ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Wade Phillips, who has spent more than four decades as an assistant or head coach in the NFL, was once asked why it seemed like the road to the big headset -- the head coaching job -- seemed a little longer and a lot bumpier for those with defensive résumés.
"Sometimes the perception among the people hiring or talking about the hiring is that the guys on defense aren't as smart, and I don't think that's the case at all, by a long ways, but I think that's the way they think when they hire people sometimes," Phillips said.