Mike Zimmer on Cowboys’ defense: “We’ve got to do it the way I want it done”

Mike Zimmer’s 45-year coaching career has brought him back to Dallas this season, where he will be the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator — a title he’s held before, as well as having been head coach of the Vikings and a defensive assistant for several other teams. And he says he’s going to keep doing things his way.

Zimmer acknowledged that the Cowboys’ defense doesn’t need the big overhaul he has sometimes been hired for, but he still wants the players to know that this is his defense and there are going to be changes.

“It’s like I told the defense the first day I got here. I said, this is a different deal for me. Usually when I come in, the defense is not good. You know? They’re pretty darn good,” Zimmer said, via ESPN. “So it’s a little different for me because we have to advance some of the things they were doing good and try to improve on the things they weren’t doing as good. But for the most part they’ve played pretty darn good, and we’re going to try to accentuate that and maybe be a little bit more technique-oriented, maybe a little bit more disciplined. Some of those things. At the end of the day, we’ve got to do it the way I want it done. I know if you try to come in and do somebody else’s thing, it just doesn’t go well.”

Dan Quinn, who coordinated the Cowboys’ defense the last three years, is now the head coach in Washington. Now the defense will be called Zimmer’s way.