Look at some of the names the Eagles were considering for their head coaching vacancy in 2013.
Chip Kelly, hailed as an offensive genius with a 46-7 record as the boss at the University of Oregon. Gus Bradley, coordinator of a Seattle Seahawks defense that finished top five in the NFL in total yards, scoring and takeaways in 2012. Bruce Arians, who as interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts took rookie quarterback Andrew Luck and a team that went 2-14 one year earlier to an 11-win season and a playoff game.
Look at some of the names the Eagles are considering for their head coaching vacancy now.
Tom Coughlin, winner of two Super Bowl championships with the New York Giants, but 69 years of age. Doug Pederson, who’s spent the last three years with the Kansas City Chiefs coordinating Andy Reid’s familiar offense. Paul Guenther, local guy who inherited a top-five defense when he took over as coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2014. Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter interviewed with the Eagles back in ’13 and hasn’t been offered a head job by anybody else since. Let’s not forget a couple of holdovers from Kelly’s staff in Pat Shurmur and Duce Staley, either.
Even Adam Gase, already hired by the Miami Dolphins, was so hyped everybody knew he would get a job somewhere, yet his claim to fame was coordinating the vaunted Chicago Bears offense. The only assistant out of the bunch who’s done something recent that really jumps out is Ben McAdoo, reinventing Giants quarterback Eli Manning after a 27-interception season.
That’s not to suggest every one of these coaches is anything less than extremely good at what they do and does not merit consideration for a head job. It’s just when you compare the top three names from the 2013 search to almost any of the names in 2016, you have to admit the second list maybe leaves a little something to be desired.
You can almost begin to understand why this time around the search seems to have a little less direction, why Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman and Don Smolenski are interviewing everybody rather than targeting a select handful of candidates. Honestly, which of the coaches the Eagles have or are scheduled to interview is somebody a lot of fans would feel strongly in favor of handing over the reins?
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And then there are the people the Eagles have not or are not interviewing, which some have found confusing.
Hue Jackson worked wonders with quarterback Andy Dalton as the coordinator in Cincinnati this year, and coached the Oakland Raiders to one of their two .500 seasons in their last 13 years in 2011. The Carolina Panthers defense has been a top-10 unit for years, and granted Ron Rivera is the boss there, but Sean McDermott certainly deserves some of the credit for that. Matt Patricia has been on the sideline for two New England Patriots Super Bowl championships, including just last season as the defensive coordinator under Bill Belichick.
As far as recent accomplishments are concerned, these appear to be three of the most qualified, fresh candidates out there, and yet there is not one confirmed report the Eagles are talking to any of them.
That seems a little strange, does it not? Perhaps there is a lot truth to the notion the Eagles are not a top destination, be it due to the state of the roster or the current front office structure. Or perhaps Jackson, McDermott and Patricia aren’t significantly more sought after around the league than the list of candidates that have come through thus far. Maybe one or two will be brought in for interviews eventually.
Maybe it’s simply a matter of perception, and the candidates those of us outside the hiring process view as having great resumes aren’t always the best choices. Look no further than Reid, who was only quarterbacks and assistant head coach for the Green Bay Packers when the Eagles tabbed him for the job in 1999. That obviously worked out well.
Regardless, on paper, there isn’t really anybody who could be considered a star out of the current group of candidates for the Eagles job. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it hasn’t been anything to get excited about, either.