Joe Philbin, 58, has been around the NFL block a few times. He started coaching in the NFL in 2003 as the Green Bay Packers assistant offensive line coach. He began his coaching career in college in 1984 as a graduate assistant at Tulane.  

Like many of the new Cowboys coaches, he has a prior relationship with McCarthy. Philbin was the offensive coordinator in Green Bay with McCarthy before taking over as interim head coach after McCarthy was fired in 2018. 

As offensive coordinator with the Packers from 2007-2011, the Packers offense ranked in the top 10 in points scored and total yards every year. 

After roughly 30 years of coaching, Philbin got his first opportunity as head coach in 2012 when he was hired by the Miami Dolphins. He served in that role from 2012-2015 and went 24-28 before being fired in 2015 after starting 1-3. Philbins success as an offensive coach continued in Miami as his offense went from 27th to 11th during his time with the Dolphins. It was his defense that got him fired as they went from being the 7th ranked defense to 20th during his time. 

Philbin is known as a very detail oriented coach and will coach his players very hard. Here is a quote as he was being hired in Miami. 

“We’re going to be demanding, not demeaning. So we’re going to coach these guys extremely hard and be very detail oriented.” 

Philbin is an easy guy to respect according to Bryan Bulaga of the Packers, although he didn’t quite understand Philbin at first. “He’s got a dry sense of humor. I learned that my rookie year. It took me a little while. Sometimes I’d walk out of there like, Was he serious? Or was he messing with me? I couldn’t tell,” Bulaga said in December of 2018.  

In Dallas, Philbin will serve as the assistant head coach and offensive line coach.