31 replies to this topic

[Pegger]

I, like many, are getting excited for some change. I'm starting to connect the dots and here's what I see happening:

Recap - We are 3-9 and out of the playoffs. This falls short of Laurie's comments that an 8-8 season won't do. During the year we've released/fired Castillo, Babin and now Washburn. There have also been reports as to how 'cancerous' Washburn was and that it was a Howie Roseman type move. Something that's important to note is that Reid appears to be overly conservative with any starters coming back from injury and he's focused on evaluating the young players. This natrually makes you wonder why? If he's gone this offseason then why is he taking this long term building for the future approach? He's an extremely classy guy so that might just be his way of leaving properly, but it's still a good question to ask.

Current staff that matter

Andy Reid - Commented above. we should ignore titles. He's as close to the coach and GM type person there is in the league. Joe Banner left this offseason and it was documented that AR ultimately won a power struggle making him the grand puba of the Eagles.

Howie Roseman - GM in title alone much like Heckert was. Remember Heckert was our GM and left to be the GM of the Browns. The reason why is that he actually performed many of the GM duties for the Browns or an easier way to put it is more power. Roseman's strength appears to be making deals, identifying FAs and looking at draft picks.

Marty Mornhinweg - Current offensive coordinator. As much as it's been published that he's calling the shots it's tough to think that Andy Reid isn't providing some direction behind the scenes.

Todd Bowles - He's our DC with interm coaching experience. Has really been pointing out where our guys in the secondary have just blown simple assignments. I could see his next role be a full time DC role or as a head coach somewhere else.

GM Candidates:

Howie got an extension this offseason and it seems like Howie will retain that title. Not really looking to speculate too much here.

Coaching Candidates:

Phillymag posted a good item with Peter King's top 15 candidates. There's a pretty wide range here. Many have talked about college coaches like Oregon's Chip Kelly or Stanford's Brian Shaw, current NFL Coordinators like the Cards Ray Horton or the Giants Perry Fewell and finally there's the consistent list of of former coaches that always pop up. A couple things to think about:

- Laurie has walked through this exercise with Banner before. They identified specific leadership and organizational traits that were consistent with Superbowl champion coaches. I'd assume some of that exercise will map over to this search too.
- There appears to be a bias towards an offensive mind. The league is changing and a fresh/new scheme would probably work well.
- There should be an emphasis on someone that can develop a QB because in today's NFL you can't win without one.
- Coordniators will be equally as important.
- Many of us love the Jim Harbaugh story of coming straight from college, but the truth is that doesn't work out too often. When thinking from a safety point of view a proven NFL comodity might carry a bit more weight.

My Predictions:

1 - Andy will step down as the head coach, but remain as the Executive VP of football operations - Everything Andy is doing suggests a set up for next year. He's essentially the GM now under a different title. I'm not sure what his title will be, but for all intensive purposes he'll be the one calling the shots. For the fans we'll get a front office guy who is also a football guy. Many will grown and moan about not cutting ties with Reid, but when you think of how he's rebuilt this team a few times with success while also having all the head coach responsibilities he is a fairly solid candidate for that type of responsibility.

2 - Howie will continue to focus on making deals, FAs and prep for the draft. At the age of 37 I don't think he's ready to essentially call the shots. That's not what he's doing now and he has to take some responsibility how this team has performed, so I don't see a promotion in the works.  

3 - The Eagles will hire Jon Gruden as their head coach - He has close ties with Andy Reid and many have mentioned Philly isn't an option for him if things end badly for Big Red. In Gruden you get someone who's studied what Chip Kelly is doing, a proven firey motivator and someone that can develop a QB. He's consistently gotten the most out of good and bad QBs (Gannon to Garcia to Brad Johnson to Chris Simms). Gruden obviously will have no problems working wtih long time friend Andy Reid.

4 - The Eagles will hire Monte Kiffin as their D Coordinator - He's 73, but recently left college to pursue an unknown NFL opportunity. A guy like that doesn't close a door without knowing where the next job is and at I doubt he's looking for a brand new challenge (ie head coaching). We have the defensive players to implement his cover 2. We'll need 1-2 safeties and corners, but it's mainly there.

So there you have it. Andy is still with us, but as opposed to having two 80 hour a week jobs he's down to one. We've essentially hired the Bucs championship key coaches to bring one here. If you are trying to assess where the team power struggle lies I'd say 1/3 with Reid, 1/3 with Gruden and the other 1/3 with Roseman. Essentially we'll be reducing Reid's authority, giving Howie a bit more and bring in an established coach to fill the rest.


........Thoughts?

[L.E.]

No mas Reid.

[snoopdogg88]

Whoever we sign and draft, TATE will go ape**** and declare a Super Bowl championship in the near future

[NoDecaf]

David Shaw.

