To the surprise of many, the Philadelphia Eagles split from coach Doug Pederson on Monday, three years before winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl title.
Regardless of what happened behind the scenes that led Pederson to lose a job from which owner Jeffrey Lurie openly admitted that “he didn’t deserve to be fired”, the Eagles will have to quickly change their focus to bring in someone to replace Pederson, as he is the last team of the NFL to fire a coach, which means that he is already late in the interview process and must be careful not to lose potential candidates for other vacancies.
Whether or not Pederson deserved to be fired is a question that will be debated for some time in Philadelphia and perhaps now is not the best time to reach a conclusion in one way or another. After all, the final verdict can only be given when we see who the Eagles hire, what kind of impact it has on the team and how successful Pederson is at his next destination (and there will be a next destination).
There are many different ways for Birds to hire a new coach, be it an in-house hire (like Duce Staley), a promising coach from the NFL ranks (like Eric Bieniemy and Mike Kafka from the Chiefs) or a college coach who wants to transition to the professional game (perhaps Jalen Hurts’ college coach, Lincoln Riley).
The list extends well beyond those three, to guys like Brian Daboll, who did wonders with Josh Allen in Buffalo; Arthur Smith, the Titans’ offensive coordinator; Greg Roman or James Urban, of the Ravens, who figured out how to create a successful attack around Lamar Jackson and could try to do the same in Philadelphia, either with Carson Wentz or Hurts; there’s Joe Brady, 31, of the Panthers; or Jim Caldwell, currently unemployed, who would be a veteran hired as a trainer for the Birds; or Byron Leftwich, who took over as OC in Tampa this season; and if the Eagles choose to hire their first defensive coach in two and a half decades, they can go with 49ers DC Robert Saleh. The list goes on and on.
But, with several other teams with a head coach vacancy already interviewing several candidates, the Eagles will have to take a leap if they want to be sure they can get “their guy”. But on hearing Lurie tell, the organization is in no hurry to nominate Pederson’s replacement.
“There are a lot of good candidates out there,” said Lurie. “Let’s think about the two inside the box [and] out of the box. I just want to say, there will be no rush here. This notion of an NFL team making a very important decision for itself and its fan base and rushing into a decision is unlike any other in business, and I just don’t think that is justified.
“If we find a head coach early or in early February, it’s totally great. If we are the last team to choose a head coach, this is also great, because then you have all the opportunities in the world. There is no rush. There is no pressure. . There is nothing that should keep you from a decision based solely on rational thinking and careful analysis and getting to know the person in the best possible way. “
So, what will Lurie be looking for in a head coach candidate during the research he said he would be leading?
“In terms of features [we will be looking for], I prefer not to specify. But I can say that no matter who we have, we need to be a coach leader, a coach leader and someone who represents the organization in a form of great leadership. We had a lot of that with Doug, so it will be – leadership is an important trait. You spoke of offense, but I think there are some ways to skin that cat. You can hire someone really immersed in the attack, or you have seen big attacks trained by top coaches who come from defense. So, I don’t think there is a predilection for one over the other.
“But I think that someone who is constantly curious to know where the league is going and what you need to do to have really good units. And, again, without a really good elite attack, I tend to speak on that side. But not from that side of the ball to the head coach. It doesn’t matter. “
Although Lurie was not specific there, as promised, it is important to note that he does not seem to find it necessary to hire an offensive coach, although each of the last three coaches he has hired (Andy Reid, Chip Kelly and Pederson) has been very much that. This essentially leaves the pool of potential candidates wide open for everyone listed above, and a few more.
Lurie was also asked about the importance of hiring a minority head coach, something that the Eagles have not had since Ray Rhodes and something that was lacking in other important manager positions (specifically coordinators) in the following years. Lurie said that bringing in major minority candidates is “a priority” and pointed to Duce Staley as a potential black coach the team could hire, as well as a possible in-house hiring that the Eagles could do. It is also important to note that Staley was the only internal candidate that Lurie mentioned by name.
“I would expect Duce Staley to be a candidate,” said Lurie. “He is a great representative of the eagles and knows our values and I hope he is also part of the search.”
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It is not known if the Eagles have already started talking to the candidates – after all, it would be much easier to interview people discreetly on Zoom without the public catching the wind – but Lurie admitted that she is always looking for ways to improve her team and the search of a future head coach, even when his current coach is still under contract, is something he’s always doing.
