drive was the most impactful: a sack from Isaiah Land against Jalen Milroe for a 14-yard loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Parker didn\u2019t panic, according to Schottenheimer, and neither did his defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most important, he\u2019s looked at as a good communicator, too. That\u2019s something the Cowboys sought after last year\u2019s defense finished as the worst scoring defense in the NFL. Communication was often misguided.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Linebacker Curtis Robinson got the start as the green dot player on Saturday. That meant he communicated directly with Parker. He was then tasked with communicating with the rest of the defense. Robinson said Parker would be very thoughtful before each play, offering reminders and other contextual elements before the\u00a0Seahawks snapped the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve obviously gotten a lot of reps now through OTAs and training camp, so we all had a pretty good feel for how it was going to go with the flow of games,\u201d Robinson said of communicating with Parker. \u201cIt was cool to see him just continue that, playing with live bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s been one question about Parker, it was that: How would he call games? He reminded people that all great defensive coordinators were first-time defensive play-callers at one point. It\u2019s something they had to do. And though it was only a preseason game, Parker \u2014 calling plays from the sideline \u2014 had a good first experience. The Cowboys’ defense allowed an 80-yard scoring drive on the opening drive, fueled by multiple penalties. The Seahawks didn\u2019t score again, finishing with 156 total yards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he did a great job,\u201d Schottenheimer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 Ask people around the Cowboys and they\u2019ll tell you that Cowboys first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1004030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,10768,1596,358,325232,290739,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1004029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-brief","tag-dallas","tag-texas","tag-tp-dallas-cowboys","tag-tp-nfl","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117104109626930585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}