Andy Reid faced a monumental task when he was appointed coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999, taking on a franchise that ended with a 3-13 record the previous season (the worst in the NFL) and a team that has won just three of its last 19 games. Reid was tasked with fixing an attack that averaged just 10.1 points per game the previous season, scoring just 20 points once in the entire year. The challenge was monumental and the Eagles experienced some growing pains in Reid’s first season, but it was the beginning of a new training tree that still has branches growing in the NFL towards this year’s AFC Championship Game – 22 years later.
Reid is still the head coach – from a different Kansas City Chiefs franchise – and the seeds of his initial coaching staff in the 1999 Eagles are planted in all Chiefs and Buffalo Bills (trained by a Reid protégé in Sean McDermott) The Eagles 1999 were not a juggernauts – finishing last at NFC East at 5-11 – but Reid’s initial coaching staff is one of the most underestimated in NFL history. Seven members of that team became top NFL coaches and some players on that team became successful coaches and coordinators in the league.
Reid’s footprint is throughout the AFC Championship Game and continues to leave traces around the NFL. Below, we’ll take a look at the Eagles’ technical team in 1999 and the players on that team and where they are today.
Honorable mention: Jim Johnson served as defensive coordinator for the Eagles in 1999, holding the position until his death, before the start of the 2009 season. Johnson had a defense in the top 10 on permitted points seven times and a defense in the top five five times out of 10 seasons with the Eagles.
Andy Reid
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Head coach
- Position 2021: Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach
We could write paragraphs after paragraphs about Reid’s accomplishments, but let’s stick to the basics. Reid has 237 combined career wins (regular and postseason), which is the fifth highest total in NFL history (Tom Landry is fourth with 270). Reid is tied with Chuck Noll for the fifth longest post-season win for a coach (16) in NFL history, as Joe Gibbs (17) placed fourth on the all-time list.
Reid trained two Super Bowls (winning one) and played eight conference championship games. He is one of the best coaches in NFL history with a resume that continues to grow.
Sean McDermott
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Scouting Coordinator
- Position 2021: Buffalo Bills Head Coach
McDermott got his first coaching job in the NFL under Reid as a scout coordinator at age 25, rising to the rank of defensive coordinator for the Eagles in 2009 and 2010. Reid fired McDermott, who then became a successful defensive coordinator under Ron Rivera (another member of the Eagles’ technical team in 1999) with the Carolina Panthers.
McDermott took Bills to the AFC Championship Game for the first time since the 1993 season and is 38-26 in four seasons with Buffalo, winning the AFC East title this year (Bills’ first division title since 1995).
Eric Bieniemy
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Running back
- Position 2021: Kansas City Chiefs Offensive Coordinator
Bieniemy spent his last season in the NFL playing for Reid in 1999 as the runner-up behind Duce Staley (who also trained with Reid) and as an ace on special teams. Bieniemy retired after that season and moved on to coaching as a running back trainer with the Minnesota Vikings and as an offensive coordinator at the University of Colorado before working with Reid’s initial team with Kansas City in 2013.
Bieniemy became the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator in 2018 after Matt Nagy took over as head coach of the Chicago Bears and oversaw the No. 1 attack on the NFL for the past three years. Somehow, he still hasn’t gotten a job as an NFL coach.
Steve Spagnoulo
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Defense assistant / quality control coach
- Position 2021: Defensive coordinator for Kansas City Chiefs
Spagnoulo won his first professional coaching position under Reid (intern in Washington in 1983), moving up the ranks as a protégé of defensive coordinator Jim Johnson. Spagnoulo was one of the Eagles’ main assistants for years before becoming the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants – and the defense architect who closed the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
Just 11-41 as head coach, Spagnuolo has renewed his career with Reid as the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator for the past two years – winning a Super Bowl in 2019.
Leslie Frazier
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Defensive defense technician
- Position 2021: Buffalo Bills Defense Coordinator
Frazier coached one of Reid’s best juniors for several years in his first NFL job, helping Brian Dawkins, Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor become All-Pro players before becoming the defensive coordinator for Cincinnati Bengals in 2003. Assistant coach of the Minnesota Vikings under Brad Childress (who was on the Eagles’ coaching staff in 1999), Frazier was promoted to head coach in 2011 (was acting coach in 2010) and had a 21-32-1 record in four seasons.
