Jerry Jones Vows Not To Fire Wade Phillips Midseason

Jerry Jones made it very clear after his Dallas Cowboys lost to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, to fall to 1-4, that he would not be firing Wade Phillips in the middle of the season. Jones has never fired a coach midseason, and he doesn’t plan on changing that any time soon.

Jones has to be the most frustrated owner in football.

“I’m not [optimistic],” Jones said. “I’m very disappointed. I realize the challenge that we’ve got, and we’re not playing well enough to get it done right now. We’re running out of the opportunity to make this season what we meant it to be.”

Before the season, Jones highly expected his team to play for the Super Bowl in his new Dallas Stadium. Sitting at 1-4, he knows that they have a long ways to go. Things aren’t getting better from week to week and that should concern any Dallas Cowboys fan.

I wrote an article last month, predicting that Phillips would be fired sometime during or after this season (Six NFL Coaches That Will Be Fired This Season).

I’ll say it again, the problem is not that Phillips is a bad coach. Hell, he has the highest win percentage among coaches in Cowboys history. As I said in the previous article, he’s just coaching the wrong team. There are too many personalities and egos on this team for it to be coached by white hair, soft-spoken old guy.

When things are tough in Dallas, Phillips just isn’t able to get enough out of his players. He wins games because he has a lot of talent, but in tough situations, like right now, or in playoffs, he struggles as a coach. These guys need a Jon Gruden type coach to get in their face and get the most of of their abilities.

Some teams can get away with a soft spoken coach, but they have quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Phillips needs to coach a team where the quarterback is a seasoned leader and is very vocal.

Tony Romo is neither. It just seems like no matter how hard Romo tries to be a leader, he just can’t do it. He tries to play the part and force leadership, rather than it being natural.

The only way Phillips can save his job at this point is basically win 10-11 games and reach the Super Bowl. Any other result and Jerry will be showing him the door.  There’s no ignoring how much talent Dallas has on both sides of the ball, therefore, their problems start with coaching. 

 ”Obviously, it’s coaching,” Phillips said. “We’re going to keep working on it until we get it right.” The Cowboys need and even deserve better than a “keep working on it until we get it right” attitude. Unfortunately for them, Jerry Jones doesn’t want to fire anyone midseason.