Yeah, I think Wade Phillips is unfairly considered to be a failed head coach.

He went 9-7 and then 7-9 with the Broncos. Then the Broncos added 1,000+ yards from Terrell Davis the next season and the genius Shanahan still only went 8-8. So it’s not like the Broncos instantly were a Super Bowl team.

In Buffalo, things seemed to be going pretty well until the owner intervened and had him bench Doug Flutie for Rob Johnson. (His 2000 Bills were the anti-Patriots. They ranked 3rd in yards allowed, but 18th in points allowed.)

In Dallas, his record was better than Parcells. But not as good as Garrett.

Maybe there’s some personal stuff that makes owners want to get rid of him?

I am convinced that the correlation between being a good coordinator (or assistant) and being a good head coach, is very small.

The skill sets overlap but are not identical. A coordinator needs to be good at x’s and o’s and using players to their abilities, etc. A head coach needs to be good at leading a group, delegating duties, seeing the big picture, etc. I don’t think there is any way to really know if an assistant can do head coach duties until he’s in the role.