Reflecting on Wade Phillips run in Buffalo

What’s that old saying…Buffalo is always somehow connected?

Alright, maybe its not that hard to find a correlation with any coaches/players that are playing in a Super Bowl that have something to do with anyone’s hometown team. I’m sure Bruce DeHaven will get a lot of love since he was a part of the Super Bowl teams and was introduced to younger fans who watched “Four Falls of Buffalo.”

However, for this piece, I wanna reflect on Wade Phillips tenure in Buffalo. It is a story about how on the field progress can be secondary when it comes to how you run an NFL football team. Wade had his ups and certainly his downs here, but if anything, it proved to me as a fan that be careful for what you wish for because the grass isn’t always greener.

History as a DC in Buffalo
Wade was named the defensive coordinator in Buffalo for the 1995 season. In the previous season, the Bills drive for 5 straight super bowls were derailed mainly because Walt Corey’s defense became too easy to predict and dropped to 22nd in scoring defense and had just 25 sacks on the season. The Bills missed the playoffs for the first time in 6 seasons and finished 7-9. Stars like Cornelius Bennett and Darryl Talley were in the twilight of their careers and the defense basically seemed to get old over night.

Enter Wade Phillips who was fired from Denver after just 2 years as a HC. Thinking back, I was ecstatic for the move because the Bills never really had a big coaching change within the ranks during the Super Bowl years and it was all new to me. Plus, I was over Walt’s defense.

The Bills decided to revamp their defense by getting rid of Jeff Wright (NT) and Talley (OLB) for Ted Washington and Bryce Paup. They also added Jim Jeffcoat to be a passing down specialist. The changes were huge for the Bills as you could make the case that the 1995 offseason was the best in Bills history in terms of post free agency. The defense went from 25 sacks to 48 and went from 22nd to 12th overall.

Bryce Paup lead the league in sacks and won defensive player of the year. The Bills front of Bruce-Washington-Hansen to go along with Paup being your classic OLB rusher in a 3-4 was causing fits for the opposition, The Bills went from 7-9 to 10-6 and won the division title which ended up being their last. The following season the defense ranked 6th in the NFL and once again had 48 sacks. The Bills went 10-6 and squeaked into the playoffs by beating the Chiefs in the finale and once again, the defense really rode shotgun for this season.

The architect of the defense was Wade and this isn’t hyperbole when I say this…But I always felt if Wade was the coordinator during the Super Bowl years, the Bills would have won a Super Bowl, specifically against the Giants.

That’s just how good Wade was for this defense. You have to understand the Bills defense was ranked 8th, 27th, 12th and 27th during the Super Bowl years. They were good at times, but after you got through 78/97, the pass rush was lacking. They were your classic bend, but don’t break defense. Well, when Wade got here, the defense didn’t bend, instead, they broke a lot of other offenses.

The biggest reason the Bills made the playoffs in 1995 and 1996 was because of the defense. The offense in ’95 was middle of the pack with Andre Reed missing most of the season and Thurman starting to slow down from his Super Bowl days. In 1996, Kelly was basically shot as he finished with just 14TDs and 19INTs. The Bills made it to the playoffs, but lost to the Jags in the wild card game which ended up being the Jim Kelly’s last game and the last playoff game played in Buffalo.

[On a side note: People forget that Kelly was basically supposed to get a new contract prior to the season (6-million a year which was top $ at that time) like Marino and Elway, but the Bills decided to wait until the conclusion of the season. Once they saw that Kelly was basically shot, they pretty much weren’t going to give him a new deal and that’s when Kelly decided to retire only to then almost sign with the Ravens who had Ted Marchibroda as coach. Kelly declined and we’ve been looking since.]

Passing of the torch
The 1997 season sucked. Outside of that crazy Colts comeback when the Bills were down 26, it was a complete shitshow. Kelly and Kent Hull were gone and the Bills finished 6-10.  The defense had 46 sacks, but having shitty Todd Collins as the QB didn’t help as the Bills scored the 2nd fewest points in the NFL. Marv Levy was under fire and basically it felt that we needed new blood to come in as time had passed him by.

Marv decided to retire, albeit, he was told by ownership that he needed to make wholesale changes to his offensive staff and he wasn’t exactly enamored with it, so, hence the Tom Coughlin/Giants treatment:

According to club sources, Levy was uncomfortable about the prospect of having to make major changes among his offensive coaches, as demanded by Wilson, and decided it would be best for someone else to do it. Coordinator Dan Henning, line coach Tom Bresnahan and tight ends coach Don Lawrence have been under fire for the one of the worst seasons by a Bills offense in team history.

Ironic that Levy didn’t wan to can his assistant coaches, but Wade was totally cool with (Foreshadowing for 2000).

If Phillips is named to replace Levy, he is expected to make sweeping changes on the coaching staff. It is common for any new head coach to do some hiring of his own, and Phillips has no special ties to any members of the current Bills staff. Phillips also keeps a “ready list” of possible assistant coaching candidates.

