Stephen Jones: "We need an identity on the defensive side of the ball"

As the final sands slip out from the top of the hourglass on the Matt Eberflus tenure as the Cowboys' defensive coordinator, the Cowboys have a clear objective for the new year.

“We got to get an identity on the defensive side of the football," co-owner Stephen Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. "I don’t think we ever established what we were as a defense. We really weren’t a team that created turnovers. We didn’t get the ball. We gave up a lot of explosive [plays]. At times it felt like we were [stopping] the run. But we just got a lot of work to do on that side of the ball. I think everybody knows that. We’ll go all in.”

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"All in"? Not all in. Not again.

Of course, it's one thing to vow to go "all in" as to free agency, where cap dollars are tight and the Cowboys are often even tighter. It's another to go all in as to the coaching staff, especially when Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is about to be available to make a lateral move.

“Bottom line, we need an identity on the defensive side of the ball," Jones said. "I don’t think we established that this year. Whether it’s Coach [Matt] Eberflus or whoever it is, we have to create an identity. I think everybody would say that Coach [Brian] Schottenheimer has a ton of energy, he’s very authentic and has an identity. We’ve got to play to that in all three phases. I think we did in one phase this year. I don’t know that we established that in the other two phases."

That's hardly an endorsement of Eberflus. Anytime anyone says "whether it's [the current employee] or whoever it is," bet on whoever.

Assuming that the Cowboys will offer enough to get "whoever" a/k/a Flores to take the job.