Wade Phillips joins Broncos coaching staff

The Denver Broncos have brought in former head coach Wade Phillips as defensive coordinator.

The Denver Broncos have added to their coaching staff today as it was reported that Wade Phillips would return to Denver. Phillips comes back to the Broncos as he was formerly the defensive coordinator between 1989 and 1992. It was going into the 1993 season that Phillips became the head coach of the Broncos, where he managed a 9-7 record and went on to loose to the then Los Angeles Raiders in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

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The following year Phillips coached the Broncos to a 7-9 record and finished last in the AFC West. John Elway, Phillips’ new boss was the starting quarterback of the Broncos during Phillips’ reign as head coach.

Phillips gained notoriety during the end of the last decade as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. With the Cowboys Phillips compiled a record of 34-22, before being fired during the middle of the 2010 season.

Following that position Phillips joined his new fellow Broncos coach Gary Kubiak with the Houston Texans for the 2011 season. Phillips certainly presented himself in the form of an upgrade that season as the Texans finished forth in points allowed per game averaging 17.4. The previous year the Texans ranked 29th in this category letting up 26.7 points per game. This Texans team finished first in the AFC south with a 10-6 record, but went on to loose to the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL’s divisional round.

Kubiak and Phillips Texans returned the following year with an even stronger showing over all with a 12-4 record and again winning the AFC south. During this season the Texans defense softened slightly from the following year letting up 20.7 points a game, which was still good enough to be ranked in the top ten. This Texans team eventually lost to the New England Patriots in the AFC Divisional round.

It was in 2013 when the wheels fell off for Kubiak as he was fired after 13 games, of which he only won two. It was Phillips who was named his interim successor, before losing the remaining three games of the season.

Phillips stayed away from football during the 2014 season, before re-joining Kubiak, Elway, and the Broncos.

This development doesn’t much for the speculation over whether quarterback Peyton Manning will return to the Broncos as Phillips and Manning have no NFL experience together. However Phillips’ father long time coach of the Houston Oilers Bum Phillips did coach Peyton’s father Archie Manning during the 1981 NFL season with the New Orleans Saints. Wade was the defensive coordinator of that team as well.

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