That’s basically what happened. Wade was named HC and he fired 6 offensive coaches and Ted Cottrell was promoted from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator. For the most part, I don’t really recall how I felt about Wade being named coach. I was only 17 at the time and I think I may have wanted the Bills to go outside to find their next coach. But these are the Bills and we all know they love themselves some continuity.

The good
Heading into the ’98 season, I didn’t think highly of the Bills chances for making the playoffs. I didn’t know much about Rob Johnson and they basically just added him, Doug Flutie, Sam Gash and Joe Panos via FA. They also lost Bryce Paup to FA and Chris Spielman to injury.  It felt like a full-on rebuild and if the Bills went 7-9, it would be a successful year.

But that wasn’t even the least of the Bills problems. Before Bon Jovi started making our lives a miserable hell about relocation, Ralph Wilson was basically telling the community that they needed to buy luxury boxes or he was getting the hell out of town. The Bills had just signed a new lease, but they could get out of it if they couldn’t sell a certain number of luxury boxes. So, for the entire ’98 season it felt like a telethon where they wanted businesses to buy luxury boxes so they can “save the Bills”. Keep in mind the Bills just came off a 6-10 season where they only sold out 2 of their 8 home games (Note: This was when they had 80,000 seats) and the 2 home finales had less than 45,000 people in attendance. So, they weren’t exactly coming off a great fan interest season.

Well, 1998 was different.

The Bills caught lightning in a bottle as Flutiemania took over. The Bills started the season 0-3, but Flutie took over for an injured Rob Johnson and the Bills finished the season on a 10-3 run. The Bills went from 29th in scoring to 7th and the defense was respectable as they earned a 15th ranking. But basically, Flutie was magical for the season. The Bills ended up selling out the number of luxury boxes that everyone panicked over and you could make the case that Flutie spearheaded that. Maybe if Flutie didn’t come to Buffalo, the Bills would have had issues selling out those boxes at that time. Besides Flutie, Eric Moulds had arguably the best offensive year for a WR in club history as he had over 1,400 yards receiving. The Bills made the playoffs, but lost to Miami in heartbreaking fashion, 24-17.

In 1999, expectations were much higher than the previous year as fans thought a full year of Flutie would all but erase their slow start from the year before. However, Flutie regressed a bit, but the Bills defense went to #1 on the season. 2nd year man Sam Cowart was a stud at LB and the secondary was stellar. The Bills ended up finishing 11-5, but subsequently lost to the Titans in the playoffs. The following season, the Bills were in salary cap jail as they cut the Big 3 (Reed-Smith-Thomas) and let Thomas Smith and Kurt Schultz leave via FA. Expectations were down a bit as losing the Big 3 and letting FAs walk dampened the enthusiasm a bit.

However, the Bills raced out to a surprising 7-4 record and looked to be on the cusp to make the playoffs. The defense once again carried the load and Eric Moulds was on fire during that stretch 11 game stretch (7 games over 90 yards receiving). But injuries to Sam Cowart, Keion Carpenter and Sam Rogers to go along with inconsistent QB play made the Bills go into a downward spiral as they finished the season losing 4 out of 5 games.

Still, Wade Phillips finished 29-19 in his 3 seasons as HC which were the most wins in Bills history for any coach after their first 3 seasons.

The bad
More is lost by indecision than by wrong decision. That was basically the biggest problem with Wade. He was very wishy-washy when it came to the whole Flutie vs. Johnson controversy. After the ’98 season when Flutie was the obvious choice at QB, Wade didn’t exactly give a glowing resentment as he was kind of elusive about him being the starter and had the whole 2 starting QB depth chart in the ’99 training camp. Then there was the whole benching Flutie for Johnson prior to the Wild Card game against Tennessee that put everyone in a state of shock.

At the time, it was believed that it was all Wade with some tiny rumblings that Ralph Wilson had a hand in it. However, over the last couple years Wade has been on record to say it was Ralph who told him to bench Flutie (Note: He said this on the NFL Network’s top 10 series where the topic was QB controversies).

The whole Johnson/Flutie controversy basically split the locker room in half and neither QB liked each other at all. It was to the point where Johnson/Flutie wouldn’t even talk to each other during meetings and Alex Van Pelt had to be the bumper between them when it came to breaking down film.

When the Bills held their quarterback meetings in preparation for the next opponent, there usually were two people talking and neither was named Doug or Rob. Instead, bench warmer Alex Van Pelt reviewed the game plan with offensive coordinator Joe Pendry. Johnson threw in his two cents every so often. Flutie threw in three cents just to be sure. But they said nothing to each other.

Here’s how Bucky Gleason described the tension between the two of them and how the backstabbing went in the locker room:

When Johnson was injured he did everything asked to help Flutie get ready for the next opponent, but it didn’t take long for him to realize the favor wouldn’t be returned. How sophomoric did Flutie become? Well, even when Johnson played well and the Bills won, Flutie told his teammates he would have done a much better job, that he should have been the quarterback, that he would have avoided more sacks, that the Bills would have won by more had he been given the reins. And once his tiresome tirade was over, he would ask his listeners, “Don’t you think?”

