Philadelphia Eagles debate table: Should Philly fire Dave Fipp?

What used to be a weapon for the Philadelphia Eagles is now a liability.

We often hear it referred to as ‘the three phases of football’ even though, more often than not, only two of those phases get the bulk of the mention. Oh, Philadelphia Eagles fans and the fans of just about every other NFL team talk about offense and defense all of the time, but typically, as is customary with the rest of the football world, special teams play gets ignored, at least until someone misses a field goal or muffs a punt.

Speaking of fielding punts and missed field goals, it’s time to bring up Eagles special teams coordinator Dave Fipp because, well quite frankly, Coach Fipp hasn’t been brought up nearly as often as he should have been.

Why? It’s simple actually. What used to be a weapon in Philadelphia is now more of a liability, and Fipp’s unit is responsible for just as many headaches as the Eagles’ offense and defense even though they’re on the field a whole lot less.

Think back for a second if you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan.

During the 2014 and 2015 NFL seasons, the special teams unit was truly the third phase of the game and Eagles attack. Though they don’t see the field nearly as often as the offensive and defensive units, any time Philly lined up to field a punt, there was the possibility of a big play.

Credit Darren Sproles for that, who returned two punts for touchdowns in both 2014 and 2015. His week 13 masterpiece in Foxborough versus the New England Patriots highlighted a day where Philly also blocked a punt and returned that for a touchdown as well (they also got an interception return for a touchdown from Malcolm Jenkins). Those were the good old days on special teams, but the Birds aren’t anywhere close to being that level of a unit now.

It’s been a rough go for the Philadelphia Eagles’ special teams unit.

These days, the fear is a familiar one. Big plays are more likely to come as a result of something the other team is doing than anything being done by the Birds or Coach Fipp. Come on. Was that Week 13 punt return by Jalen Reagor a result of a nice individual effort by the rookie or a result of good coaching? In 2020, the Birds are averaging 21.6 yards per return heading into Week 15 (their opponents average 22.5 yards per return).

Philly’s special teams unit is also giving up 6.7 yards per punt return, which is decent considering the fact that they are averaging 9.4 yards per return themselves, but Philly’s issue is something else. Too often, they’re letting balls get behind them at the wrong times, they’re allowing their offense to get pinned back against their own goal line, and who knows what Corey Clement and the hands team was doing versus the New Orleans Saints in Week 14.

Those are the types of plays that can cost teams games. Then, there are mental mistakes like Matt Pryor‘s false-start penalty robbed Jake Elliott of an opportunity to kick what could have been a game-winner in Week 3 versus the Cincinnati Bengals. Then again, based on what we’ve seen from Jake Elliott this season, it’s safe to say that he probably would have missed that field goal anyway.

Accountability must be shared in the Philadelphia Eagles organization.

That’s beside the point. There’s no reason to bring up how bad the world’s most wealthy field goal kicker has been, but it’s sickening to hear Coach Fipp say that he isn’t worried about Elliott’s production, or lack thereof each time he’s spoken with the media about yet another important field goal that Elliott has misfired on. We get it. You can’t bash guys in public, but come on. Fipp truly looks like he doesn’t see this as an issue.

What’s happened in 2020 isn’t one person’s fault, but if we’re going to run Doug Pederson out of town in one conversation and run Jim Schwartz, Howie Roseman, and Carson Wentz out of town in another, Dave Fipp’s name needs to come up more often than it has been. He’s had a part to play in this dismal campaign as well, and frankly, it’s becoming easier and easier to forget when he played a part of this team’s success.