A new view from the top of the charts for Eagles

Being the current Super Bowl-winning champs of the NFL is a wonderful thing for the franchise and our fans. The view from the top feels…different!

It feels to me like being part of a band back in the ’60’s and you finally get a top-selling record. #1 on the charts! Toppermost of the poppermost!

Then you realize your record company is calling you back to the studio to make a follow-up hit. Then they want an album—12 new songs in two weeks, please.

Follow-up hits are tricky business. One-hit wonders are the norm, not the exception.

If it’s any consolation, the team which wins the Super Bowl makes it to the playoffs 70% of the time the following season. But only one team in the history of the Super Bowl has recorded two #1 hits in a row—the New England Patriots of 2003 and 2004.

Something to shoot for! Now if we can just keep the band together!

ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the news that the Minnesota Vikings were hiring John DeFilippo, Philly’s quarterbacks coach, to be their offensive coordinator. Welp, there goes one of our best recording engineers.

“Coach Flip, he’s a grinder,” Nick Foles said of DeFilippo the day after winning Super Bowl MVP. “Barely sleeps. Fundamentals, giving us the game plan, giving us all our checks, extremely detailed. I’m grateful for him. He’s done an amazing job this year. It’s not easy when your franchise quarterback goes down, but the great thing about our team and our coaching staff is they work so well together and they do it all together. … We’re very fortunate as players to have such a great coaching staff.”

During the lead-up to Super Bowl LII, DeFilippo was asked what his greatest point of personal pride was this season. His answer was surprising:

“[Third-stringer] Nate Sudfeld, in his first game action ever, setting an NFL record for completion percentage for a guy who threw 20-plus attempts in a game,” he responded. Sudfeld went 19-of-23 in his pro debut against the Cowboys in Week 17. “We take pride in our room, and I take pride as a position coach to have all three guys ready to go.”

And now we also find out Eagles OC Frank Reich is currently the favorite to land the Indianapolis Colts head coaching job:

✔@NYPost_Paul Schwartz
Who will be the next Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts?

Frank Reich 1/2
Dave Toub 2/1
John DeFilippo 10/1
Jim Schwartz 10/1
Jim Harbaugh 10/1

Odds from @BovadaLV

4:54 PM – Feb 9, 2018
Reich got his coaching start with the Colts in 2008, serving as an offensive coaching assistant before becoming the quarterbacks coach (2009-10) and the wide receivers coach (2011) before leaving the organization.

The poaching continues!

Speaking of other “bands” poaching talent, I found this little bit of news interesting as to why Tom Brady was such a sour sport after the loss to the Eagles.

Vinny Cerrato (former 49ers and Redskins GM) is a neighbor of mine. He says the real reason for the alleged rift among Brady, Bill Belichick and owner Bob Kraft boiled down to this—49ers GM John Lynch approached Belichick prior to the season about trading for—Tom Brady!

Belichick was more than willing to make the trade. Bill’s M.O. after all is trading or releasing guys before the point at which their talents are in decline. It’s all about true roster value with Belichick. He was confident that in Jimmy G. he already had his new franchise QB in place for the next 5 years. It made sense to trade Brady now to a team outside the conference which was offering extremely high draft value for him.

When Brady got wind of the possible trade, he ran to Kraft, who after deep thought nixed the deal. Belichick’s notion had been vetoed. Instead, it wound up with Jimmy G. getting traded to the 49ers instead.

Hence, Tom Brady had an extra chip on his shoulder in wanting to beat the Eagles — the incentive to prove Belichick wrong in even considering his replacement with the Patriots.

The moral of the story is it’s not always cherries and cream at the top of the NFL charts. Staying there is just as difficult as getting there. You don’t want the constant drama of losing band members and having to replace them, but it’s part of the territory.

For now the internal harmony seems very strong within the Eagles franchise. Guys who are leaving are doing so with good wishes of success from all the higher-ups. You just cross your fingers it stays that way. We don’t need Patriots-style drama going into the 2018 season. We had enough of that with the Chip Kelly-Howie Roseman cage match back in 2013.

P.S.- People have asked me what headline I was going to run if Brady had somehow, miraculously pulled out that SB game with a last-second Hail Mary, a 2-point conversion and then a winning score in OT. It was this:

“Cry Eagles Cry”

Glad I never had to come that close to using it!

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A new view from the top of the charts for Eagles

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