Frazier is one of the NFL’s top defensive minds since joining McDermott’s team in 2017, as Bills has had a defense in the top three in two of its four seasons. Another head coach opportunity may appear next year.
John Harbaugh
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Special teams coach
- Position 2021: Baltimore Ravens head coach
Harbaugh served as one of Reid’s top assistants as coordinator of special teams for nearly a decade, a remnant of Ray Rhodes’ team with the Eagles in 1998. Harbaugh was hired by the Ravens in 2008 and has been the franchise’s head coach since.
Harbaugh was Reid’s first assistant to win a Super Bowl title and has compiled a record 129-79 in 13 seasons, with four AFC North titles and 11 playoff wins.
Ron Rivera
Rivera was hired by Reid as a linebacker coach in 1999, after two seasons with the Chicago Bears as a defensive quality control coach. He spent five years training Jeremiah Trotter and Carlos Emmons in one of the NFL’s best linebacker tandems before becoming Bears’ defensive coordinator, earning a reputation as one of the sport’s top defensive minds.
Rivera was hired by the Panthers in 2011 as head coach, taking the team to the Super Bowl 50 in the 2015 season and winning three NFC South titles. In 10 seasons as head coach, Rivera has four division titles – including the NFC East 2020 title with Washington – compiling a record 83-72-1.
Doug Pederson
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Quarterback
- Position 2021: Unemployed
Pederson, recently fired by the Eagles, was the 1999 Eagles’ full-back before handing over to newcomer Donovan McNabb. Pederson spent 14 seasons in the NFL before Reid brought him to his team with the Eagles and made him his first offensive coordinator with the Chiefs.
Pederson served as the Eagles’ head coach for five years, leading the franchise to its first Super Bowl championship in the 2017 season and winning two NFC East titles. He was 42-37-1 in Philadelphia.
Brad Childress
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Quarterback coach
- Position 2021: Retired
Childress served his first NFL job under Reid as coach of the Eagles’ quarterbacks before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2001. He was hired by Minnesota Vikings as head coach in 2006, compiling a 39-35 record in five seasons with two titles. from NFC North.
Childress returned to Reid’s team in Kansas City as a game analyst and offensive coordinator / assistant coach. He retired in 2019 after two years as a senior offensive assistant with the Bears.
Pat Shurmur
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Tight-tipped trainer
- Position 2021: Denver Broncos Offensive Coordinator
Another first job in the NFL under Reid, Shurmur worked his way into the ranks of coaching after making Chad Lewis a tight end three times in the Pro Bowl. He served as an Eagles quarterback coach for several years before becoming the Cleveland Browns’ head coach in 2011 (he was also an offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams for two years).
Shurmur’s senior coaching career is not long (record 19-46 with Browns and Giants), but he is currently the offensive coordinator for the Broncos – the fourth offensive coordinator he has held in the league.
Juan Castillo
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Offensive lineman
- Position 2021: Offensive lineman of the Chicago Bears
A remnant of the Rhodes team, Castillo with Reid as one of the league’s best offensive line coaches for over a decade. A controversial promotion to defensive coordinator caused Castillo to be fired in 2012, but he clung to Harbaugh in November of the same season and won a Super Bowl.
Castillo has been with Reid’s former NFL assistants since as Ravens’ offensive line coach under Harbaugh, Bills’ offensive line coach under McDermott and Bears’ offensive line coach under Matt Nagy.
Duce Staley
- Position of the Eagles in 1999: Running back
- Position 2021: Philadelphia Eagles assistant coach / running back coach
Staley was a 1,000-yard rusher for the Eagles in 1999, playing for Reid for five seasons before continuing his career as a player with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Staley was hired by Reid in 2011 as a quality control coach for special teams and was promoted to running back coach by Chip Kelly in 2013 – a position he has held for the past eight seasons.
Promoted to assistant chief coach in 2018 under Doug Pederson, Staley was passed over four times to the position of chief coach of the Eagles. He must be promoted – in Philadelphia or elsewhere.