“I think we always do that. I know I always do that,” said Lurie. “I’m always watching every game to see what I can learn about offensive schemes, defensive schemes, coaches, people who think outside the box. You’re always looking. Basically, we always do continuous research, no matter what. Super Bowl, you do ongoing research on – because you know you can lose people. “
Perhaps this should be seen as a warning for potential hires – it may not matter how good you are if the owner falls in love with another coach. In addition, the Eagles have many warts that they will need to hide if they try to lure one of the popular coach candidates away from other teams, as we described on Monday. From a difficult wage cap situation to an aging roster and the fact that the coach is unlikely to have much control over that roster, there are many reasons why candidates may flee Philadelphia if there is another offer at the table.
But Lurie doesn’t see any of this as a problem. In fact, he believes the Eagles’ job is just as attractive, if not more attractive, than any of the other jobs out there. To begin with, Lurie thinks her style of ownership should be attractive to a candidate.
“First of all, I think it’s a very, very attractive job because, if I’m a coach, the first thing you want to know is whether you’re going to have as many resources as possible to create a successful team,” Lurie said. “Are the facilities good? What is the organization’s track record in the past ten, 20 years? Is it a team that rarely makes it to the playoffs? Is it a team that is happy to occasionally make it to the playoffs? How many division titles do they have? They always go that far in the playoffs in the way they build their squad or is it just one and done or did they get to league games and Super Bowls and stuff? That’s what I’m looking for. “
That’s fair, but when those are the expectations every year – and the realities of the situation make it almost impossible to live up to those expectations – you end up in the situation the eagles are in today, firing a Super Bowl winning coach after a sub season -0,500. (And yes, it was an exceptionally bad season, but much of the reason why it was so disappointing is due to the unrealistic expectations placed on this team.)
And the terrible situation of the limit?
“Cap room is a one-year phenomenon in this league,” continued Lurie. “Anyone who really understands the ceiling knows that you can transition from a difficult situation to finish in about 12 months. So anyone with that short-term thinking in terms of using the ceiling would probably not be the coach. right for that. “
Let’s hope this is the case, because the Eagles are in a borderline situation as terrible as you will find, and a large part of their space will be bogged down by a quarterback who stayed on the bench last season. Speaking of Carson Wentz and Jalen Hurts …
“In the quarterback situation, we have two really interesting assets,” said Lurie, curiously choosing to call the two “assets” rather than players. “They are both young. They are hungry. They are fantastic people, very different and fantastic. A coach will have options. A coach will have the ability to fix what he considers necessary for our attack and have a potential star in Carson. [Wentz] and a potential star in Jalen [Hurts]. This gives us an asset, too, so that if we ever end up deciding one, the other is a very good asset. “
This certainly makes it look like a decision between the two is coming, and it will be interesting to see if that decision will be left in the hands of the next coach or if it comes from above your head.
And finally, Lurie threw a little friend in the water for any fans who might be listening to her press conference, crowning her new trainer sales pitch by speaking to the fan base and the city as a whole.
“America’s best fan base; there are other big fan bases, but this community really cares about its team; the team’s culture and how competitive they are and they want to win divisions,” said Lurie, adding that looking at only the current state of the team would be any candidate’s short-term thinking. “They want to win and get to the championship games and more … I would say that you want to win and you want to win a lot and you want to have a fan base that is there for you, no matter what happens, Philly is the best place possible .
“It is the best to own a team and it is the best to coach a team. And yes, difficult at times. I love it. I love it. And there are many places in America and in the NFL where it is very different and they don’t had the performance of their organization. They didn’t necessarily have full commitment and almost unlimited resources in terms of what we’re dedicated to football, so I’m looking forward to having this conversation. We’ve always had this.
“We’ve never had a problem attracting anyone and I think we have a lot of really great positives, as well as Philadelphia as a city. I love the city. I think it’s just one of the really underestimated cities in America. And you can’t underestimate that. You dedicate your life to football, it’s where it is, and Philly is a great place to be, to train, to live, to have great schools, great hospitals. It’s kind of a win, win, win, win. “
That’s great and all, but if you can win a Super Bowl and get fired less than three years later, do any of those other things really matter? I mean, how important are schools and hospitals if you’re only going to live there for a few years?
Perhaps the next Eagles coach will be able to resist the trend that is developing at NovaCare and last a little longer like Andy Reid. But if there are expectations of immediate victory, it can be difficult for him to live up to those expectations from the start. Expectations are everything. And they are always high in Philadelphia.
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