Funny thing about the firing of Andy Reid — all the Eagles organizational pressure of the past is now off Big Red's shoulders. Suddenly Reid is free as a —well, bird. And a very rich bird, I must say.
Now all the pressure has switched to the masterminds who are responsible for recruiting and hiring the Next Great Coach.
"Boy Wonder" GM Howie Roseman (left) and owner Jeff Lurie are now on the clock to come through with a new solution for the floundering Eagles. Maybe Asante Samuel was right about Howie and Lurie being the ultimate "Fantasy Football" duo…It's amazing to me that people without real football pedigrees would be calling the GM shots for the Eagles now, but such is the way of the Philly franchise these days.
Lurie hinted that he'd like to take his time with this move, be thorough, be sure. But he and general manager Howie Roseman, who will be a crucial component throughout this process, might not be afforded that luxury.
Look at Andy Reid's situation. He's already rumored to be interviewing for the Arizona Cardinals head coach job (which the Cardinals are denying), and he's got an interview scheduled with the Kansas City Chiefs (which appears to be substantiated). What this all means is the guys who are now on Howie and Jeff's "short list" won't be available for a whole lot longer. So the dynamic duo needs to choose a personnel target and a direction fairly soon.
If, for example, a clear-cut favorite emerges from a series of interviews the Eagles will conduct with various candidates over the next few weeks, it's a good bet that man will also have landed at the top of several other teams' lists. Then it will be up to Lurie and Roseman to determine the veracity of the inevitable reports from the national NFL media that so-and-so has been offered a contract worth X number of dollars by Team X and is expected to accept within the next 24 hours.
That's when it turns into a high-stakes poker game with a lot of counters and bluffs from other teams.
Lurie said he had compiled a short list long before making the decision to let Reid go, just in case. That list, which now will grow, is believed to include all three Atlanta Falcons coordinators, San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman, Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and University of Oregon head coach Chip Kelly.
But the interview process works both ways. The Eagles must sell their organization and, to an extent, Roseman, to a candidate just as much as the candidates have to sell themselves.
The next coach will have to be willing to work well with Roseman or he will not be the next coach. So there will be some persuasion involved. To that end, Lurie already started the process.
"I keep voluminous notes on talent evaluation on not just whom we draft, but who is valued in each draft by each person that is in the organization that's working here," Lurie said. "I came to the conclusion that the person that was providing by far the best talent evaluation in the building was Howie Roseman."
Geez, what does that say about the Eagles' scouting department?
"I decided to streamline the whole decision-making process for the 2012 draft and offseason, and that's the first draft and offseason I hold Howie completely accountable for. The mistakes that were made in the 2011 draft have little or nothing to do with Howie's evaluations, and I think it was important for me to own up to the mistakes that were made and understand where they were coming from and it was awfully clear."
Why do I have this mental picture of Howie secretly gathering scouting reports in the NovaCare office files and altering them so that his reports turned out the best? Just kidding, Howie!
Still, Lurie and Roseman are on the clock here, under pressure to make sure the man they want doesn't land anywhere else, which is three quarters of the battle — even for the Eagles. "I think as we go through the process and meet people, we'll see how the timeline goes, one way or the other," Roseman said.
In the meantime, Roseman promised all the internal fixes necessary will be made quickly. "I've had a chance to meet with a lot of the players today," Howie told repoirters. "We're going to get to the bottom of the things that don't work and things that do, and we're going to get better."
Well, the first thing I hope Howie does is hook up with columnist Jimmy Kempski, he of Blogging the bEast fame. Let me link Howie and our readers to this short piece by Kempski which will astound you–and make you wonder what the heck was going on the last few years in Eagles defensive meetings:
What you will see and read will shock you. It will make you question your existence as an Eagles fan.
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