Screw It. Bring Back Chip Kelly

[Editor’s note: This post was published roughly 90 minutes before the 49ers hired Chip Kelly.]

I have to admit, when the news of Chip Kelly’s firing – or “release” as the Eagles want to make it sound less damning to Jeffrey Lurie – I was relieved. I had soured on Chip during the midpoint of the season, simply because nothing was changing. It was the same shit every week, win or lose, but this past season was the worst yet under Chip not just because of the team’s record, but because of the inability of Chip to adapt his gameplan during the game.

Yeah, we saw some signs of adaptation, but it never stuck. We saw Pat Shurmur call a straight line run for DeMarco Murray in the last game of the season, but then he never called any play that was remotely similar the rest of the game. That’s the big issue I had with Chip – everything stayed the same.

It looked like teams knew everything the Eagles were going to do. Chip was right – his offense isn’t complex. It’s actually pretty simple. There are a lot of plays his offense made that looked really good, and made something out of nothing. Then, there were many plays that left us scratching our head. So, when the news broke that Chip was out on that Tuesday night while I was in perfect position in front of my computer, I took a deep breath and a sigh of relief.

I was encouraged by Jeffrey Lurie’s press conference after he fired Chip. He said the timing of the firing was to allow himself, Howie Roseman and Tom Donahoe plenty of time for their exhaustive head coaching search. But when his candidates included the likes of Duce Staley [who is still the only African-American coach the Eagles have interviewed, at least publicly], Pat Shurmur, Doug Marrone, Doug Pederson and Tom Coughlin as being the probable favorites, something’s wrong. If Lurie’s Plan A and Plan B was Sean Payton and John Harbaugh, that’s a huge problem. Thinking he would be able to nab one of those two while they clearly had contracts with their current teams and he would have had to give up a lot to get them is very short-sighted, but that’s exactly how all of this feels at this point. And after Payton and Harbaugh were completely ruled out, which candidate remaining really made anyone feel good about this coaching search?

I just wasn’t sure how to feel at that point.

Not interviewing any great defensive coordinators is a mistake. Not at least throwing Sean McDermott a bone and interviewing him is a mistake. Sure, he was fired as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, but that was an Andy Reid move. And sure, Lurie loved Andy like a son, but not even attempting to interview McDermott, who has the best defense in the NFL,  just makes no sense.

So, now the answer seems to be leaning toward Tom Coughlin, who has been highly overrated as the head coach of the Giants. Two Super Bowls. Everyone’s gonna say that, and it’s going to make some Eagles fans feel better, despite the whole stop living in the past mantra we give Cowboys and Redskins fans when they talk about Super Bowls. But looking at his immediate past, Coughlin has racked up 12 wins in the last two seasons with his last double-digit win season coming six seasons ago. So, go ahead and say, “Hey, the guy’s got two Super Bowls,” all you want. The Giants backed into the playoffs those two seasons and went on miracle runs. What are the chances of something like that happening three times?

Some of Coughlin’s failures could be attributed to the rough relationship he had with Giants owner, John Mara. There was reportedly a lot of tension between the two over the years, despite Coughlin restoring some – ugh, honor – to that franchise.

Tom Coughlin with the SAVAGE power move on John Mara!!! pic.twitter.com/o0WdTV5uUZ

— Jim Weber (@JimMWeber) January 5, 2016

But if we’re talking from a pure football perspective here, bringing in Coughlin would only be an attempt to “toughen up” this team, and winning wouldn’t exactly be an expectation. This Eagles team does have talent – but I’d rather open it up to someone who’s a bit younger with experience. Maybe even someone who built a rapport with his quarterback, which is probably the most important relationship in professional football. Sam Bradford said before that he and Chip had a “great” relationship, and Bradford looked a lot better in the second half of the season than he did in the beginning.

Is Bradford the answer at the quarterback position? Probably not. But that’s also why I think the Eagles would have benefited by giving Chip another year. One year as general manager and head coach probably isn’t enough time for anybody. Chip proved it wasn’t enough time for him. Something else had to have happened in that front office for Lurie to get rid of Chip that quickly. Maybe it was the Christmas party. Maybe it was the three blowout losses they suffered in the last month and a half of the season.

I would warm to the idea of Coughlin coming in for one year, maybe two, and molding the next head coach for the Eagles, likely one of his assistants. His coaching tree does consist of names like Steve Spagnuolo, Ben McAdoo, Dirk Koetter, Matt Rhule (Temple shoutout!), Lane Kiffin, Bobby Petrino and Tony Sparano in both the NFL and college football. It’s not a shabby list.

But if I had to choose between Tom Coughlin, Doug Pederson and Chip Kelly, I’d say just bring back Chip. It would be the sports equivalent of Ric Flair leaving WCW to go to WWE, only to go back to WCW a little over a year later. Just imagine it…

Would it be near impossible to do because of players throwing Chip under the bus after he was fired? Yeah, probably. But there was also a lot of players that publicly said they liked Chip, with one of them being his starting quarterback. I don’t think Chip coaching this team would be as big a dumpster fire as some, especially when we’re left with the certain candidates that we know of.

Is Lurie planning a surprise hire, just like he did three years ago with Chip? Is there someone on his radar that isn’t available to interview yet? Some think that. Some think Lurie and co. have no idea what they’re doing. And, right now, it seems like they’re ready to hire Coughlin after Adam Gase and Ben McAdoo slipped through their fingers.

So, why not just bring back Chip? Philly could use a little jolt of what even in the f—!?