Philadelphia Eagles: Run, don’t walk to re-hire John DeFilippo

After being fired by the Minnesota Vikings following a rough loss on Monday Night Football, the Philadelphia Eagles should go all-in on re-hiring John DeFilippo.

Though it may seem almost impossible at this point; the Philadelphia Eagles‘ playoff hopes are not technically dead yet.

Sure, a string of increasingly improbable events would have to occur to secure Philly a postseason, but until you are mathematically eliminated from contention, anything can happen in the modern-day NFL.

However, if the Eagles continue to deliver one of the most uninspired offensive game plans in recent memory, maybe even dating back to the pre-Andy Reid-era, that hope is thoroughly false.

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After watching the Birds get punched in the mouth for three straight quarters by the Dallas Cowboys (not to mention the officials), I wrote a piece dripping with passion about why Mike Groh should be relieved of his duties mid-season, as the first-year offensive coordinator has arguably been a significant downgrade from last year’s collective of Frank Reich and John DeFilippo.

Building a scheme based almost solely on rudimentary passing concepts and a complete disdain for running the ball more than 20 times a game, even without calling a single play, Groh has made his presence felt on this year’s Eagles squad, and not in a “future head coaching candidate” kind of way.

However, after getting embarrassed on Monday Night Football by the Seattle Seahawks, the Minnesota Vikings may have just handed Philly their second major gift of the season by firing their offensive coordinator, the aforementioned DeFilippo.

Howie Roseman, if you’re reading this; run, don’t walk to re-hire John DeFilippo.

Now granted, the Radnor grad has had a very up-and-down 2018 season in his return to play-calling duties, averaging 21.6 points per game with a number of noticeable outliers on either side of the bell curve, but that has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Sure, the Vikings have a pair of All-Pro wide receivers in Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen, but they also don’t have Carson Wentz, Zach Ertz, and the weapons that helped propel them to their first Super Bowl victory 10 months ago.

Sometimes familiarity is more important than the quality of a team’s pieces, just ask Jordan Matthews and Golden Tate.

While it may be premature, or even technically a stretch to assume the team could merely fire Groh and higher DeFilippo to take his place with two weeks left to play in the season, the team could take a page out of the Cincinnati Bengals handbook in a last-ditch attempt to fight for playoff relevancy.

Last month, in their own last-ditch attempt to regain some offensive relevancy, Marvin Lewis and the Bengals hired Hue Jackson to serve as a special assistant to the head coach mere days after being fired by the Cleveland Browns. While this move hasn’t exactly paid huge dividends in The Jungle, as the Bengals are in the midst of an embarrassing free-fall, in theory, it could have been the magic pill that put some life back into their otherwise anemic offense.

Who knows, DeFilippo could actually make good with a return to South Philly, even if it’s just for the final few days of the 2018 season.

Re-hiring the former quarterback’s coach to fill a ‘Special Assistant to the Head Coach’ role could not only insert DeFilippo back into the fold as Philly attempts to take another crack at the postseason, but it could also test the waters for a possible offensive coordinatorship next fall.

Once considered a sleeper head coaching candidate, it’s clear DeFilippo is going to be on some team’s sidelines next fall, but to what capacity is up in the air.

Could teaming up with Carson Wentz and company once more help to rehab DeFilippo’s now tarnished reputation? Could DeFilippo’s propensity for exotic play calling help to shake up Doug Pederson‘s ‘Hybrid West Coast’ offense over the final few games of the season.

Yes on both counts.

While it’s clear Mike Groh is not long for his role as the Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator, John DeFilippo was never given an opportunity to fill that role with the team. As the presumed heir apparent to Frank Reich, had the timeline been reversed, it’s entirely possible that DeFilippo would be the Eagles’ offensive coordinator this season, as opposed to being lost to Minnesota weeks before the Colts named their second head coach of the offseason. This could serve as a fitting second chance to recapture the team’s 2017 magic in another attempt to reach the NFL’s pinnacle.