Cover 2;3171929 said:
You can make the case that Wade put those teams in decline, just like Switzer helped put our team in decline by creating a poor football atmosphere. I like Wade as a person and a D coordinator, but I'm just not convinced he has what it takes to be a successful head coach.
Hopefully he proves me wrong and wins a Super Bowl this year.
It's a bad case. I'll tell you why.
Look at the coaches that Wade Phillips was brought in to replace and when he was brought in to replace them. In Denver, he was brought in to replace the great Dan Reeves when Reeves' Broncos were in a state of decline. Yeah, they had John Elway, Steve Atwater, and Shannon Sharpe, but the other necessary components on the team, such as runningback and wide receiver, were not in place or were never in place.
Take Mark Jackson, Elway's main target during the '80s. Once Dan Reeves left for the Giants in '93, so did Jackson. Wade didn't get to benefit from the Elway-Jackson tandem like the Reeves' Broncos did. Furthermore, the runningback situation in Denver was never solidified until Terrell Davis came into town.
Which leads me to my next point: things changed dramatically in Denver in 1995. Yeah, that was the year Mike Shanahan was hired, but it was also the year Rod Smith started coming into his own and Terrell Davis joined the team. The latter player really helped turn the fortunes of the Broncos because it took the heat off Elway. And, honestly, once Davis was injured in 1999, Shanahan and the Broncos couldn't do anything after that. Yeah, they made the playoffs in 2000 and later won a playoff game in 2005 after qualifying the previous two years and getting beat by the Colts in the wild card round each year, but the Broncos were never the same once Terrell Davis retired.
Wade Phillips didn't have the benefits of him. Things would have been a lot different for Wade if he had a real runningback.
I have a professor at college here that is a big Stancos fan. I mean, this guy goes back to the Orange Crush days. I talked to him about Wade Phillips and Mike Shanahan and he said that management in Denver wanted Mike Shanahan immediately after they fired Reeves in 1992. Shanahan wouldn't take the job because he didn't want to follow a legend like Reeves. That also sheds some light as to why Wade had a short tenure in Denver. Maybe they never wanted to keep him long term as it was, thus he was walking into a lose-lose situation the whole time, much like when Dave Campo took the head coaching job for our Cowboys.
Denver was a team with peaks and valleys and they hired Wade during one of the valleys. The Buffalo Bills were a team on a straight decline. After failing to qualify for the playoffs in 1994, the Bills could not advance past the divisional round of the playoffs and their last postseason appearance was in 1996, and Marv Levy's last season was a 6-10 swan song in 1997.
When Wade Phillips took over the team, the only legends from the Super Bowl Bills were Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, and Bruce Smith. The only guy that wasn't getting supplanted by younger talent was Bruce Smith. And the younger talent obviously wasn't going to get it done. Wade could only work with what he was given.
Sounds like a cop out? I don't believe it is. Bill Polian, the mastermind general manager behind those Super Bowl Bills, left Buffalo in 1993 and was replaced by John Butler. From 1993 to 2000, John Butler had mediocre drafts, drafts that weren't good enough to continue the winning traditions of the Bills. Think about it. Instead of getting their own quarterback through the draft like they did with Jim Kelly, once Levy was gone, they traded for Jacksonville's Rob Johnson and signed Doug Flutie. Evidences of the Bills' reliance on free agent talent as opposed to homegrown talent can be seen in 1995 when they signed Bryce Paup.
Wade Phillips went out with John Butler once the 2000 season was over. Wade Phillips was part of a wholesale house cleaning. And, as I examine this, he did a good job with the talent he was afforded. And it's not like the Bills have done better since Wade Phillips. In fact, they've gone through three head coaches and three general managers since then.
The best chance for Wade Phillips to succeed is here in Dallas. This is the best talented team he's had, ever. It's Week 16. We're 9-5, destiny in our hands, coming off of a huge win over the undefeated Saints IN DECEMBER IN THE SUPERDOME, and we're not injury-riddled like we were in 2008. I really have a good feeling about this team and that Wade Phillips will get a playoff win this postseason.
I'm willing to continue to back Wade because that's the right thing to do at this particular time.
