The Cowboys are hiring Georgia outside linebackers coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe for the same position, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports.
Uzo-Diribe confirmed the news in a message to UGASports.
Uzo-Diribe, 33, was a defensive lineman at Colorado from 2010-13 and spent time with the Saints but never made the roster. He began his coaching career at his alma mater in 2016.
He coached at Kansas (2019-20) and SMU (2021), and for a month at TCU in 2022, before joining Georgia’s staff ahead of the 2022 season.
Uzo-Diribe joins Marcus Dixon, Derrick Ansley and Ryan Smith as position coaches under new coordinator Christian Parker.
Cowboys Clips
The 49ers are giving up a home game to play internationally in 2026, team owner Jed York said.
In an interview with Imagen Sports, York said the 49ers will play one of their nine home games outside the U.S., with Mexico his preferred destination.
“We always have communication with the league,” York said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “For us, Mexico is one of our markets. We will most likely give up a home game this season to play abroad, and Mexico is always number one on my list.”
The NFL announced a Mexico City game in December is planned along with the three in London and one each in Paris, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne and Munich. The Saints are the hosts of the Paris game.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recently campaigned for his team to play a game in Mexico City. The Cowboys have played only one international game, which was a win over the Jaguars in 2014. The NFL introduced new rules in 2022 requiring every team to participate in an international game at least once every eight years.
The Cowboys have not fulfilled the requirement, and they have never given up a home game.
The Cowboys host the 49ers in 2026.
Micah Parsons’ relationship with the Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones came to a bitter and disappointing end when the team traded him to Green Bay last August. While the edge rusher said he has nothing to be mad about since he “went to another historic organization” that paid him “a historic amount,” Parsons does regret that contract negotiations became personal.
“I just wish some of those things never happened. You know what I mean?,” Parsons told Clarence Hill of All City DLLS Cowboys. “I wish that he never brought me into the office and just let the agent speak. And I wish he hadn’t compromised our relationship. I thought me and Jerry had a good relationship up to that point until this offseason, and it’s sad that it went to shit like that.”
Parsons’ relationship with Jones will never be the same, although Parsons claims he holds no animosity toward his former owner.
“I don’t know about Jerry, but I have no bad blood,” Parsons said. “If I saw Jerry today, I would shake hands with him and say thank you for the opportunity I had to be a Cowboy.”
While Parsons may have forgiven, he has not forgotten.
Jones thought they had a handshake deal on “term, amount, guarantees,” without Parsons’ agent present. Parsons eventually directed the Cowboys to deal directly with his agent, David Mulugheta. Parsons said that March 18 meeting was the last time he talked to Jones.
Parsons and Jones have feuded publicly since, with Jones insisting the Cowboys won the Aug. 28 trade.
“There’s only two people who know the real truth — me and Jerry Jones,” Parsons said. “I’m not mad or anything. I went to another historic organization. I got paid a historic amount. So I got really nothing to be mad about in this world.”
Parsons spent four seasons in Dallas and made four Pro Bowls and 52.5 sacks.
When DeMarcus Lawrence signed with the Seahawks last offseason, the edge rusher said he was leaving Dallas because he knew he couldn’t win a Super Bowl there.
“Dallas is my home,” Lawrence said after signing a three-year, $32.5 million deal with the Seahawks. “Made my home there, my family lives there. I’m forever going to be there. But I know for sure I’m not going to win a Super Bowl there.”
The Cowboys last made the Super Bowl in the 1995 season and finished 7-9-1 this season. The Seahawks play the Patriots in Super Bowl XL on Sunday.
“Shoot, ain’t nothing for me to say. I did what I was supposed to do,” Lawrence said Monday night, via Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. “Shout out to my teammates for carrying me all this way, and we here.”
Lawrence’s offseason comment sparked a feud with former teammate Micah Parsons, who, at the time, was still with the Cowboys. Former Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant chimed in, saying he would buy Lawrence a Rolex if the Seahawks made the Super Bowl.
“He put the comment out there. He know what he got to go do,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence played for the Cowboys for 11 seasons, making the playoffs six times and playing in nine games. Only three times did the Cowboys even make it as far as the divisional round. In his first season in Seattle, Lawrence is on the verge of his first ring.
He declined to badmouth the Cowboys, who chose to move on from him, and instead patted himself on the back for his choice of landing spots. Lawrence saw it coming.
“Just being real about the situation, understanding that football is not for long for any player and understanding my window for opportunity is closing,” Lawrence, 33, said. “I don’t have long to play this game. I have to win now, and I understood what Seattle was building up here, and I just wanted to be a part of it.”
The Cowboys have hired Marcus Dixon as their new defensive line coach, Todd Archer of ESPN reports.
