The Cowboys hired former Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus as defensive coordinator Tuesday for his second stint on the Dallas staff.

Eberflus returned to the Cowboys two months after the Bears fired him 12 games into his third season, just a day after he botched a timeout against Detroit late in a sixth consecutive loss. He was 14-32 with Chicago.

The Cowboys also added Nick Sorensen as special teams coordinator to the staff of coach Brian Schottenheimer, who was hired last week to replace Mike McCarthy.

The Bears hired Eberflus after his four-year stint as defensive coordinator in Indianapolis. He had spent the previous seven seasons as a linebackers coach with the Cowboys, who eventually added passing game coordinator duties.

The 54-year-old Eberflus spent 17 years as a college assistant before joining the Cleveland Browns as a linebackers coach in 2009. He is the fifth consecutive former head coach to serve as Dallas defensive coordinator.

In his four years with the Colts, Eberflus had a top 10 rushing defense each time. Stopping the run was a persistent problem for the Cowboys the past four seasons under defensive coordinators Dan Quinn and Mike Zimmer.

Sorensen was fired after one season as defensive coordinator in San Francisco after the 49ers had a significant drop-off on that side of the ball and finished 6-11 a year after going to the Super Bowl.

Before getting promoted to that role with the Niners, Sorensen spent the previous two seasons working mostly with the secondary and running the team’s weekly meetings focused on creating and avoiding turnovers. San Francisco finished in the bottom third of the NFL with 17 takeaways.

Sorensen was on Jacksonville’s staff in 2021 when Schottenheimer was the passing game coordinator, and they were on the staff together in Seattle from 2018-20.

Sorensen replaces John Fassel, who came to Dallas with McCarthy in 2020 and had a number of notable special teams successes mixed with some puzzling fake punt attempts that failed. Tennessee hired Fassel for the same job.

Kingsbury returns

Kliff Kingsbury is expected to return for a second season as the Washington Commanders’ offensive coordinator, a move that was anticipated for some time given his comfort level on Dan Quinn’s staff coaching dynamic young quarterback Jayden Daniels.

Multiple outlets reported that Kingsbury had attracted interest from the New Orleans Saints for their head-coaching vacancy but that he told them and other NFL teams he would be remaining with Washington. The Saints were the only job left open after Chicago, Dallas, New England, Jacksonville, Las Vegas and the New York Jets hired coaches.

“I’m very happy here,” Kingsbury said recently. “This has been an awesome, awesome place and has really helped me kind of rekindle my love for the sport.”

Kingsbury is still getting paid, reportedly $7.5 million annually, by the Arizona Cardinals through 2027 after signing a long-term extension with them in 2022 and getting fired 11 months later, along with general manager Steve Keim.

Patrick Mahomes’ college coach at Texas Tech who also worked with Caleb Williams at Southern California, Kingsbury seemed like the ideal fit for Daniels and the Commanders after general manager Adam Peters and Quinn hired him to run their offense. Washington scored the fifth-most points in the league during the regular season, going 12-5 and winning two playoff games before losing in the NFC championship game at Philadelphia.

Kingsbury had told teams he would not interview for jobs until the Commanders’ season was over.

Broncos gift helmets

The Denver Broncos are giving more than 15,000 helmets to high school football programs in Colorado, a first-in-the-NFL initiative intended to improve the game and make it safer for prep athletes.

The team’s foundation has partnered with Riddell and the Colorado High School Activities Association to launch the initiative dubbed “All In, All Covered.” The participants expect to provide 15,516 Riddell Axiom smart helmets to all of the state’s 277 high schools with tackle football programs over a four-year span.

The idea for the program came about at a foundation board meeting in August, when Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner and other board members sought ways to reduce barriers to participation in football, including costs and safety concerns.

“Aligned with our foundation values of equity and innovation, this first-of-its-kind initiative will positively influence how schools and governing bodies prioritize student-athlete health and safety,” said team owner and foundation board chair Carrie Walton Penner.

The Broncos called it the largest philanthropic investment in the club’s 65-year history.

Although the team didn’t reveal any figures, the smart helmets typically cost more than $800 each, so the total retail cost of the 15,516 helmets would be more than $12 million, not including maintenance and ongoing analytics that will be provided all schools.