Cowboys assistant Joe Whitt following Dan Quinn to Commanders

One of the internal candidates for Dallas’ defensive coordinator is off the board.

News broke late Sunday that the Dallas Cowboys have lost another coach to the Washington Commanders, as new head coach Dan Quinn dipped into his old staff to fill a major position on his new one.

Quinn is filling out the key positions on his staff as it was earlier reported that Kliff Kingsbury is headed to Washington to be the offensive coordinator.

Joe Whitt was seen as an internal candidate to take the defensive coordinator job for the Cowboys. He oversaw the passing game defense and his résumé is burnished by the performance of players like Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland during his tenure. Now he is gone, which may increase the chances of an external hire like Ron Rivera or Mike Zimmer, who have been reported as interviewees this week.

Whitt has had a long and successful career, and this is an overdue promotion for him. However, now between him and Quinn, our division rival has a very intimate knowledge of the Dallas offense, both from working against Prescott in practice and in having worked with head coach Mike McCarthy. We may no longer be able to assume the Cowboys are going to get easy wins against the Commanders.

Stay tuned for further developments as the defensive side of the Dallas staff continues to undergo major changes.