The Dallas Cowboys led the Arizona Cardinals 24-10 with 14:20 left in the fourth quarter Sunday at AT&T Stadium, then lost 33-30 in overtime to fall to 3-5. Afterward, owner and general manager Jerry Jones addressed whether the collapse would lead to a coaching change. “That’s not in my mind at this time,” he said.

But ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has a candidate in mind anyway. On Monday’s “First Take,” Smith urged Jones to pry Rex Ryan away from ESPN and make him the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, and NFL fans were divided over the idea, with some doubting Jones would ever go for it.

Stephen A. Smith Makes His Case for Rex Ryan in Dallas

Smith didn’t hold back on how Jones should go about it. “He should call ESPN today… Rex Ryan should not be on ‘NFL Countdown’ anymore. Even though I want him on there. He should not be on ‘Get Up’ anymore. Even though I love seeing him on there.”

For Smith, the case rests on temperament. “Jerry Jones made a mistake by not going and getting Rex Ryan to be his defensive coordinator… You need somebody fiery, you need somebody that’s gonna hold cats accountable, you need somebody that’s gonna make people recognize that their jobs are on the line if they don’t go out there and produce.”

That is exactly where one fan sees the obstacle in Dallas. “Rex Ryan has way too much personality for Jerry Jones. He won’t be a yes man… Automatically disqualifies him from being hired.”

Another fan reached the same conclusion: “It’ll never happen because I’m pretty confident Rex Ryan isn’t a puppet and that’s the only coach Jerry wants.”

Some Fans Back the Idea as Others Point to Ryan’s Record

The idea had its backers, too. “Been saying they need to go get Rex Ryan,” one fan wrote.

Smith has been making this pitch since January, before the Cowboys hired Christian Parker as their defensive coordinator.

That month, Dallas fired defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, and Smith told his SiriusXM radio audience that “Rex Ryan is one of the elite defensive minds in football.”

Another fan brought up Eberflus on Monday: “One of the few times I agree with him. I suggested Rex before Eberflus.”

A third fan went beyond Dallas entirely: “The fact that Rex Ryan and Bill Belichick are not coaching in the NFL is just odd.”

Others questioned what Ryan would bring. He coached the New York Jets and then the Buffalo Bills, but hasn’t coached in the NFL in a decade, and one fan argued his head coaching record doesn’t make the case:

“Rex never won a Super Bowl, conference title, or division title as a head coach. His best stretches were the back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances with the Jets in 2009 and 2010. He has a sub .500 winning percentage as (an) HC. How does he help?”

Another fan made asimilar case: “Rex Ryan … he is 61-66 as a head coach and nobody has hired him in the last 10 years except ESPN. Does that tell you anything at all?”

The Arizona Cardinals’ Rally Came Against the NFL’s Lowest-Graded Pass Defense

Smith’s call came a day after Dallas blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead. That made the Cowboys the first team this season to lose after leading by 14 or more in the fourth quarter, and the collapse tied the biggest fourth-quarter lead the franchise has ever lost, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

After Dak Prescott’s 5-yard touchdown run made it 24-10, Arizona scored touchdowns on all three of its remaining possessions in regulation, each on a Gardner Minshew II pass.

Arizona piled up 467 total yards. Pro Football Network posted the league’s lowest pass defense grades Monday, and PFN’s NFL Defense Impact Grade puts Dallas’ pass defense last in the league at 60.6. That is 4.8 points below the next-lowest team, the New Orleans Saints, at 65.4.

Dallas did add to its defensive staff after Week 5. Mike Pettine, who went 10-22 as Cleveland’s head coach in 2014 and 2015, joined as a senior defensive assistant on Oct. 12.

Unless Jones changes course from what he said Sunday, that staff is the one charged with fixing the league’s lowest-graded pass defense.