This is where you need a head coach to basically breathe hell, fire and brimstone upon the locker room and tell them to grow the fuck up. Wade was never that guy. He was a player’s coach who basically seemed to let the inmates run the asylum. Everything really came to hell during the 2000 season. Where can we go?

• Hiring Ronnie Jones as the special teams coach who had zero NFL experience and basically turned the special teams unit into a 15-minute spot on NFL Football follies. Allegedly, Jones was Wade’s friend and was a big part in recruiting Wade’s son (QB at Williamsville North) at some low rent college I never heard of.
• Prior to a MNF game against the Colts, both teams were 7-5 and Wade Phillips told the MNF crew that he didn’t think neither team would make the playoffs. He was right about the Bills, but not the Colts. Talk about waving the white flag.
• Saying Chris Watson was a punt catcher and not a punt returner.
• The handling of Johnson/Flutie.

It was just a disaster for the most part that season and Wade was under fire from a lot of folks. WGR thought he was a bumbling idiot and Jerry Sullivan basically thought he was lazy and lacked attention to detail.

The end
For almost the entire 2000 season, basically it was the worst kept secret that John Butler was going to leave the Bills. He was one of the lowest paid GMs in the NFL and everyone knew he wanted a raise. In some circles, it was felt Butler also wanted to leave the Bills because he was sick of working for Ralph Wilson and the Bills were in salary cap hell. Long story short, Ralph allegedly offered Butler a contract to stay on, but it was too small for Butler’s liking. Ralph basically then fired Butler and accused him of trying to just get a better deal with San Diego (Where he ended up going to).

I mention all of this because some felt part of the reason why Wade Phillips left the Bills was because the new GM didn’t want to inherit him. Here’s how Jerry Sullivan described his theory:

I don’t believe Ralph Wilson would fire his head coach simply because he was too loyal. And I don’t for a second believe that Phillips wouldn’t have sacrificed a few assistants if it really meant saving his own skin. Call me a cynic, but it sounds as if Wilson realized he had to get rid of his coach before he could bring in his next general manager and decided to provide Phillips with a soft, dignified landing.  There are people around the league who believe that’s what Phillips had in mind all along, that he wanted to go back home and coach the expansion Texans in 2002.

Sully might be completely off, but it is kind of funny that Wade would stick his head out for Ronnie Jones who was an epic disaster, but was cool with firing Marv’s old assistants and allegedly listened to Ralph Wilson tell him to bench Doug Flutie. In other words, Wade has a track record of basically being a pussy. Maybe he knew a new GM would screw him. One of the more crazier things was it took the Bills 15 days after the season ended for Wade and the team to part ways. In fact, Wade was canned over the phone while he was at one of the college all-star games. I guess both parties forget about black Monday.

On the surface/public, Ralph basically told Wade he had to fire Ronnie Jones and Wade basically said no. Here was Ralph’s statement about canning Wade:

“I want to make it very clear that I like Wade, both as a person and a coach. Wade has done a good job for us, reaching the playoffs two out of the last three seasons. But I felt the dismissal of the special teams coach was imperative for the improvement of our team. I did not want to release Wade, but his refusal left me with no option.”

Things got even stranger because Wade had contested that he was fired by Ralph, but Ralph maintained that Wade had quit on the Bills and he didn’t want to honor Wade’s final year of his contract. Its pretty stupid when you think about it since in Ralph’s statement he basically said Wade gave him no option. Um, that kind of means you canned him, right? Wade and Ralph ended up going to court and Ralph’s defense was basically he had to fire him because of “insubordination.”

In the end, Ralph ended up having to pay Wade for his final year of his contract.

Final word
I will admit, I wanted Wade fired by the end of the 2000 season. I just grew tired of the whole Flutie/Johnson ordeal and felt that the Bills had loads of talent and had underachieved when you consider they didn’t have any playoff wins. Of course, this was during a time when expectations weren’t to just get into the playoffs, but to actually get to the Super Bowl and possibly win. 15 years later, well, I’d totally take a year of Flutie/Johnson if that meant playoffs. That’s the rub..By comparison to what we’ve endured, Wade is like a Wall of famer based on the last 15 years. But by NFL standards, he’s not a great HC.

There’s no denying that Wade is a hell of a defensive coach. In his 33 years as a HC or DC, his defenses have ranked in the top ten 17 times and in the top five 9 times.

However, I think his aloof demeanor when it comes to dealing with player discord sunk him in Buffalo as a HC. He just didn’t deal well with adversity or being decisive. I also think that kind of sunk him in Dallas as well. Don’t get me wrong, you could make the case that both ownership groups in Dallas/Buffalo didn’t do him any favors and you factor in his W/L record of 82-64. However, his attention to detail and leadership skills left a lot to be desired.

Anyways, while I wouldn’t want him to be my HC probably, I’d totally take him to run my defense any day of the week. Hell, if Dick LeBeau can get into the HOF because of his assistant coaching career, you could make the case for Wade. As for the Super Bowl, I’m more inclined to want DeHaven to win because anyone from those Super Bowl years is always near and dear to my heart. However, I’ll easily say that Wade was a more important coach in Buffalo than DeHaven was.