The NFL’s lockout of players isn’t even resolved yet and the Chronicle’s head Texans cheerleader — Richard Justice — is already trotting out a pre-season puff piece on the Texans’ latest savior, new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. As noted many times before, Justice has a propensity for such blather.

Phillips is the equivalent of NFL coaching royalty, the son of revered former Oilers coach, Bum Phillips. However, as noted here years ago, Wade is not a chip off the old block, at least in terms of being a successful NFL head coach.

But to sycophants such as Justice, Phillips’ failures as a head coach don’t make any difference because he remains a successful defensive coordinator.

The problem with that theory is that it’s not balanced. As this Mac Engel post notes, the bottom-line performance of teams that included Phillips-coached defenses has not been all that impressive, either.

Moreover, as noted by Alan Burge – who runs rings around the likes of Justice in providing objective analysis of the Texans – it’s not as if the Texans have an easy early schedule for Phillips to ease the Texans’ defensive personnel into his new 3-4 scheme.

And, by the way, remember what happened the last time the Texans converted from a 4-3 defensive scheme to a 3-4?

Phillips is the first experienced defensive coordinator that Texans head coach Gary Kubiak has hired, so perhaps that background will help in developing the Texans’ young defensive talent into an effective unit.

But Justice ignores the substantial evidence that the Texans have again elevated form over substance in relying on Phillips to turn around one of the worst expansion franchises in NFL history.