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ShareThisWhat will the 2007 Cowboys tell us about Bill Parcells?
As careful readers of this blog will know, I am not a fan of Bill Parcells. I'll spare you the reasons for that, mainly because I don't even remember them very well myself, and make this a Friday Discussion Question instead of a Friday Rant.
Because of my anti-Parcells agenda, I have been vigorously rooting against the Cowboys for the last several years. Now that he's moved on, what's a hater to do?
If the Cowboys struggle, does that mean Parcells' influence was the only thing keeping them near .500? Or does it mean he did a crummy job of building the foundation of the team? If the Cowboys go to the Super Bowl, will that be because Parcells built a solid nucleus that Wade Phillips just had to not ruin, or because Phillips finally was able to get this talented team to play to its potentential, something it had not been able to do under the stifling Parcells regime?
In general, what --- if anything --- do we learn about a coach the year after he leaves? I'm sure it varies from case to case, but what kinds of things does it depend upon? What specific events, if any, could happen in Dallas this year that would change your opinion of the job Parcells did there?
This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 5:04 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Wade Phillips is the man!! I miss him here in Buffalo.
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A quick aside about the M. Vick situation:
[some opinions (with which p-f-r might or might not agree in part or in whole) deleted. No offense, Bill M, but I'd prefer to keep this post, and all posts, on topic when possible. Thanks for understanding. --- Doug]
I live in Dallas and am neither a Cowboy fan or hater personally. I will tell you this, the Cowboys teams Parcells had are simply not a reflection of what he wants in a team...not at all.
He was saddled with TO against his wishes. He was, in fact, working towards the 2007 season on a Sunday this summer, had a meeting with Jerry where Jerry told him he was bringing TO back and then Parcells quit the next day.
He was saddled with Mike Zimmer as his D coordinator who simply did not understand the 3-4 Parcells wanted to run. Again Jerry handcuffed him by not letting him have a different coordinator. They were left with a very predictable defense and it hurt the team greatly.
The stories go on and on but the summary is Jerry is pretty much universally behind all the problems the team had during the Parcells era. I feel bad for Cowboys fans, its one thing to be a fan of a bad team, but Cowboys fans at this point know their team has zero shot of ever winning another superbowl until Jerry passes away.
As long as that piece of trash nicknamed TO is on the Cowboys, I fail to see why you or any other rational fan can't continue to root vehemently against them. I know I will. I even got sick of Tony Romo towards the end of last season, and I've never liked Jerry "Botox" Jones either.
I've long been a proponent of the Parcells Is Overrated theory and here's why: he won 2 Super Bowls with the Giants, got the Pats to one Super Bowl and lost, got the Jets to one AFC title game and lost, and then got the Cowboys to the playoffs and lost twice. See a pattern here? Parcells' best finish with each team he coaches over time gets worse and worse. If the pattern keeps up, the next team he decides to coach won't even make the playoffs at all. (And the guy's retired and unretired so many times there's no reason for anyone to think he won't at least think about coming back.) I just never got the big deal about him. Sure, back in the late 80's/early 90's he was great, but in the last decade? Um...no. He SHOULD have retired for good after the Jets or even the Pats gig.
I had done a little breakdown on teams Phillips had coached as a D coordinator or head coach and found that the average team he left improved 7-8 spots in points against and yards against ranking. People tend to remember his good and forget a bottom 5 Saints team he coached defensively, a dead last in yards against Philly team, and a dead last in points against Atlanta team. Meanwhile a little info on Parcells, I found out that he had three teams who had the highest ranking defensively (points against plus yards against / 2) in their franchise history (Dallas, NY Giants, and NY Jets).
As a rule, I would suggest that a pure coach (i.e. with minimal personnel responsibilities) would have a limited long-term impact, but a coach/gm would have a much more significant impact. As a result, Parcell's impact this year on a coaching level will be small, but as he had a notable front office role, this will impact the team. However, I guess this is too much of a variable to be modelled.
On Parcells is Overrated - in New York George Young was GM, and Parcells succeeded, later there is the "at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries" comment and increasing involvement in personnel, and less wins.
Parcells and Mike Holmgren are the best recent examples of Head Coach hubris - taking on extra responsibilities like personnel or play calling, in the belief that they are "the man", but generally to little gain (obviously Bill Belicheck is the exception that "proves" the rule)
I don't know if it is possible (I certainly have not got the information to look into it properly), but it would be interesting to see if there is a link.
Interesting points Kenneth. Looking at the records with Seattle, Holmgren was 31-33 as Coach/GM, and 41-23 as just a head coach.
Yes Parcells records in the postseason have dropped but in Dallas he probably had the least say as to who would be on his team. Also they went from winning 5 games a season for three straight years, to winning 9+ games 3 of his 4 years there. With the Jets he took over a team that hadn't won more than 8 games in over 10 years and only had won 4 games in their last two seasons combined. He won 29 games in 3 seasons there, and since his taking over in the past 10 years they have only lost more than 8 games twice. I think wherever he goes the team definately shows great improvement over his predecessors, but really his last three teams he never had anything at all to start with on a talent level, unlike with the Giants.
The '92 Cowboys D was #1 in yards allowed, so it's not as if Parcells was the first to get them there.
I've tried to follow up my own post with a look at the five years before and after Parcells:
Bef Dur Aft
NYG 5.8 9.6 7.8
NE 4.6 8.0 8.6
NYJ 4.4 9.7 8.8
DAL 6.6 8.5 ?
I'm not 100% where this gets me, but other notes about Big Tuna:
* Immediately before him, the records have been 4-5(1982), 2-14, 1-15 and 5-11, and immediately after 8-8, 10-6, 9-7 and 2007
* The coaches who succeeded him, despite his legacy for young assistants were Al Groh, Ray Handley and Pete Carroll
As I say, no idea where this gets the Overrated question, but he improved his teams both when he was Head Coach and after compared to before, but the quality of coaching after was probably worse, so we're back at square one.
ps - Chris thanks, but "least say" in Dallas is doubtful - he was the first to get the Cowboys to regularly start with a 3-4 front...
What has Parcells accomplished without Belichick?
Cowboys off to a terrific start so far.