The Big Lead

Terrifying Broncos Defense Shows it Was Silly for Wade Phillips to Be Out of NFL Last Year

By Ryan Glasspiegel

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It’s obviously still early in the NFL season, but the Broncos have beaten two teams that we think are pretty good — the Chiefs and Ravens — and it’s been on the backs of Wade Phillips’ defense. They’re everywhere. Peyton Manning’s back-from-the-dead-for-now comeback Thursday night was possible because Denver forced five turnovers and sacked Alex Smith four times. Last week, Joe Flacco was 18-32 for 117 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions, while Justin Forsett had 43 yards on 14 carries.

Even though he has a long history of improving defense at every stop, Phillips couldn’t even get interviews last season:

At one point, he speculated it might be his age:

We caught up with him during the season, and he offered some other possible explanations for being out of the league:

I don’t know if it was age. Some of the guys that got head coaching jobs are ones that I’ve never been associated with, or were younger guys or that kind of thing. I think that was part of it, but I don’t think it was specific to age. And it might’ve been money. I was the highest paid assistant in the NFL. If you want to hire me, it’s gonna cost you quite a bit. Usually when they’re putting together a new group they’re not looking for a guy that’s making a hell of a lot of money.

At my age, the people I know and have been associated with throughout my career — like Dan Reeves or Marv Levy — are out of football. If some of the younger guys that I’ve worked with on their way up get head coaching jobs, I think they’d hire me. It’s who you know. That’s the business. It just didn’t seem like I hit it right last season with the people who got jobs. Though, I didn’t know Marv Levy or Marty Schottenheimer all that well when they hired me.

In any event, it’s nice to have him back, and it’s nice to see the 68-year-old doing his thing at yet another stop.

Jason Lisk and I talked about this before last night’s game on our NFL preview podcast, which also included a segment from Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Clark about how Jeff Fisher and the Rams are reworking their habits to connect with millenials: