Philadelphia Eagles should steer clear of any Urban Meyer rumors

Consider this as fair warning if you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan.

Typically those random NFL rumors that involve the Philadelphia Eagles are player-centered and have little to do with coaching. Typically the talk is normally about some disgruntled veteran who no longer wants to play for the team he’s on, and then, everybody becomes an expert on scouting and roster building before taking to Twitter to argue with people they don’t know about why this guy or that guy makes sense for the franchise.

Normally, it’s been the return of some former Eagle that has gotten the blood going. We need Jason Peters! Bringing Jordan Howard back is a no-brainer! Reacquiring LeSean McCoy is a slam dunk! Really? How is all of that working out?

2020 came, and Birds fans (and some of the members of the media) shifted the focus to leadership. Howie Roseman has been convicted in the court of public opinion so many times that we’ve lost count, and if you talk to fans, Doug Pederson and every member of his staff is on the hot seat.

Regardless of what your opinion is on any of that, here’s something we all should be able to agree on (or at least we hope so). If Doug was fired and we start conjuring up rumors about coaching hires, can we leave Urban Meyer out of any of them that involve the Philadelphia Eagles? No, there haven’t been any rumors yet, but you now they’re coming. Seriously, Doug Pederson may not be going anywhere, but even if he was, there are so many reasons for why Urban Meyer isn’t the best choice to replace him.

Hear this one out if you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan.

If you base everything on what he’s done on the gridiron, Urban Meyer is the greatest coach of our generation not named Nick Saban. As the head coach of four programs, including two traditional powers (Bowling Green, Utah, Florida, and Ohio State), he’s amassed an overall win-loss total of 187–32.

That includes a 12–3 record in Bowl Games and a 2-1 record in the College Football Playoff. Again, his issue isn’t his knowledge of the game. Meyer’s issues go beyond that, and that’s where the questions concerning these theories that ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported about begin. According to Schefter, Meyer is being eyed for a a few NFL jobs, and though it makes sense on the surface, if one was to dig a little deeper, it wouldn’t be hard to come up with a few arguments for why that’s a bad idea.

Let’s say Meyer does take an NFL job. One would have to believe that would be a job coaching one of the NFL’s bottom feeders. Let’s just say that it’s the team with the worst record in the NFL’s worst division, the Philadelphia Eagles.

There are no recruiting trips. There are no letters of intent. There aren’t 25 scholarships to hand out. Meyer would be left to his own devices in trying to piece together a broken roster full of bad acquisitions, players who have received too much money for too many years, and bad draft picks by Howie Roseman. That isn’t quite what he’s known for.

Meyer’s eye for talent is undeniable, but there were questions about what certain players were allowed to get away with at, say, Florida for example. You may have heard, but Philly’s locker room hasn’t been the healthiest work environment lately. Are you sure you want Meyer managing that?

There’s also this. Losing happens a lot more frequently at the NFL level than it does at Ohio State, and we’ve seen the stress of running a collegiate program affect Meyer both physically and mentally.

Those issues aren’t going to get fixed when the expectation is to show up at work at 3 AM, work all week, coach a game, lose possibly, and be back at work at 3 AM. Urban Meyer is one heck of a football coach, but if your hope is Philly exploring his availability (remember that this team hasn’t fired Doug Pederson), you might want to rethink that one a tad. Besides, many of us are still trying to get over the last time the Eagles hired a guy from college to be the head coach.