Ed Board would like to welcome Wade Phillips to Dallas.
With the niceties out of the way, we wonder why he is the person to lead America’s Team.
There are several things that have us questioning Jerry’s move.
Jones’ early hire of former Dallas quarterback Jason Garrett as offensive coordinator makes us wonder if Phillips isn’t some type of placeholder while Garrett earns his coaching stripes.
We also wonder if Phillips will have complete control over personnel decisions. Former coach Bill Parcells lost out when Dallas aquirred Terrell Owens, so what should lead us to believe Phillips will have free rein?
But we wonder most about the choice of Phillips.
To say it is an uninspired hire is quite the understatement.
If a coach who has not won a playoff game as a head coach is the best Dallas can do, then the Cowboys have much bigger problems than any of us realize.
The choice apparently came down to Norv Turner and Phillips. Turner is a known offensive mastermind. He ran the offense in the early 1990s that guided Dallas to its Super Bowls while mentoring quarterback Troy Aikman into the Hall of Famer he became.
Phillips differs in focus, working with defenses on various schemes to halt running games and limit opponents’ aerial attacks.
Hiring Jason Garrett created a potential conflict with Turner. Garrett is now likely to be named offensive coordinator. Turner would have been controlling the offense and Garrett’s role in the organization would have been undefined.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones clearly wants Garrett involved as much as possible. Thus the Phillips hire, which allows Garrett to begin his apprenticeship as offensive coordinator.
But shouldn’t the concern of the Cowboys be winning a playoff game? Or at least more than developing a young coach?
The Cowboys also showed interest in making Bears’ defensive coordinator Ron Rivera a Cowboy’s defensive coordinator, which could be a huge asset to a young defense. But will Rivera want to come to a team where he won’t have complete control over the defense?
Probably not. He, like a majority of the candidates paraded around Valley Ranch, was here for show. That’s too bad, because Dallas is in desperate need of fresh ideas.
We hope this all works out, but something tells us that a team one field goal away from the Divisional round of the playoffs isn’t going to get much farther with this hire.
Dallas is still America’s Team. But if things don’t improve in 2007, then we wonder if America will still care.
