The 10 Most Underrated NFL Head Coaches Since 2000
10. Wade Phillips, Buffalo Bills/Dallas Cowboys
Average nERD: 4.84 (8th)
Average Win Differential: 2.80 (17th)
Wade Phillips is not only one of the most amusing follows on Twitter, but he is also one of the league’s best defensive minds. There’s a reason that Phillips has never had a job lower than defensive coordinator since 1981: defenses run by Phillips have ranked in the bottom half of the league in our Adjusted Defensive Net Expected Points (NEP) per play metric just three times in the past decade and a half. That kind of consistency is unheard of on the defensive side of the ball.
But we’re here to look at Phillips as a head coach. He ran the Buffalo Bills from 1998 to 2000 -- starting a bit prior to the data we have here at numberFire -- and then the Dallas Cowboys from 2007 to 2010, averaging 0.06 Adjusted Offensive NEP per play and -0.01 Adjusted Defensive NEP per play. The clear strength of his teams has been his 3-4 defense’s aggressive approach, forcing opposing passers into bad mistakes. After never having a year as a head coach with negative nERD, yet being booted so quickly, no one can blame him if he wants to just keep terrorizing quarterbacks instead of running the whole team at this point in his career.
