The Philadelphia Eagles are losing passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach Christian Parker. Not ideal.
Even worse, he’s joining the Dallas Cowboys as their new defensive coordinator. This much according to a report from NFL insider Tom Pelissero.
We knew this outcome was possible; Parker recently drew DC interviews from Dallas and the Green Bay Packers. Really, the Eagles were fortunate to be able to retain him for 2025 after he drew interest from the New Orleans Saints last year.
Losing Parker was likely inevitable. Losing him to a division rival isn’t very fun. Unless he proves to be a double agent, which I wouldn’t count on.
We previously touched on Parker’s value:
The 34-year-old Parker has a strong track record of getting the best out of his players. He notably oversaw the development of Patrick Surtain II with the Denver Broncos before coming to Philly and coaching Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean to All-Pro status in their second seasons.
The Eagles have had one of the best defenses in the NFL since they hired him along with Vic Fangio during the 2024 offseason. The team would probably like to retain him, especially since he could potentially be a Fangio successor one day. But it’s quite possible — if not outright likely — that Parker will be poached before that can happen.
It’s possible that Parker is a good position coach but not a good defensive coordinator. And Dallas has a long way to go in remaking their talent on that side of the ball after it was such a disastrous unit under Matt Eberflus in 2025.
But it’ll be pretty annoying for the Eagles if Parker helps the Cowboys turn things around in a big way.
Anyway, it remains to be seen how the Birds will replace Parker. They currently have a cornerbacks coach in Roy Anderson and a safeties coach in Joe Kasper. Will there be an internal promotion or will they look to make an external hire? Perhaps a combination of both if there’s some backfilling to be done? We’ll see.
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