MySA.COM: Harvey: Wade's problem (besides the rest)

by Buck Harvey -

There's an Eagles coach who will go after Kurt Warner today, and his name sounds familiar. Jim Johnson, however, isn't Jimmy.

The son of another former NFL head coach will lead Baltimore, and Rex Ryan will unleash remarkable defensive innovations that would have made Buddy and his old Bears defenses proud.

Then there's the 71-year-old constant of the Steelers, Dick LeBeau; he does push-ups before practice and pushes down offenses during games.

They are specialists, and they represent what Wade Phillips is supposed to be.

But isn't.

Jerry Jones won't get a chance to find out how good Phillips could be as a coordinator, though there is an opening. Last week Phillips fired his friend and longtime sidekick, Brian Stewart.

Few saw Stewart as anything special, and one report out of Dallas last week said “the players had no respect, no regard and no confidence in Stewart.”

Still, eight years ago, when Phillips was the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, he reacted differently after a similarly disappointing season. Then he was hesitant to fire an assistant at the front office's urging, though Phillips did say he would reassign the assistant.

Phillips also said then the issue over the assistant didn't really matter. He thought he was on his way out anyway, since management hadn't extended his contract.

He said later he wouldn't have wanted to work with just a year remaining on his contract. Wouldn't the players have seen him as a lame duck?

“I think it would have been an unmanageable situation,” Phillips said then.

Now he's working with just a year remaining on his contract. It's equally unmanageable, but Phillips is doing whatever he has to do. He realizes what everyone else realizes. This is his last NFL head coaching job, and he's lucky to have it.

Maybe, after Jon Gruden joined the not-so-exclusive club of the unemployed who would be better than Phillips, Jones could try something. He could hire another and demote Phillips to be the defensive coordinator.

Isn't that a better fit for Phillips? It would be, but there's a problem with that. Surprise, surprise, it's with Phillips.

He wouldn't take a demotion, and he would have every right not to do so. His $3 million contract calls for him to be the Cowboys' head coach.

But Phillips' ego also wouldn't accept the reassignment. He's been trying to prove for a dozen years that he's more than a coordinator, and that became clear earlier this month when he appeared on a radio show.

Then the host said what everyone thinks, that Phillips has been “a great defensive coordinator.”

And Phillips took the compliment as a subtle dig; he felt the need to defend himself as a head coach.

Still, is even the “great defensive coordinator” part correct after this past season? He wasn't the coordinator, exactly, but the Dallas defense was always supposed to be his.

Jason Garrett would get his $3 million to run the offense, and Phillips would take the defense. If Phillips had leaned too heavily on Stewart, then that was supposed to have been corrected at midseason. Then Phillips took more of the defensive responsibility.

Phillips didn't mind letting that slip after a successful game. As DeMarcus Ware piled up sacks and Jay Ratliff emerged, the Cowboys' defense became the more dependable part of the team.

That's the Phillips profile. He oversaw the Reggie White defenses in Philadelphia for a couple of years, and his defenses in San Diego, Denver and Atlanta were comparable.

Still, none of that changes what happened in Dallas when he was supposed to be in charge and later more involved. Phillips' defense would flex its muscles, then collapse at precisely the wrong time.

The contrast: Johnson, Ryan and LeBeau operated attacking defenses, creating turnovers and sending their teams to the cusp of the Super Bowl.

And when the Cowboys finally cratered in Philadelphia?

Phillips fired his defensive coordinator. When he was it.