The Los Angeles Rams announced Monday that Wade Phillips will not be brought back as the team’s defensive coordinator, but there is some indication that he might not approve of the decision.
Phillips liked a number of tweets after confirming that he’d been let go by the Rams. Most of them were messages from players paying tribute to his work, but one in particular stood out: a tweet that criticized the Rams for letting Phillips go, arguing that the defense was improved in 2019 and it was the offense that had regressed.
So the offense loses production but Wade Phillips gets fired? Make that make sense.. and the defense actually was better this year vs last https://t.co/6mP9AJZelA
— (@StevenA_) January 6, 2020
Phillips still had the tweet in his likes several hours after it was originally posted, and he’d liked several other tweets since, suggesting that it wasn’t a mistake.
Fired coaches liking shade tweets is an incredibly wonderful genre of petty pic.twitter.com/SLd8dP0cZn
— Grey-heem Sterling (@spacemnkymafia) January 6, 2020
Phillips is highly regarded as a defensive coordinator, but the epitaph on the Rams’ season was the team allowing the San Francisco 49ers to convert two 3rd and 16 plays on the same drive to beat Los Angeles and eliminate them from playoff contention. Statistically, it’s true that the Rams were better defensively and worse offensively in 2019 as opposed to 2018, but they still weren’t an elite defensive team. Coach Sean McVay may also want more say and different looks from that unit going forward.
