Joe Philbin was absolutely forced to fire Mike Sherman. And I think that's the best thing that ever happened to Joe Philbin, because Mike Sherman was not doing a good job.
However, Joe Philbin absolutely deserves every ounce of credit for some REALLY good assistant coaching hires this offseason. Benton and Duffner are overlooked because of Bill Lazor, but I think those were both 'out of the park' position coach pickups. As I've said before, I'm really impressed with how Philbin quietly went about finding quality assistant coaches through all the turmoil this offseason.
BTW, I'm just going to throw this out there: I think Steve Ross isn't as dumb as a lot of people here think he is. He has generally let the football people run the football team, but in the two instances we've heard of that Ross has stepped in and issued directives, they were to nix the Kyle Orton trade and to force out Mike Sherman.