Philadelphia Eagles Future Dimming By Going Conservative And Conventional

Chip Kelly’s Unconventional Methods May Have Soured Lurie on Risk-Taking Coaches, but Philadelphia Eagles Future Dimming By Going Conservative And Conventional

Head Coach Andy Reid was the right man for the right job. When the Philadelphia Eagles fell so far that the team had the second pick in the 1999 NFL draft it was Andy Reid who guided the team to select him from a pool of noteworthy quarterback talent in that draft. The Philadelphia Eagles were risk takers, signing up for the then unconventional west coast offense that had found success under the engineering of Bill Walsh. He also made it a point to sign the only defensive coach that gave him fits on offense: Jim Johnson. Together, the trio found incredible success with the Philadelphia Eagles, a run of success that may have spoiled the city and the owner.

It’s not as easy to do as they made it look.

When the Philadelphia Eagles faltered with Andy Reid, the team showed signs of panic – placing offensive line coach Juan Castillo into a role of defensive coordinator. They drafted for need, grabbing fireman Danny Watkins to spearhead a 2011 draft class that only had center Jason Kelce result as a starter, and reserve offensive lineman Julian Vandervelde, to show for it.

So the team went chic, and gave a five year contract to the hottest head coach in college: Chip Kelly.   For two years, there was reason to be optimistic – Kelly had the team sitting at 10-6 twice with inferior quarterback play.  But in year three, Howie Roseman fired Tom Gamble, Chip Kelly protested that he didn’t want Howie Roseman drafting his players, so Lurie promoted Howie Roseman, handed Kelly the keys to personnel decisions, and let the guy fail as horrifically as ever a general manager has failed.

The failure was as Chip Kelly as a general manager, not as a head coach.  But as a result, Lurie fired Chip Kelly general manager and head coach, reinstated Howie Roseman as general manager, and went on a committee approach to find a new head coach.

That new head coach is Doug Pederson.  The parallels to Pederson and Reid are obvious and predictable.  Reid groomed Pederson to be a head coach some day.  Reid did many things with that eye to the future – drafting quarterbacks to use as future currency.  In fact, throughout his career as head coach, Eagles fans were hopeful that Reid might someday become our general manager, he was that good off-field, and less effective with his on-field decisions.

Chip Kelly was the opposite.  His on-field work was pretty good.  But he had no business in the personnel realm.   That should have been verboten.  Jeff Lurie has been involved in football long enough to know better, which is why the move made no more sense than placing Juan Castillo in charge of a defense from a background of excelling as an offensive line coach.

But past aside, the committee approach to selecting the head coach concerns me.  Why?

This team had placed all of its stock in the belief that Howie Roseman can pull together a championship team caliber roster.   That’s what this team is banking on.  Regardless of the worthiness of Doug Pederson as head coach, and the talent of a coaching staff that has yet to be assembled, this is the basic underlying premise.

If Howie Roseman is the “GUY”, then he should be on the hook for the decision of who is coaching the team, not cowering behind the apron strings of the recently revealed rumors of a head coach committee that included Ron Jaworski as a “special adviser”, team chairman Jeffrey Lurie, team president Don Smolenski and vice president Howie Roseman. Jaworski told Philly.com writer Les Bowen that veteran former NFL general manager Bill Polian also advised.

I understand that the team wanted to “get it right”.  I also understand that this hire needed to be comprehensive.  As a result, the “committee” is on the hook for the decision, not Roseman.
That’s the rub.

I didn’t have the same problem with Chip Kelly that most did.  Right or wrong, he had a plan and he believed in it.   It was not until he was swamped with personnel matters that the on-field offense faltered- a true indication that he was over his head.  Doug Pederson can be a great hire, but from this perspective he appears to be a “safe” hire.  Conventional football minds, the same football minds that deal in the “win now” mentality, have won over this team.

When Chip Kelly was brought on, I wanted now Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians.  He was a no-nonsense guy who won where-ever he went.  He’s now winning with Arizona.  The Philadelphia Eagles never interviewed him.  But Eagles fans are as savvy as they come, and through many social media encounters, the wisdom of the move began to form with the myriad of minds that understood Philadelphia football:  “We need to take some chances, status quo isn’t cutting it.” “We need to try something new, we know where the old ways get us”

Yes, we do.

I’m fully in support of Doug Pederson as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach.  I am completely suspect of the same power structure of personnel decisions that got us Danny Watkins, Nnamdi Asomugha, and a host of other “what were they thinking?” moves is now back in place of this franchise.  I enjoyed the 2015 NFL draft, and I think the young men will certainly turn out to be starters.  By the way, that is the draft where Howie did not make decisions.

But turn back the hands of time.  In 1999, hiring Andy Reid was a risk taking maneuver.  Signing a young man from Syracuse to quarterback the team for the foreseeable future was a risk taking maneuver.   They paid off.

We can’t reach higher ground in the NFL if we don’t learn to leap.  This team may have some quality talent on the roster, but we were below .500 and we will be losing quite a few players to free agency unless we find a way to resign them.  Now is NOT the time to become conservative.   We need to restock our personnel department with good people, restock our coaching staff with high caliber coaches, and then work our nine picks in the NFL draft for all they are worth.   I think this is a good time to consider a two year rebuild, especially if the team is converting to a 4-3 defense.

But win now or win later, the team must decide if the rewards are worth the risk.  Playing it conservatively only works if you are sitting atop the mountain.   We aren’t.