Opinion: Patriots Should Hire Wade Phillips

He's never had a really fair shot. The last time he coached a losing team for a full season, it was 1994. He's 67. He wants one more chance.

The Patriots should give it to him.

Let's get this straight: Wade Phillips is a phenomenal coach. Everyone will think of his ineptitude with the Cowboys, but he was a damn good coach.

In each of the past 10 full seasons that he's been with a team, they've finished top 10 in defensive yards. With three difference teams (Chargers, Cowboys, Texans). Four of those seasons they finished the top 10 in points against.

Doesn't that seem like a perfect complement for a coach who has finished in the top 10 for points nine out of the past eleven seasons? Yet only finished in the top 10 in yards in five of those seasons? In fact, the Patriots have finished in the bottom 7 for yards against in each of the past four years.

Doesn't this Yin make the perfect Yang?

And there's a historical precedence for it. The Patriots hired former Coach of the Year Dom Capers to be a special assistant and defensivebacks coach on a one season rental, as he moved from DC in Miami to DC in Green Bay. The Titans employed Gregg Williams as a "senior assistant defensive coach" for the past season, sparking them to the 4th greatest defensive improvement in the NFL.

It's happened. Why can't it happen again?

The Patriots are currently without Pepper Johnson, the linebackers coach. Currently defensive line coach Patrick Graham started as the LB coach with the Patriots. Wade Phillips cut his teeth in the league as a star defensive line coach.

Doesn't this actually make perfect sense?

We all talk about how the Patriots defense help defining its identity. Why not pair the best defensive minds of the past twenty years on the same sideline?

Phillips is looking for another shot so he can prove that he deserves to be a defensive coordinator. I can think of no better starting point than with the Patriots.

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Side note: Cold Hard Football Facts has a hilarious background on "The Curse of Flutie", where Wade Phillips is the main villain. Basically, Phillips benched Flutie and hasn't been able to find success ever since. I believe the Patriots are impervious to the Flutie curse as they paid their dues in 2005 by giving Doug a wonderful send off. I believe matching Phillips with the Patriots should break the curse cast on Wade.