Does anyone want to coach the Philadelphia Eagles?
When Jeffrey Lurie stated in his post-Doug Pederson press conference that he didn’t mind if the Philadelphia Eagles were the last team to land a head coach, I don’t think he meant it literally.
The sentiment Lurie was trying to prove – in an admittedly rough press conference that featured a YouTube comments section that looked like this – was that the Eagles were hyper-focused on landing the best possible head coach, not the first head coach off the board, but, in a twist of irony not lost on fans who assumed Pederson was safe, it turned oddly prophetic.
In the course of roughly a week, five of the seven teams looking for a new head coach found their guys – many of whom were on the Eagles’ list of targets – leaving the Eagles the lone bachelor at the bar moments before closing alongside a Texans team who may or may not trade Deshaun Watson this offseason.
That’s… not a situation many franchises want to be in.
In theory, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty of solid options left on the board – like Joe Brady, Brian Daboll, and Lincoln Riley – and the Eagles can now take their time to sift through the remaining options to find their guy. But at the same time, they eventually have to settle on someone, right, as the best assistant coaches will surely come off the board as coaches like Robert Saleh, Brandon Staley, and Arthur Smith look to fill out their staffs.
Is the Philadelphia Eagles’ patience a blessing or a curse?
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When Pederson was officially fired noticeably later than his peers, it left the Eagles in a bit of a unique spot as the league turned its attention to the playoffs.
While I’m sure Howie Roseman and the rest of the front office did some research into potential head coaching candidates during the season – what four-win team wouldn’t? – the franchise came off fairly unprepared during the opening hours of the head coaching search and clearly became a second-tier option for coaches like Staley – who signed with the Chargers without so much as making it to Lurie’s Florida home for an in-person interview.
Sure, they did get Saleh in the building, as well as Smith, Brady, and most recently Josh McDaniels – a presumed favorite of the Patriots-loving Lurie – but all three either signed elsewhere or finished out the interview without a deal – though, the Brady/McDaniels situations are very much still up in the air and could change at any moment.
Is the Eagles’ situation really that undesirable? Do coaches really dislike Carson Wentz/Jalen Hurts/whomever the team could draft sixth overall? Is the team’s current power structure that untenable?
I mean, hey, I guess when you fire a head coach three years after he wins a Super Bowl, it’s hard to trust any owner/executive’s word that they will have any semblance of job security.
Could the Eagles still end up with the ‘young offensive guru’ they’ve been after since Andy Reid left town back in 2013? Sure. Brady, Daboll, Riley, and Duce Staley are all under 50, and each could conceivably join Reid in the exclusive club of coaches who head coached the same team in three different decades. Heck, even Eric Bieniemy is technically a year younger than Pederson and clearly knows how to run an insanely creative offense that even a backup QB can run effectively.
Even if the Texans land one of these coaches, the Eagles could still walk away with the best coach of the bunch like they did in 2016, even if that ultimately proved fleeting, not a half-decade into the future.
Next. Philadelphia Eagles could learn a lot from Chad Henne’s playoff heroics. dark
Ultimately, will someone take the Philadelphia Eagles’ head coaching position? Duh. I can firmly guarantee without a single doubt that the Eagles will not enter the draft, training camp, or the first week of the 2021 NFL season without a head coach. With that being said, isn’t it pretty incredible just how far the Eagles have fallen? Almost three years to the day removed from parading down Broad Street, the Eagles have questions at quarterback, an old/bad/expensive roster, and not a ton to hang their hats on as the worst team in the worst division in all of football. While some head coach can surely turn things around, that’s clearly not a task for the faint of heart; otherwise, the job would be filled by now.