Yes, I think this is more likely with Reid being able to make such changes this close to end of season.

[dawk1977]

makes alot of sense.  Who do you suggest will be the Offensive coordinator?  That is the big question in my mind.  Marty has to go.  We need someone who will continue this current good balance of running and passing.  It was fun to watch the dallas game.

[HarborTheClay]

Did someone say something about boobs? I swear I heard boobs.

[greenpassion]

peggy, i hope your right about bringing in gruden

[Pegger]

dawk1977, on 04 December 2012 - 04:33 PM, said:

makes alot of sense.  Who do you suggest will be the Offensive coordinator?  That is the big question in my mind.  Marty has to go.  We need someone who will continue this current good balance of running and passing.  It was fun to watch the dallas game.

That will be Gruden's baby, so he can bring in whomever he likes. The truth is he'll be calling most of those plays, so it might be more fitting for him to have positional coaches around him.

snoopdogg88, on 04 December 2012 - 04:26 PM, said:

Whoever we sign and draft, TATE will go ape**** and declare a Super Bowl championship in the near future

Which will be shortly followed by hatred over who we didn't sign and draft.

[Rodney_Zero]

4 - The Eagles will hire Monte Kiffin as their D Coordinator - He's 73, but recently left college to pursue an unknown NFL opportunity. A guy like that doesn't close a door without knowing where the next job is and at I doubt he's looking for a brand new challenge (ie head coaching). We have the defensive players to implement his cover 2. We'll need 1-2 safeties and corners, but it's mainly there

We've had Tampa 2 personel for awhile now, just no one to run, Kiffin is that guy

[Pegger]

greenpassion, on 04 December 2012 - 04:37 PM, said:

peggy, i hope your right about bringing in gruden

Personally I'm not a Jon Gruden fan. I think he wears on his players like a hockey coach would. I doubt he could stay with one team for more than 5 years with continued success let alone something like Reid's 14.

I respect his ability as an offensive mind and someone that can motivate his team (in negative ways sometime). He won a Superbowl with Brad Johnson handing off to Michael Pittman while throwing to Keyshawn. None of those guys are that talented. I agree that defense was crazy, but statistically the offense was a far better group than something like Baltimore.

[Pegger]

Rodney_Zero, on 04 December 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

4 - The Eagles will hire Monte Kiffin as their D Coordinator - He's 73, but recently left college to pursue an unknown NFL opportunity. A guy like that doesn't close a door without knowing where the next job is and at I doubt he's looking for a brand new challenge (ie head coaching). We have the defensive players to implement his cover 2. We'll need 1-2 safeties and corners, but it's mainly there

We've had Tampa 2 personel for awhile now, just no one to run, Kiffin is that guy

We're a 4-3 team with a soft spot for drafting 3 technique DTs and fastballs on the outside. That's got cover 2 written all over it.

Rodney, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the overall analysis? Does it make sense? Do you think it would make this team better or not? Things like Gruden declining any interest in the Tennessee job don't confirm anything, but it also doesn't refute this path.

[MR-CYN]

Nobody knows what 'Laurie' will do.

[ChimpKelly]

Pegger, on 04 December 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

I, like many, are getting excited for some change. I'm starting to connect the dots and here's what I see happening:

Recap - We are 3-9 and out of the playoffs

Incorrect.

[dmor]

Pegger, on 04 December 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

I, like many, are getting excited for some change. I'm starting to connect the dots and here's what I see happening:

Recap - We are 3-9 and out of the playoffs. This falls short of Laurie's comments that an 8-8 season won't do. During the year we've released/fired Castillo, Babin and now Washburn. There have also been reports as to how 'cancerous' Washburn was and that it was a Howie Roseman type move. Something that's important to note is that Reid appears to be overly conservative with any starters coming back from injury and he's focused on evaluating the young players. This natrually makes you wonder why? If he's gone this offseason then why is he taking this long term building for the future approach? He's an extremely classy guy so that might just be his way of leaving properly, but it's still a good question to ask.

Current staff that matter

Andy Reid - Commented above. we should ignore titles. He's as close to the coach and GM type person there is in the league. Joe Banner left this offseason and it was documented that AR ultimately won a power struggle making him the grand puba of the Eagles.

Howie Roseman - GM in title alone much like Heckert was. Remember Heckert was our GM and left to be the GM of the Browns. The reason why is that he actually performed many of the GM duties for the Browns or an easier way to put it is more power. Roseman's strength appears to be making deals, identifying FAs and looking at draft picks.

Marty Mornhinweg - Current offensive coordinator. As much as it's been published that he's calling the shots it's tough to think that Andy Reid isn't providing some direction behind the scenes.

