The long-rumored marriage of Wade Phillips and the Houston Texans was consummated on Wednesday. (There’s a nice image.)
The Texans announced they hired the former Cowboys head coach as their new defensive coordinator.
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle imagined what the new defense would look like, putting Connor Barwin and Brian Cushing as outside linebackers. Phillips will have to get creative to integrate defensive end Mario Williams, who isn’t a natural fit in a base 3-4 defense.
We like the hire of Phillips, although there is some concern that the Texans have a good cop-good cop scenario with Gary Kubiak and Phillips running the show on their respective sides of the football.
Another issue could occur if there is a long lockout and Phillips doesn’t have much time to implement his system before the 2011 season.