BREAKING NEWS: Cowboys head coach just announced his departure in…

FRISCO – The search for the Dallas Cowboys’ next defensive coordinator has officially begun, with Dan Quinn signing on as the head coach of the Washington Commanders and with sources detailing the next steps in the process to CowboysSI.com.

Among those steps as Dallas works on who will replace Quinn as the Cowboys’ new defensive coordinator. …

Jerry Jones has long valued defensive coordinators with head coach experience; Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy feels the same way and has a similar history in Green Bay. That explains in part why Mike Zimmer and Ron Rivera are already lined up as candidates.

Is there “urgency”? Only in this sense: As it is Super Bowl Week, Cowboys execs will soon be bound for Las Vegas. So we’re told to expect the Zimmer and Rivera interviews – and probably others – to take place at the very start of this week.

Is this McCarthy’s call alone? It is not. He was granted that luxury when he first came here four years ago. He hired close pal Mike Nolan. That failed.

A year later, Jerry and Stephen Jones, along with personnel boss Will McClay, joined McCarthy in the interview process … and together hit a home run with Quinn – despite none of them having had a previous relationship with him.

Speaking of a “home run”: One NFL owner, speaking anonymously to CowboysSI.com, tells is that Jerry is “swinging for the fences” here in an attempt to make a powerhouse hire. So Cowboys Nation is allowed to dream … by reading the scoop and the story here, in which we mention all the names, all the way up the totem pole to Bill Belchick.

*Dallas has not ruled out in-house candidates like Joe Whitt Jr., Al Harris and Aden Durde. But hiring a rookie play-caller/coordinator is less than ideal to many inside The Star.

Whitt will interview to become Quinn’s defensive coordinator in Washington, but that is largely a formality. A source said they are “attached at the hip” in this process.

*Jones’ involvement doesn’t mean McCarthy “lacks power,” nor is it automatically a good or a bad thing. But he will join in the decision as he tries to back up his “all-in” pledge … and in the back of his mind, might also consider the credentials of candidates as they relate to them someday taking the reins from McCarthy.