Todd Bowles - He's our DC with interm coaching experience. Has really been pointing out where our guys in the secondary have just blown simple assignments. I could see his next role be a full time DC role or as a head coach somewhere else.

GM Candidates:

Howie got an extension this offseason and it seems like Howie will retain that title. Not really looking to speculate too much here.

Coaching Candidates:

Phillymag posted a good item with Peter King's top 15 candidates. There's a pretty wide range here. Many have talked about college coaches like Oregon's Chip Kelly or Stanford's Brian Shaw, current NFL Coordinators like the Cards Ray Horton or the Giants Perry Fewell and finally there's the consistent list of of former coaches that always pop up. A couple things to think about:

- Laurie has walked through this exercise with Banner before. They identified specific leadership and organizational traits that were consistent with Superbowl champion coaches. I'd assume some of that exercise will map over to this search too.
- There appears to be a bias towards an offensive mind. The league is changing and a fresh/new scheme would probably work well.
- There should be an emphasis on someone that can develop a QB because in today's NFL you can't win without one.
- Coordniators will be equally as important.
- Many of us love the Jim Harbaugh story of coming straight from college, but the truth is that doesn't work out too often. When thinking from a safety point of view a proven NFL comodity might carry a bit more weight.

My Predictions:

1 - Andy will step down as the head coach, but remain as the Executive VP of football operations - Everything Andy is doing suggests a set up for next year. He's essentially the GM now under a different title. I'm not sure what his title will be, but for all intensive purposes he'll be the one calling the shots. For the fans we'll get a front office guy who is also a football guy. Many will grown and moan about not cutting ties with Reid, but when you think of how he's rebuilt this team a few times with success while also having all the head coach responsibilities he is a fairly solid candidate for that type of responsibility.

2 - Howie will continue to focus on making deals, FAs and prep for the draft. At the age of 37 I don't think he's ready to essentially call the shots. That's not what he's doing now and he has to take some responsibility how this team has performed, so I don't see a promotion in the works.  

3 - The Eagles will hire Jon Gruden as their head coach - He has close ties with Andy Reid and many have mentioned Philly isn't an option for him if things end badly for Big Red. In Gruden you get someone who's studied what Chip Kelly is doing, a proven firey motivator and someone that can develop a QB. He's consistently gotten the most out of good and bad QBs (Gannon to Garcia to Brad Johnson to Chris Simms). Gruden obviously will have no problems working wtih long time friend Andy Reid.

4 - The Eagles will hire Monte Kiffin as their D Coordinator - He's 73, but recently left college to pursue an unknown NFL opportunity. A guy like that doesn't close a door without knowing where the next job is and at I doubt he's looking for a brand new challenge (ie head coaching). We have the defensive players to implement his cover 2. We'll need 1-2 safeties and corners, but it's mainly there.

So there you have it. Andy is still with us, but as opposed to having two 80 hour a week jobs he's down to one. We've essentially hired the Bucs championship key coaches to bring one here. If you are trying to assess where the team power struggle lies I'd say 1/3 with Reid, 1/3 with Gruden and the other 1/3 with Roseman. Essentially we'll be reducing Reid's authority, giving Howie a bit more and bring in an established coach to fill the rest.


........Thoughts?

But for a few spelling errors, interesting post.

[Vick 2 JMac]

As VP of Football Operations Andy can stop dealing with the media and work behind the scenes.  Win win for him.

[cmurl5]

Not that far out of the ballpark, but if AR were to go upstairs Gruden wouldn't be the HC.
Apparently if he comes back he wants full control, etc...

[Rodney_Zero]

Pegger, on 04 December 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

We're a 4-3 team with a soft spot for drafting 3 technique DTs and fastballs on the outside. That's got cover 2 written all over it.

Rodney, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the overall analysis? Does it make sense? Do you think it would make this team better or not? Things like Gruden declining any interest in the Tennessee job don't confirm anything, but it also doesn't refute this path.

One thing the Tampa 2 needs to run well is:

Fast pass rushers at DE- check

A DT that can get up field and penatrate- Pretty much check

A NT on the center-  not on the roster IMO

Fast LB's that can drop into zone and bubble zone coverages- 2 out of 3 (Kendricks & Ryans) Kendricks would go to WILL though

CB's that can play the run, tackle and play stout zone coverage- I don't know about that

Safetys that can play deep disiplined and help over top- Allen perhaps, Coleman no

If Gruden where to be hired, there's no doubt in my mind he would covet Kiffin, yes Kiffin is older, but I hear he 's in good shape, Lebeau is older IIRC, he seems fine .

