Wade Phillips earned a reputation in his three and a half seasons in Dallas as something of a softie, often referred to as Coach Cupcake, his training camps as “Camp Cupcake.” He would often go to lengths to defend players who seemingly performed in an indefensible way. Basically, he was a nice guy, but unfortunately, nice guys don’t always flourish as NFL head coaches, and he got the ax after week nine.
Much like Phillips, the system he will implement in his new job as defensive coordinator is, according to Phillips himself, “very player-friendly”--a good thing, considering that, with the lockout in place, there’s no telling when coaches will be able to have contact with their players again. And regardless of what you think about his work as a head coach, Phillips the defensive coordinator has a gleaming track record with respect to resurrecting defenses.
"Whenever (the lockout ends), and I hope it's soon, we've got a real player-friendly system," Phillips said, per NFL.com. "That's what we pride ourselves on, and we can teach it quickly. It'll be about not making mental mistakes and teaching them techniques on how to do things, not so much what to do. We haven't always had an offseason, we've had to put it in during training camp before, so I think it's something they can learn fast. It's all technique after you learn what to do.
"It's a different language, a different way of doing things, but some have done it before, and it's all football. But if we are doing a good job with the teaching process, they'll learn it quick."
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