Wade Phillips appreciates "all the great things" Terrell Owens did for the Dallas Cowboys, and wants you to remember that departed cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones led the team in pass breakups last season.
Those things might not seem newsworthy -- just Wade being Wade, quick with a compliment and some positive spin.
But that's what Phillips had to offer this week at the NFL owners' meetings in Dana Point, Calif., when he met with reporters for his first extended interview since proclaiming at his season-ending news conference that he was going to change his approach.
Like the Phillips of 2007-08, he gave praise whenever possible, offered stats showing his record is better than his reputation and had few specifics about why things will be better for the Cowboys this year.
He even backtracked on the entire notion of shaking things up.
"Some of it's modification. It's an adjustment. That is change. Those things are change too," Phillips said Wednesday.
Back in late December, after the Cowboys finished their swoon from NFC favorites to missing the playoffs, Phillips announced that if Jerry Jones wasn't changing coaches, then the coach himself would change.
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"To get to the standard we want, I don't see any other way," he said then. "You can't say, 'Well, OK, everything's going to be all right,' because it's not going to be all right if you do the same thing and I'm talking about myself. If it means being more demanding, more whatever, I have to get it done."
Yet after giving it more thought, Phillips seems to have, well, changed his mind, at least the part about going from his easygoing, affable style to becoming an impossible-to-please boss like predecessor Bill Parcells.
"I have a lot of pride in how I work with players and how they respond to how I coach."
So then, what'll be different?
Apparently not much more than the usual tweaks.
"We change every year and analyze what we do and say, 'Hey, we need to do this different. I need to do this different or put emphasis on this,"' he said.
The closest Phillips got to being specific was saying something involving the offseason conditioning program (he didn't say what it was, though) and that the signing of Gerald Sensabaugh continues a change in the way the Cowboys will use their safeties, a process that started last year.
"It did help us," he said. "We were fifth in the league in pass defense last year."
Phillips is fond of such statistical references. During this interview, he noted several times that his Dallas teams have won 22 games in two years, while Parcells won 24 games his last three years with the Cowboys.
However, one fact rises above all others: Dallas hasn't won a playoff game the past 12 seasons.
Since last season's humble finale in Philadelphia, owner Jerry Jones has dumped Owens, Pacman, backup quarterback Brad Johnson and safety Roy Williams, plus defensive coordinator Brian Stewart and special teams coach Bruce Read. Defensive end Chris Canty signed with the Giants and linebacker Kevin Burnett signed with the Chargers. Cornerback Anthony Henry was traded to Detroit for quarterback Jon Kitna, who becomes the backup to Tony Romo.
Dallas replaced the defenders with lineman Igor Olshansky, linebacker Keith Brooking and Sensabaugh. Phillips has become the defensive coordinator and Joe DeCamillis was hired to run the special teams. DeCamillis' father-in-law is Dan Reeves, and he nearly came aboard, too, at Phillips' request, until a contract dispute nixed it.
Here are Phillips' thoughts on many of the changes, locker-room chemistry and more, including this dismissal of the gag order imposed by Jones that kept him quiet for three months: "There wasn't really a whole lot for me to say."
On T.O.:
"I appreciate as a coach all the great things he did. But we made the decision; we're going forward. We know we've got some young players we think can come in and play for us and help us at wide receiver and we're going to give them that opportunity."
On Romo:
"I think this is going to be even more of a breakout year for him just because of experience not because Terrell is or isn't there. I think it's just experience and playing the game. Tony is still 21-8 as the starter the last two years. ... I think he's improved in (decision-making) the last two years, but there's more room there. He works at it as good as anybody. We haven't started our offseason program and he's been there two weeks already."
On locker-room chemistry:
"I feel there were some things blown out of proportion after the season and misrepresented maybe a little bit. ... Those things happen when you don't live up (to expectations). ... Chemistry is always important, but production is the most important thing."
On Phillips getting the chance to redeem himself after a disappointing season, an opportunity he didn't get in Denver and Buffalo:
"Well, most cases it takes about four years to find out how good a coach is. I can tell you that. It takes about four years to get a championship-type team put together. We were expected because of Dallas to do it in one maybe two years and we haven't done that. I'm disappointed we haven't but I think we will."
On being head coach and defensive coordinator, something he's never done before:
"I really want to lean on myself a little bit more. ... I'll be in all the meetings and present the game plan to the players and more hands on with the team as far as on the field, those kind of things."
On the disappointment of Reeves not joining the organization:
"A little bit certainly, but, again, we go forward."
On Olshansky, whom he coached in San Diego:
"He's still a young player, one of the strongest if not the strongest guys in the league. And he plays hard. He learned to play hard. Hopefully I helped him with some of that when he was young. But he plays very hard and he's a big man that can move."
On Kitna:
"We feel like Kitna has a lot of arm strength, talent and is a good leader. ... He really loves Roy Williams and they really have a great relationship, which added to getting a new quarterback in. He's excited about being a Dallas Cowboy, which a lot of players are, and I'm thankful for that."
On whether the team's big internal changes will be noticeable:
"I think the results are certainly the most important thing."