* Defensive assistants: Frazier form Minny, he ran it in Minny, Meeks?, Teerlinck the former Colts DL coach, Raheem Morris as the Kiffins successer and assistant?

Draft; OL in the first, a massive DT in the 2nd and a Safety in the 3rd,
FA- OL, SSLB, safety

[SirReal]

Well thought out post. My problem with Gruden, if there is one, is that he won the SB in Tampa by taking a good team, hammering and shoving it through the season, and destroying it to get the Lombardi. it's a question that's been asked before: Would you want a Lombardi if you knew you were going to be irrelevant for the next decade? Of course, We've been irrelevant the past two years and off & on for the preceding 10, as well as the several decades before that.

Also, I don't think Reid's going to want a lesser role. He'll either take an HC job somewhere else, or get out of football entirely for a year or three. (Funny thought: How would you enjoy seeing AR as a commentator on ESPN?)

Also, not trying to be a grammar jerk, but it's "All intents and purposes" "and "moan and groan"

[m4j16r]

Kiffin is 73, Gruden consistently wears out his welcome in 3-5 yrs. Do we really want to rebuild another coaching staff in 5 yrs??   I'd rather bring in Chip Kelly.  New fresh ideas with a youth movement all around, successful coaches included.    Gruden coached Tampa to a bowl, then left and how long did Tampa take to rebuild?   No way I want that again and again.

[dmor]

m4j16r, on 04 December 2012 - 05:30 PM, said:

Kiffin is 73, Gruden consistently wears out his welcome in 3-5 yrs. Do we really want to rebuild another coaching staff in 5 yrs??   I'd rather bring in Chip Kelly.  New fresh ideas with a youth movement all around, successful coaches included. Gruden coached Tampa to a bowl, then left and how long did Tampa take to rebuild?   No way I want that again and again.

Having an interesting scheme does not qualify someone to be a HC in the NFL.  The individual must have certain organizational qualities as well.  Whether or not Chip has those qualities remains to be seen.

[illinois_eagle]

I like it.  Now...who becomes our Offensive Coordinator?

[BIRDZEYEVIEW]

That's real, we'll see......

[Pegger]

m4j16r, on 04 December 2012 - 05:30 PM, said:

Kiffin is 73, Gruden consistently wears out his welcome in 3-5 yrs.    Do we really want to rebuild another coaching staff in 5 yrs??   I'd rather bring in Chip Kelly.  New fresh ideas with a youth movement all around, successful coaches included.    Gruden coached Tampa to a bowl, then left and how long did Tampa take to rebuild?   No way I want that again and again.

whatever coach we being in has zero guarantee to be there 5 years later. Should also mention Gruden didn't wear out his welcome in Oakland. Tampa came after him.

[nygfeagle]

HarborTheClay, on 04 December 2012 - 04:34 PM, said:

Did someone say something about boobs? I swear I heard boobs.

Boobies you said boobies, aren"t they running this team right now..

[Vee]

You had me at "fiery".

[deevo82]

Under the above scenario with Gruden then Juan Castillo was come back in as the O line coach.

[RUEagle]

Vee, on 04 December 2012 - 07:36 PM, said:

You had me at "fiery".

Haha, amen.  Was thinking along the same lines.


In all seriousness, this is a good post.  As much as I wanna bury Reid and bury the shovel...in all likelihood if he doesn't pursue another head coaching opportunity i.e. San Diego or Cleveland, he will remain with the Eagles organization in some capacity.  I'm on board with Gruden but would also love Chip Kelly.  I'm ok with this offseason from a management perspective.  I just don't want Reid calling the on-field shots.

[time2rock]

Pegger, on 04 December 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

1 - Andy will step down as the head coach, but remain as the Executive VP of football operations - Everything Andy is doing suggests a set up for next year. He's essentially the GM now under a different title. I'm not sure what his title will be, but for all intensive purposes he'll be the one calling the shots. For the fans we'll get a front office guy who is also a football guy. Many will grown and moan about not cutting ties with Reid, but when you think of how he's rebuilt this team a few times with success while also having all the head coach responsibilities he is a fairly solid candidate for that type of responsibility.

........Thoughts?

Don't know why this drives me nutso, but it's "intents and purposes".

http://public.wsu.ed.../intensive.html

Kinda like "pre-madonna".

[CaliEagle]

I think the Eagles would hire Jay Gruden before John Gruden. I can't see them hiring someone who has been out of coaching for a few years,

[WillyDevereaux]

I don't understand why people think the Eagles will keep Reid as VP of Operations.  Everytime I break up with a g/f and stay friends with her because I think maybe she'll call me for a booty call, it never ends well!  You must cut ALL ties in order to move on and avoid unwanted dramatics!

If Andy Reid is no longer HC, he'll no longer be with the Eagles organization!