I'm sure you and I debated Sparano plenty but we were on the opposite sides of that debate and you were wrong. Now here you are on your soap box claiming to be the guythat knows a good head coach when he sees one. Why in the hell should anybody believe you? If I were you and I was completely wrong about the very last coach we had I would probably take a step back and think that maybe I have no clue what I'm talking about.
One thing thats blatantly obvious about Joe Philbin is he's an extremely intelligent man, if you can't see that its on you.
While I supported Sparano for a few years because I felt he was a good motivator/delegator in the mold of Cowher, I eventually came to recognize the reality that he wasn't cut out to be a Head Coach, just as you will soon come to recognize the same with Philbin.
I will give you that Philbin is likely more intelligent than Sparano, that alone does not make him a better Head Coach than Sparano. Sparano didn't have to resort to reading off cue cards to pump up his team. His players fought hard for him until he was effectively neutered. He had a vision of the team, although archaic and not fit for the modern NFL, actually worked the way he wanted it to. His teams were hard-nosed and the running game worked to maul people. That was his vision, and his teams were strong in that area.
He also made adjustments (notably during the epic Wild Cat year) when he recognized a deficiency and a strength and urged his coaches to cook up a scheme that would play to its strength. It worked amazingly for that first year - partially resulting in a division win and playoff appearance.
Now, what is Philbin's vision? I thought it was supposed to be a wide open, high scoring Green Bay style offense. Yet in TWO years we haven't seen anything of the sort. In fact, his offensive scoring production averages LESS than Sparano's caveman offenses did. I am sure you will pin this all on Tannehill, as if he was the one forcing trades of his star WR and trotting him out there with piss poor protection. Well, Tannehill was Philbin's handpicked QB coached by his mentor and handpicked lughead OC. And if Philbin had his way, that lughead OC would STILL be here today holding us back. So what does that say about "smarty pants" Philbin? That he would sacrifice the success of his team for loyalty to a universally accepted weak link?
There have been many other "intelligent" coaches that have flamed out as Head Coach because they were deficient in other ways, notably charisma, motivational capabilities, maleability, etc. Norv Turner is a brilliant guy, but he couldn't make it work as a HC in four tries. On the flip side, there have been far less intelligent guys who've won super bowls as HC, including Cowher.
As the results have shown year-in, year-out, Philbin is AVERAGE. He isn't great at any one particular thing and it shows on gamedays. I don't need to waste any more pixels on this discussion because it will make itself apparent even to you in due time...
