If Wade Phillips is about to be ousted from his position as defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams, he didn’t sound too concerned when addressing the situation Thursday.
“I’ve heard a lot of rumors out there, but I don’t pay attention to rumors,” Phillips said. “I’m going to do the best that I can do and if that’s not good enough for somebody, then it isn’t. But we want to finish with a winning season.”
Phillips, 72, who is in the final season of his contract, knows he isn’t fully responsible for the 8-7 Rams going from Super Bowl runners-up to out of the playoffs in one season. But if Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum is his finale with the Rams, the man who has spent 42 seasons in the NFL as a coach in some capacity, sounds like he isn’t ready to leave the profession.
“I love coaching. That’s what I do and that’s what I enjoy doing. We did a lot of good things this year,” said Phillips, whose defense has surrendered 22.7 points and 336.1 yard per game this season but gave up more than 40 points each in losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys.
“Obviously, not enough to be in the playoffs, but I thought we did a lot of good things as a team and defensively. … I enjoy coaching and I want to continue.”
Also addressing the rumblings on Thursday was Sean McVay, who became head coach in 2017 and made Phillips his defensive coordinator.
“Wade and I discuss those things so we make sure there’s a clear understanding of what goes on. And we keep those things behind closed doors,” McVay said.
“We’ll finish off this season … we’ll take some time to really be able to reflect back on the year, look back at some of the things that we need to do as we’re moving forward.”