Taylor: Jones doesn’t want to fire Phillips
Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News made several good points about Jerry Jones and Wade Phillips (more specifically, Phillips’ job status) in one of his recent articles.
No one is rooting for Wade Phillips to succeed more than Jerry Jones.
If Phillips succeeds, then it justifies Jerry’s decision to hire Phillips instead of Norv Turner, and it justifies his decision to go with a players’ coach after Bill Parcells left.
Besides, Jerry loves working with Phillips because the coach allows him to be himself. He can be part of the process instead of feeling like an intruder when he wants to address the team after a game.
Jerry doesn’t want to fire Phillips.
Frankly, he’s looking for reasons to keep Phillips around. His 32-15 is a good start, but Jerry wants some playoff success. You can’t blame him, considering the Cowboys haven’t won a playoff game since 1996.
That’s why Jerry hasn’t been shy about saying what needs to happen for Phillips to keep his job.
It’s also why he hasn’t yet signed the club option that will guarantee Phillips another year.
This was a very simple way of looking at the situation and I thought Taylor hit on several key points, none bigger than the fact that Jones wants Phillips to succeed. If Phillips fails, then Jones looks bad for hiring him, so why wouldn’t he want the head coach to succeed?
It’s easy to get caught up in how Jones wants to make flashy decisions. Many people (myself included) somewhat expect him to go after Bill Cowher or Mike Shanahan in the offseason because that just seems like a Jerry Jones thing to do. But the fact of the matter is that Jones is in Phillips’ corner – he just wants to see his team win or else he’ll have to make a change because in his mind, the Cowboys have a Super Bowl roster.
This Sunday will tell a lot about Phillips’ future in Dallas. If the Eagles crush the Cowboys and Dallas gets bounced in the first round of the playoffs next week, Jones will likely make a change. But if the ‘Boys can muster a win against Philly and make a run deep into the playoffs, then there’s no guarantee that Jones will cut Phillips loose in the offseason.
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I think if the Cowboys beat the Eagles and win the divsion, Phillips stays even if they lose in the first round (unless they get waxed like the Giants did against the Panthers). If the Cowboys lose to the Eagles and get the wildcard, Phillips only stays if the Cowboys win their first round game.
Basically what Taylor is saying is Jerry wants to control the team and not have any resistance from a strong willed head coach. Phillips didn’t get hired because he is a players coach, he got hired because he is an owner-friendly coach…a controlling owner-friendly coach.
I don’t think going after a big name coach is really in Jerry Jones’ nature. Guys like Cowher and Shanahan wouldn’t take well to Jones’ meddling in football matters.
That’s been a pattern all the way back to Jimmy Johnson’s exit from Dallas. He’s looked for malleable guys to fill his head coaching slot, the exception being Bill Parcells.