Wade Phillips has been at this for a long time.
The Rams’ defensive coordinator is entering his fifth decade of coaching in the league, his first job being an assistant coach for the Houston Oilers under his father, Bum Phillips, back in 1976.
But even as he’s been in and around the NFL significantly longer than head coach Sean McVay has been alive, Phillips laughed and said “No” when asked this week if it ever gets old to him.
“They say I’m old, but it doesn’t get old to me,” Phillips told therams.com. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Phillips was a key piece in the Rams winning their first NFC West title in over a decade in 2017, and now is ready to elevate the unit for his second season in Los Angeles. With Phase II of the offseason program underway, the defensive coordinator has been able to work with the players on the field for the first time since January.
“It’s good to be outside with them and work with them,” Phillips said. “We’ve been in the classroom — went in the classroom for two weeks. So now we go classroom and then step out on the field. You can’t run any routes or anything against them, but having most of them here last year, they are familiar with what we played. We can go [through our] walk-thru things and they have some recall from last year, so I think that helps. We’re a lot further ahead than we were last year at this time.”
Nevertheless, Phillips recognizes that not all of the current Rams were with the club in 2017. And because of that, the learning process is still important.
“I still like the offseason, the way we do it and then we get into OTAs,” Phillips said. “We learn what we’re supposed to do in the classroom, then you learn in the classroom and go out onto the field offensively and defensively, and then we can go out against another group which is our offense and go through the OTAs. So, that’s the learning process that I think helps going into the fall. You need to go through this part to be ready for all of that.”
And as L.A. works through the offseason program, Phillips continues to be encouraged about the club’s prospects for 2018.
“I think we have a great opportunity here,” Phillips said. “We took a big step forward last year. I don’t know if everyone realizes how big of a step it was, but it was a big step forward last year and we’re looking forward to this year.”