IRVING, Texas - The gag order, if it ever really existed for Wade Phillips, is no more.
The Cowboys coach met with the press at the NFL owners meetings in Dana Point, Calif. on Wednesday, speaking publicly for the first time in 2009 about the team's December crash and addressing the team's eventful off-season. While most of the league's coaches held press conferences at the Senior Bowl or NFL Scouting Combine, Phillips stayed quiet, reportedly at the request of owner and general manager Jerry Jones.
Jones said in February the edict silencing Phillips and his assistants was necessary because of inaccurate stories coming from unnamed sources within Valley Ranch. Since then the team has answered the most controversial subject of speculation by releasing Terrell Owens. Phillips, who was complimentary of the departed wide receiver, said he didn't want to speak to the media because it would have only stirred things up worse. Owens was in the middle of some apparent locker room turmoil late in the year, which carried over into the off-season.
"I think you're worse off if you respond to all that he said, she said, they're saying this, we say that, all that stuff," Phillips said. "Get through it, get over it, let's go to the next year. And we have to get over it at some time.
"I'm not even going to discuss that because that's why I didn't want to talk about it in the first place. . . . I'm through with that."
The NFL required Phillips to answer questions for about an hour Wednesday at the NFC Coaches' Breakfast at the St. Regis Resort where the league's executives are holding their spring meetings. After the team floundered in the season's final month to miss the playoffs, Phillips said he didn't have anything to say about the poor performance or the apparent chemistry issues and wasn't pleased with the derision he received in the media.
"I'm talking right now, I've been talking. I didn't want to talk when supposedly - we asked the assistant coaches not to say anything - Jerry and I talked about it and I did not want to say anything anyway.
"If people are just going to go after you no matter what you say, then don't say anything in some cases," Phillips said. "Not that I'm not going to say things, because I am because I represent the team, and I want the fans to know what the team is thinking. . . . Anytime somebody is personal, it's more yellow journalism anytime they start calling you names. I don't think it's right."
New Catch
Not surprisingly, the subject of Terrell Owens' release governed much of Phillips' and Jones' interview time at the owners' meetings.
Phillips, speaking publicly for the first time since Owens' departure, said he believes the Cowboys' offense can excel without its leading receiver from 2008 (1,052 yards and 10 touchdowns).
"I appreciate as a coach all the great things he did," Phillips said. "But we made the decision, we're going forward. We know we've got some young players that we think can come in and play for us at wide receiver. And we're going to give them that opportunity."
That would seem to dispel the notion that the Cowboys might acquire another veteran to pair with Roy Williams, the new featured receiver. Patrick Crayton caught 50 passes and seven touchdowns as the No. 2 receiver in 2007, and the team is excited about three-year veteran Miles Austin's potential.
-Rob Phillips
Wildcat Formation Coming?
Also speaking Wednesday at the owners meeting, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones hinted the team may add some elements of the Wildcat to the playbook next season, possibly even drafting an athletic quarterback to run the hybrid offense.
"We may want to do some things on our offense this year with a third quarterback," Jones said. "That's something other than be there as a backup to the second quarterback and be there in case you lose all the quarterbacks and be there not certainly as a development prospect, but we could hopefully find a quarterback with a set of skills that we could put some packages in for."
West Virginia quarterback Pat White, who some teams see as a Wildcat threat and receiver in the NFL, would seem to fit the description. So too does third-year Cowboys receiver Isaiah Stanback, a talented scrambler when he quarterbacked the University of Washington. When a few NFL teams began using the Wildcat last year the quarterback position was often manned by running backs or receivers. Miami was the first team to feature the spread-option, scheming the new wrinkle to upset New England in Week Three.
Generally, the third quarterback is inactive on game day; the other two quarterbacks can not return to the game if he plays. But if a hybrid receiver were the third option the Cowboys could suit out three passers.
Cowboys running back Felix Jones has plenty of experience in the Wildcat after he and Raiders running back Darren McFadden tortured defense with misdirection at Arkansas. Jones was usually set in motion, either receiving a handoff or a fake from McFadden lined up in a shotgun set.
Drafting New Rules
The NFL owners approved on Wednesday a change to the draft order beginning in 2010 and altered a couple of minor rules before concluding their annual meetings in Dana Point, Calif.
Most significant will be the reseeding of teams drafting from No. 21-30, that order now to be based on how far playoff teams advance, with the exception of the two Super Bowl participants who still will draft in the 31st and 32nd spots, the last one going to the winner. No changes will be made in determining the first 20 spots in the draft, the teams with the worst records still drafting in the higher positions.
But beginning next year, the four teams losing a first-round wild-card playoff game will be drafting 21-24, also inversely proportionate to their final record. The losers in the divisional round of the playoffs will draft next, 25-28, and the two losers in the conference championship game will go 29 and 30.
The change recommended by the NFL competition committee was unanimously passed by the owners, 32-0. The owners obviously didn't think it was fair that an 8-8 San Diego Chargers team, which advanced to the second round of the playoffs by beating Indianapolis, will be drafting in the 16th spot this year, ahead of four 9-7 teams that did not advance to the playoffs, and also ahead of the 11-5 Patriots who did not reach the postseason as well. The topper, though, might be the Chargers drafting far ahead of the Colts (27th), who they beat in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
Under this system, San Diego would be drafting 25th this year instead of 16, quite a significant change, and the Colts would have moved up to the 24th spot, ahead of the teams that won wild-card games.
The league also made two minor rule changes:
There will be no opportunity for a second onside kick if the first one goes out of bounds, instead the ball going to the receiving team where it goes out of bounds.
The game clock will start after the ball is placed in play following a fumble or backwards pass that goes out of bounds.
-Mickey Spagnola
18 Might Be Enough
The idea of expanding the NFL regular season to 17 or 18 games while reducing the number of preseason games is picking up steam, and include NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as one of the proponents.
The possibility was heavily discussed during the three-day meetings, and there is a good chance the commissioner will present a proposal to expand the regular season to the owners at the May meetings. The league wants to still keep its preseason and regular-season game count to 20, meaning an 18-game regular-season would mean only a two-game preseason.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones voiced his support of an 18-game regular season at the meetings, pointing out a 17-game regular season would leave teams with an unbalanced home and away schedule.
Any change to the scheduling format could not take place before 2011 or without approval in the new labor agreement. While Goodell told the membership four preseason games no longer were needed, he also pointed out the NFL's broadcast partners and players' union has not been polled on the idea.
-Mickey Spagnola
Short Shots
Jones told reporters that linebacker Anthony Spencer has been legally cleared of the January incident in Indianapolis in which he was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct. Spencer, the Cowboys' first-round pick in 2007, got more playing time on first and second downs last season and finished with 59 tackles, six quarterback pressures and 1.5 sacks . . . The Cowboys haven't made 11 draft selections since 1992, two years before the NFL switched to a seven-round draft format. They actually made 15 picks that year, most notably Darren Woodson in the second round.
-Rob Phillips
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