He replaces Aaron Whitecotton, who was hired by the Titans last week.
The Cowboys announced the hirings of Derrick Ansley and Ryan Smith. Ansley will serve as the defensive pass game coordinator and Smith will coach the secondary.
Dixon spent the past two seasons as the Vikings’ defensive line coach. His contract expired, and the Vikings had already replaced him with Ryan Nielsen.
He was the assistant defensive line coach for the Rams in 2021 and the defensive line coach of the Broncos from 2022-23.
Dixon spent time with the Cowboys as a player from 2008-10.
Ansley spent two seasons as the Packers’ defensive pass game coordinator after one season as the Chargers’ defensive coordinator. Smith was the Cardinals’ cornerbacks coach the past two seasons.
The Cowboys want to keep George Pickens, and the Pro Bowl wide receiver wants to remain in Dallas. The team has the franchise tag available to use on the pending free agent, but the question is whether the sides can negotiate a long-term deal.
Pickens said he is “willing to do anything” when asked his thoughts on the franchise tag, but he makes clear his belief that his value increased after his career year. He caught 93 passes for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns.
“I feel like, if anything, it went up,” Pickens said, via Tommy Yarrish of the team website. “But me personally, my value is just a playmaker-type-of guy. I feel like any team or wherever I play — I can be playing in Canada — I just want them to know that I’m definitely a playmaker.”
The Cowboys traded with the Steelers for Pickens in the 2025 offseason. Dak Prescott is the best quarterback Pickens has played with, and it showed. His previous best season was 63 receptions for 1,140 yards and five touchdowns in 2023.
All things being equal, Pickens wants to remain in Dallas.
“I would love to,” Pickens said. “But when you can’t control it, you kind of just hope for the best.”
In other words, football is a business.
“Just the ultimate best deal when it helps everybody,” Pickens said. “If it’s the best thing for both parties, then I’m willing to do anything. But like I said, I can’t control it, so I just kind of chill.”
Former Cowboys fullback Scott Laidlaw has died, WFAA reports. He was 72.
The Cowboys made the Stanford product a 14th-round pick in 1975, and he was one of 12 rookies who made the roster. They came to be known as the “Dirty Dozen,” helping the Cowboys reach Super Bowl X, where they lost to Pittsburgh 21-17.
Laidlaw, though, won a ring after the Cowboys’ 27-10 victory over the Broncos in Super Bowl XII to end the 1977 season. The Cowboys then lost to the Steelers again the following season, falling 35-31.
Laidlaw played six seasons in the NFL, five with the Cowboys before ending his career with the Giants.
He had 255 carries for 1,007 yards and nine touchdowns and 74 receptions for 668 yards and three touchdowns in his career.
He participated in a tribute to the “Dirty Dozen” at AT&T Stadium a month before his death.
It took a little while, and it took a lot of money.
Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, whose contract expired after the season, has rejoined the team on a deal that will pay him, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com, more than $6 million per year.
Because coaching pay lacks the transparency of player pay, it’s impossible to know with certainty how much anyone makes. It was reported that Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly received $6 million per year. Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio makes $4.5 million annually.
With Kelly now fired, those numbers would make Flores the highest-paid coordinator in the league. Minnesota’s willingness to spend that much on Flores may help explain the reluctance of the Cowboys to enter the bidding.
Yes, we’d be surprised by the amount of the check that owner Jerry Jones would write to guarantee a Super Bowl win. We’d be surprised, because it’s so small.
The Cowboys have hired Cardinals cornerbacks coach Ryan Smith, according to multiple reports.
Smith is at the team’s training facility today for a perfunctory meeting.
He spent three seasons with the Cardinals after spending the 2022 season in the same role at Northwestern.
The Cowboys also have in-person interviews with former Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr and Colorado defensive coordinator Robert Livingston, Todd Archer of ESPN reports. Livingston previously coached the safeties with the Bengals.
Orr previously interviewed for the team’s defensive coordinator position.
Zach Orr has interviewed for defensive coordinator positions, including with the Chargers, but he is also interviewing for other jobs in case that doesn’t come to fruition.
The former defensive coordinator of the Ravens is scheduled to interview as an assistant with the Cowboys under defensive coordinator Christian Parker, Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. Orr previously interviewed for the job that went to Parker.
The Cowboys also are scheduled to interview Cardinals cornerbacks coach Ryan Smith, per Harris.
Orr was on the staff of the Jaguars with Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer in 2021.
He spent two seasons running the Ravens’ defensive unit.
Smith spent nine seasons in the college ranks before joining the Cardinals in 2023.
Since the hiring of Parker, the team has also interviewed former Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, Steelers outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin, Eagles assistant linebackers coach Ronell Williams and Vikings defensive line coach Marcus Dixon for staff positions, according to Harris.
