A New Captain at the Helm

Wade Phillips is now steering the Valley Ranch love boat.

Personally I'm glad to see JJ chose a coach with a background in Defense, especially one with a good track record leading a 3-4. JJ's spent so much time, energy, draft picks and free-agent money building a 3-4 it only makes sense to pursue someone who can effectively steer such a ship.

And good for JJ, he picked one who's shown a GREAT aptitude for it.
This is exactly what this dingy needs, at least on that side of the ball.

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Initially I winced at the thought of Phillips coming to Dallas, judging him solely by his record at his previous head-coaching ports of call.

His track record thus far as a head coach is not stellar:
45-35 distills to 9-7 over a 16 game season.
But remember, 10-6 usually means Playoffs.

Consider this:
Most first-time head coaches require a few years at the helm before things gel. One could make the case that he's paid his "first few years dues" in Denver and Buffalo, and hopefully therefore has put the initial rough waters largely behind him.

He's much more experienced now that he was at either of those two previous beachings. It's a safe bet he's pirated a few pieces of treasure working with Marty in San Diego.

Another thing in his favor here:
He's inheriting much more talent in Dallas than he did elsewhere.
In Buffalo he had an aging, past-it's-prime team. Lots of "last-years" superstars and Pro-Bowlers who made it in more on their continued popularity than sustained excellence. They made the playoffs, but were clearly circling the drain at that point.
In Denver he had Elway and Atwater.

In Dallas he walks into a top-5 offense with huge potential at QB, RB and TE.
He also is given an immense amount of heretofore underutilized, misguided and unexploited talent on D.
Since D is his specialty one can reasonably expect great improvement therein.

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With all this said, we could be seeing a very shiny new ship leaving port.

The Boys have a very good offense now driven by a new First Mate OC who's young, enthusiastic and not bound by the late '80's NFL mindset; and a HC who knows how to use his defensive tools and is unafraid to plunder a rich bounty.

Smooth-sailing from the start?
Unlikely.
Plenty of reasons to expect choppy seas:
1. TO
2. O-line
3. TO
4. 31
5. TO

But plenty of reasons also to expect cool breezes and pina coladas in the near future!