Nick Piccone
When Adam Gase came and went, there was a lot of air lifted from the chests of many Eagles fans. Sure, he was the top target, or so we thought, of the Eagles all along, but after he left town for more interviews and didn’t sign on the dotted line with the Eagles, it became a pipe dream for this team to sign him to become their next head coach.
Now, we’re having rumors of Jon Gruden and Sean McDermott being interested in the job and the Eagles not being very receptive to those candidates at all. The Eagles have interviewed Doug Pederson and Tom Coughlin, who really shouldn’t tickle anyone’s fancy. Yes, I get that Coughlin has two Super Bowl rings, but he literally backstepped into that and shocked the world – twice. And, anyway, isn’t it us Eagles fans who always make fun of those Cowboys and Redskins fans for living in the past? Why would two Super Bowls that Coughlin really lucked into make him any better of a candidate than someone younger and fresh to bring stability to the Eagles? Some rumors out there have Coughlin thinking about bringing in his offensive coordinator with the Giants, Ben McAdoo, to succeed him, but McAdoo can already succeed him as the head coach of the New York Giants, so I’m not sure he’d want to delay a promotion just for the sake of delaying a promotion.
From all reported rumors, it seems like the Eagles are high on coordinators, first and foremost. Perhaps the best offensive-minded one is gone now in Gase. The defensive ones may not be what Lurie and co. are looking for, because they’ve seemingly always wanted their head coach geared towards offense. And while that could be looked at as a plan in and of itself, I’m not sure those guys in charge at NovaCare know what they want. It sounds like they could easily have Gruden or McDermott. Maybe even Coughlin. Pederson is Andy Reid’s boy and if that’s the biggest link these guys want in determining the next head coach of their team, then that’s not a great outlook at all.
Chip Kelly was their plan during the last head coaching search, and their plan succeeded. They got him. Long-term, it clearly was the wrong plan. But, is it better to have the wrong plan than no plan at all? Like Lurie said at his press conference, taking a risk is pretty much what hires are all about. There’s nobody the Eagles would hire than can guarantee the team a Super Bowl victory – not even Tom Coughlin or Dick Vermeil or Bill Cowher or Jon Gruden.
So, do these guys heading the Eagles’ coaching search actually know what they want? Do they have a plan in place other than to interview as many people as possible? Did firing Chip Kelly early and giving themselves six extra days to try and find their new head coach really mean anything? It sure as hell doesn’t feel like it.
And now that I’ve written this, they’ll hire a new coach today.