Wade Phillips thinks a lot of Felix Jones. Seriously.
Today, a reporter asked the coach whether Tashard Choice's running style compares at all to Marion Barber's. Phillips said it was tough to put a rookie up against a Pro Bowler.
And then he compared his first-round pick, Felix himself, to a Hall of Famer.
"When I saw him on tape, he runs a lot like Thurman Thomas did," Phillips said. "His feet are close to the ground so he can cut quickly. And he sees people. He has great vision in my opinion, we'll see how it all works out. He sees the safety over here if he's coming. When he running with the ball over here, he sees people over there.
"I think he's special in that area. He can do all the other things, he can make people miss, he can accelerate, all the things that really good backs do. But his vision is special."
Phillips explained that both backs don't pick their feet up far off the ground, allowing them to change directions quicker. He did allow that comparing Jones to Thomas as receiver right now was probably a little out there, since Thomas just so happens to be one of the greatest pass-catching running backs of all-time.
Also on hand for today's festivities was former Oklahoma and Cowboys coach Barry Switzer. He, too, was smitten with Felix and lamented the Sooners allowing him to leave the state.
Jones was a senior in high school during Adrian Peterson's freshman year at OU, which made heading to school there seem like a pretty bad idea. So he wound being in the same recruiting class as Darren McFadden instead.
Switzer referred to Jones as a "Shorty Daddy" and a "Pop Warner back" -- kinds which the ol' coach apparently has an affection for -- confusing some reporters with his brand of super-jargon.
"I've always like the Pop Warner guys, Greg Pruitt, those guys that stop, start and go sideways on you, slash, go north-and-south, hard guys to get ahold of, I've always liked that," Switzer said. "Phyiscal stature, he's like a lot of our guys. I never liked the big back. I'm an East-West offense, stop and start, those guys took too long to accelerate and get started agaiin. I liked Short Daddies, low balance, Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders was alright, wasn't he?"
