Avoiding the fate of Ray Rhodes’ flame-out in Philly requires fundamentals and good drafts

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Funny, I was reading back on some recent Iggles Blitz columns I hadn’t caught up on over the past week, and I noticed Tommy Lawlor followed up our own discussion of the Eagles’ Special Teams achievements over the past few seasons with his own take on the 1995 Eagles and how awful their ST units were that year.

1995. Ray Rhodes was head coach. That team went 10-6 after a 7-9 season in 1994 and made the playoffs. They won the Wild Card game against the Detroit Lions but lost to the Cowboys in the divisional round.

It was the final year in Philly for quarterback Randall Cunningham as he retired following the season. After a year off, Cunningham returned to the NFL and played for the Vikings (1997-1999), Cowboys (2000) and Ravens (2001).

1995 was actually a pretty good year for the Eagles, notwithstanding Special Teams play.

Front office

Offensive coaches

Defensive coaches

Special teams coaches

Lawlor: “I remember the 1995 Eagles, where STs were a joke. Tommy Hutton had a punt blocked and returned for a TD. Gary Anderson hit 73 percent of his FGs, and he was a weak-legged kicker at that point who specialized in accuracy. His longest FG was 43 yards. 43!!! Those Eagles allowed a pair of PRs for TDs. They gave up 26 yards per KOR.”

“Ray Rhodes loved veteran players so he loaded the roster with those guys. Players in their late 20’s and early 30’s are not great STers for the most part. They want to play on offense or defense. If they weren’t the worst STs in the league, they were close.”

Point taken—but in the bigger picture and scheme of things, you would take making the playoffs at 10-6 over any monumental criticism of your Special Teams. Just trying to keep it all in perspective here…

The real downfall of that 1995 team going forward was the lousy draft they had.

Rd PICK PLAYER POS COLLEGE
1 7 Mike Mamula
Pick Acquired from Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Defensive End Boston College
1 12 Pick Traded to Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2 50 Bobby Taylor Defensive back Notre Dame
2 58 Barrett Brooks Tackle Kansas State
3 72 Greg Jefferson Defensive end Central Florida
3 78 Chris T. Jones Wide receiver Miami (FL)
4 119 Dave Barr Quarterback California
5 pick Made by Detroit Lions
6 Pick Made by Tampa Bay Buccaneers
7 210 Kevin Bouie
Pick Acquired from Jacksonville Jaguars
Running back Mississippi State
7 248 Howard Smothers Tackle Bethune-Cookman

Bobby Taylor ended up becoming a Pro Bowl cornerback. Mike Mamula despite popular myth actually had a few good stretches of effective play before injuries cut his career short. The rest of the 1995 draft was a real fizzle.

The Eagles’ undrafted free agent signings that year were abysmal. Andre Allen (LB, Northern Iowa), Thomas Baskin (DT, Texas), Jeff Beckley (P/K, Boston College), Charles Butler (CB, New Mexico), Andy Canter (T, Ohio), Troy Drake (DT, Indiana), Jamaal Ellis (CB, Duke), Eric Fontenot (DT, Grambling), George Johnson (CB, Bowling Green), Anthony Jordan (WR, Stanford), Reginald Lee (LB, Youngstown State), Marc Lillibridge (LB, Iowa State), Malcolm Marshall (FB, North Carolina), Chris O’Brien (T, Central Michigan), Kerry Pribnow (T, Montana State), Joe Rudolph (G, Wisconsin), Bob Sneathen (LB, Rutgers), Sylvester Wright (DT, Kansas)—all names which today are forgotten by most Eagles fans. The two UDFA’s from 1995 that are remembered are Freddie Solomon (WR/KR, South Carolina State) and the aforementioned punter Tommy Hutton (P/K, Tennessee). If those two guys were the cream of the 1995 UDFA rookie crop, we should have known the Birds were headed for some hard times going forward.

But in fact, the 1996 Eagles finished 10-6 again—two years in a row! And it should be noted ’96 was the year they drafted Brian Dawkins, a free safety out of Clemson, in the 2nd round.

They lost to the 49ers in the Wild Card game that year.

1997 was when the mostly bad drafts of 1995 and 1996 (and shoddy ST play) began to take their toll. The team finished 6-9-1. Lowlights of the ’97 campaign include a disheartening one-point loss at Dallas in Week 3, where starter Ty Detmer led the Birds on a potential game-winning drive late in regulation, only to see holder Tommy Hutton botch the hold on what would have been the deciding field goal from ex-Cowboys kicker Chris Boniol. In Week 7, the Eagles lost their first-ever game against the three-season-old Jacksonville Jaguars, and on November 10, in a Monday Night Football 24–12 home loss against San Francisco, a fan was spotted firing a flare gun in the upper deck. Six days later, at Memorial Stadium, the Eagles and Ravens engaged in a 10–10 tie, Philadelphia’s first deadlock since 1986 against the Cardinals.

Except for Duce Staley in the 3rd round, the 1997 draft was hideous:

ROUND PICK PLAYER POSITION COLLEGE
1 25 Jon Harris Defensive End Virginia
2 57 James Darling Linebacker Washington State
3 71 Duce Staley Running Back South Carolina
4 119 Damien Robinson Free Safety Iowa
5 152 Ndukwe Kalu Defensive End Rice
5 155 Luther Broughton Tight End Furman
6 190 Antwuan Wyatt Wide Receiver Bethune-Cookman
6 198 Ed Jasper Defensive Tackle Texas A&M
7 207 Koy Detmer Quarterback Colorado
7 225 Byron Capers Defensive Back Florida State
7 227 Deauntae Brown Defensive Back Central State (OH)

1998 was the year the bottom fell out of the Ray Rhodes era in Philly. The Eagles finished at 3-13. Rhodes was fired at the end of the season, finishing his four-year tenure with a record of 29–34–1. The Eagles’ 161 points-scored (10.06 per game) is tied for the third-lowest total in a 16-game schedule. Philadelphia’s three quarterbacks—Bobby Hoying, Koy Detmer, and Rodney Peete—each won one game, and ended up throwing for only seven total touchdowns combined. [Dana Bible was the offensive coordinator that year, not Jon Gruden!]

I guess my point is you can outplay lousy Special Teams performance and still manage to win 10 games and make the playoffs—but combine that with a few lousy drafts in a row, then sooner or later your team will be toast for an extended time and undergo major changes in leadership.

One thing I like about the current Eagles team edition is the organizational focus on holding the fundamentals together (such as emphasis on Special Teams) while re-tooling after a couple of losing seasons and some less-than-monumental drafts. With a potential franchise QB being groomed as well, the Eagles are wise to keep plugging away at the fundamentals to provide every margin of error they can. I guess that is where this article’s tie-in to Special Teams play comes full circle.

Ray Rhodes lost control of some basic game fundamentals and also any realistic feel for drafting players who could become difference-makers. It took a while, but in the end it sunk him in Philly.

 

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