Time For The Philadelphia Eagles To Tank
By Bret Stuter
Oh… And About That Thing Called Patience.
The drawback to the “let’s get worse before we get better” is the sense of immediate gratification we have as a fanbase. Win! Now! You Suck! Cut That Guy! is our status quo on social media.
One weekend DeMarco Murray is a bum and should be benched. The next weekend he’s terrible and should be cut. The following weekend he is benched and everyone questions why he’s being benched. The next weekend he makes a 57 yard touchdown run for an interim coach and then the sentiment is “yep. He was held back by bad coaching”.
Football is random. The star of today’s football game can be tomorrow’s dog. And vice versa. We cannot let the emotions of the day dictate personnel moves. That is where Chip Kelly may have made some mistakes.
One of the most successful head coaches of the modern era, Bill Belichick, was not a “hit the floor running” winner. He was head coach of the Cleveland Browns for five seasons, and finished with a 36-44 record with the Browns. He was hired on as head coach of the New England Patriots, and had a first year of five wins and eleven losses. The next year, he discovered quarterback Tom Brady and went on to win the Superbowl. His career record with New England has been 187 wins and 68 losses.
Had we pulled the plug on him too soon, he would be a “never was” head coach.
A head coach needs many pieces to succeed, but none are more obvious than a quarterback who can succeed despite flaws elsewhere on the team. Right now the Eagles are not in line for a top quarterback. Picking at thirteen in the NFL draft is a great place to improve the offensive line, but not a quarterback. With the team sitting on Mark Sanchez at quarterback, there is a definite need to address this position. But how, and more importantly, when? Should we go full out on a prospect and then grown an offensive line around him the following season, or should the team take a more responsible approach and generate a solid offensive line, and then stick a quarterback prospect behind a formidable offensive line.
Next: Are The Eagles Really Done With Head Coach Search?
We can’t build it overnight folks. Building means learning. Learning means losing some. Losing some means a prospect will make a boneheaded play occasionally. It comes with the turf. Fans coaches and front office need to agree that the process of building a team the right way means losing some gambles. But if the process is sound, the overall quality of the team will improve. That’s the goal. That’s the aim of the front office, the coaches, the players, and most of all, the fans. That takes time. Why try to cram a half-baked job into an instant turn around? What do we benefit from doing that in the long run? Take a two-year approach. Use the 2016 draft to build offensive line and stockpile 2017 NFL draft assets.
It’s the public who must grab this concept first. It’s way too easy in social media to make a name for oneself by simply trolling mistakes. Each NFL team makes them. But to get ahead, we need to embrace a process of building a young team and supporting them as they grow, learn, and build teamwork. I don’t see a more effective path than taking a two year approach to rebuilding this team.