“I've heard from a lot of players who played for me since it was announced that I was coming here,” he said. “Not just the defensive backs, linebackers, defensive linemen, but the players here have been emailing me and saying how happy they are. If I were that much of an asshole, I'd be a player like that. I don't think our voices would have been heard.”
One such player is former Cowboys safety Darren Woodson. Zimmer has no interest in being friends with the players; But he's going to add some toughness to the defense.
When asked about coaching a new generation of players, Zimmer said he has learned from his experience that great players are willing to take tough coaching to get to the next level.
“People who want to be great want to be coached,” Zimmer said. “There's more social media, more and more external things. But the young people I've been around, they want to be coached, they want to learn, they want to understand how to get better. They want to know how they can improve themselves.”
Although Zimmer didn't use many names, he did mention three players he coached at Cincinnati and Minnesota and later played for the Cowboys: Anthony Barr, Xavier Rhodes, and Pacman Jones, who were credited to his coaching. I didn't necessarily like the method, but now I'm grateful to him and still keep in touch with Zimmer.
“I'm demanding. I try to get the best out of my players,” said Zimmer, who said he has adapted to different personalities over the years. “We had a great player, but you couldn't yell at him. You had to put your arm around him, you had to talk to him in a whisper. He didn't like being reprimanded in public. So I did that to him and he became a great player. There are other players that I know I will go after them. Everyone is different. You try to make them better. You try to push their buttons. You're not there to be mean. You're just there to help them.”
And what the Cowboys need on defense is help, especially after losing defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to Washington.
Zimmer said he's not trying to “reinvent the wheel” and acknowledged the Cowboys' great work defensively.
But he came here on top of that using the only style he knows.
