As a Redskins fan, I’m sad to see him go.
It’s their goddamn GM they need to fire.
What took so long?
And why does Childress still have a job?
I just skimmed the linked article, but didn’t notice who will be his replacement - is Jones going to coach the team?
Usually in professional sports, firing the coach isn’t going to help. Not the case here, I think. Phillips was running the team about as well as the captain of the Exxon Valdez.
ETA: Someone in my office just suggested that the Bills hire Phillips (“at least he’s won one game this year”)
Jason Garrett will be coaching.
Thanks, no idea how I missed that. I looked up Jason Garrett and see that his professional highlight was filling in well for Troy Aikman during a Thanksgiving Day game in 1994. Which reminded me of the Clint Longley T-Day game of 1974. I wonder if Jason Garrett is just Clint Longley in an alternate universe?
As a Redskin fan, let me plant a seed for Jerry Jones.
psssst, Charlie Weis.
Wouldn’t he love the chance. I could see him doing a Dick Cheney style search for a Bush VP and coming up with… himself. He fancies himself a ‘football guy’, but he’s not.
Garrett was highly regarded a few years back when he took over as OC and was subsequently given a huge salary so that he wouldn’t take a HC job elsewhere, but other teams have figured him out in the interim and his stock’s fallen a ways.
Steve Spurrier’s still only 65…
Today’s change was Jerry’s first good move in quite a while. With a potential lockout year coming up, he didn’t want to get stuck with a big coach contract, which was working against a mid-season change. But by promoting Garrett, he kills a bunch of birds with one stone. Garrett had originally been the heir-apparent, but his stock, as you say, had fallen. So–now he’s getting a free half-season. If the team shows significant improvement over the last eight games, he’s probably won himself a long-term head coaching gig. If it doesn’t–no big deal for Jerry, he’ll cut him & bring in one of the big-name head coaches everyone’s talking about next year. (Or the year after, if there’s no football next year.)
New fun questions: Phillips was the DefCor, and Garrett the OffCor. I can’t imagine that Jones will let Garrett wear two hats in his first HC gig, they way he let the experienced Phillips … So, who will step up to run the offense and defense?
Just in case I haven’t killed this thread enough, I was amused to notice that Wade had the second-highest winning percentage of any Dallas coach (over his Cowboys career)–a fraction of a percent ahead of the legendary Tom Landry, significantly ahead of the only slightly less legendary Jimmy Johnson, and trailing only … Barry Switzer.
I’ll leave the commonality between those two coaches as an exercise for the student.
I made this exact argument in the Week 9 thread. I never really understood why all the pundits seemed to think firing Wade was a bad idea. They all agreed he was done but they all said that firing him wouldn’t improve things either. Mid-season coaching changes being useless and all. None of them seemed to remember that Garrett was touted as this wunderkind and heir apparent 3 years ago. Seems like getting him some reps as a head coach mid-season is the best possible solution for Jerry. They can see if they need to cut their losses with him or if Wade really was the issue and Garrett is still a viable candidate.
Sounds like a all-around win-win for the Pokes.
I love how folks throw around names…Cowher, Gruden, Billick, etc. like they will come coach the Cowboys if Jerry simply asks them and flashes the cash. I don’t see any of those guys coming in as long as Jerry is still GM.
I bet that Garrett gets the team to play well, he gets to keep his job and fails.
I imagine that most Cowboy fans realize the obstacles. I think the hope is that Jerry has learned his lesson from the Johnson and Parcells firing debacles, and can somehow convince whoever he tries to hire that he’s learned that lesson. Because you’re dead right–there’s no way any of those coaches comes in without some serious assurances that they’ll be able to actually run the team and have significant personnel and draft control as well. Jerry’s never shown any sign of willingness to cede that level of control; but maybe a 1-7 start for pretty much the same team that Parcells built & took to the playoffs will convince him that he needs to take a step back and let a head coach coach.
(Or maybe I’m just dreaming again …)
i think they should just unearth landry and let johnson call the plays from the booth. can’t be any worse than having jones in charge.
Garrett is giving a press conference in just a few minutes. Should be a fun time.
Maybe he’ll resign in protest. That would be awesome!!
The big plan is to get the team ready to play the Giants on Sunday. Presumably by making sure Kitna’s health insurance premiums are up-to-date.
Thanks for the update, Jason!
Will the rest of the season even be a good measure of Garret without Romo? Kitna is terrible.