Take Your Time…But Hire Duce
The Eagles are one of two teams remaining with an open head coaching position. They have interviewed a number of potential candidates and continue to add new candidates each day, including today interviewing Colts’ OC Nick Sirianni. With five positions already filled, some candidates are already off the table, including Robert Saleh, Brandon Staley, and Arthur Smith who appeared to be high on the Eagles’ wish list (although who actually knows what is going on with the Birds decision makers). The only other team with a head coaching position is the Houston Texans and believe it or not, the Texans seem more dysfunctional at the top than the Eagles. According to Dan Orlovsky (and others), the Texans’ dysfunction is even worse than it appears in the media. This is a huge decision for the future of the Eagles and the front office with Jeffrey Lurie should absolutely take their time with this decision. Somehow the Birds offer a better job than Houston. Before making a decision, the Eagles should wait for all the candidates they want to interview to be eliminated from the playoffs (or win the Super Bowl) and have all the information needed to make the best decision for the future of the franchise.
With that being said, the Eagles have already interviewed their next head coach, it should be Duce Staley, as long as Duce has a plan to bring in an offensive and defensive coordinator that will have the play calling duties. Duce clearly has the support of the locker room; a number have players both on the Eagles and throughout the league have offered their support of Duce on social media during the coaching carousel. With the quarterback controversy that currently exists in Philadelphia, the Eagles need a coach that will walk into the job with the respect of the locker room because the quarterback decision will most likely be made before the team is back together for offseason work this summer. That means there is a chance that the locker room comes into camp divided. Hiring a coach that commands respect which also commands respect on the decision of which quarterback, Jalen Hurts or Carson Wentz, the biggest player decision of the offseason.
Looking at the final four teams in the conference championships, only one head coach calls the plays for his team, Matt LaFleur, whose quarterback is Aaron Rodgers. The Eagles do not have Aaron Rodgers in the quarterback room and the rumors around the disfunction between the former play caller and the quarterbacks from last season are alarming. The Eagles need to hire an offensive coordinator/play caller that does not have head coaching responsibilities and can focus his sole attention on fixing the quarterback position and ensuring that the offense has the best chance to be successful each Sunday. The Eagles will also hire a defensive coordinator to run the defense if Duce is hired as the head coach. This is important for the same reasons as hiring an offensive coordinator, have someone on the defensive side of the ball that is only focused on the defensive side of the ball. The fear is that this will be a similar dynamic to Jim Schwartz as the defensive coordinator. Schwartz seemed to have complete control over the defense and at times, it didn’t appear that he reported to anyone, including Doug Pederson. If Duce is not the play caller on offense, he will be able to spend time in the defensive room as well and ultimately, oversee the entire operation, not just one side of the ball. A couple of current comparisons to this dynamic is the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Baltimore Ravens. Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh are not the sole play callers on either side of the ball and it appears to be working for the two AFC North coaches who were hired in 2007 and 2008 respectively and each has Super Bowl rings.
The plan to hire Duce is risky. The Eagles will not only have to hit on Duce as the head coach but will have to hire the right offensive and defensive coordinators to make this work. The other fear, which is also a hope, is that the coordinators perform so well (hope) that they are plucked off quickly to take head coaching positions themselves (fear). But, no coaching hire comes without risk. With the current state of the front office, and the current dynamic that seems to have the front office pulling most of the strings throughout the week (and maybe on game day) the Eagles best bet for a successful 2021 campaign to point this franchise back in the right direction is to hire Duce Staley and hire play callers on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Again, this is a franchise altering decision, the Eagles should absolutely take all the time they need to make the right decision because it will affect the next era of Eagles football.
Feature Photo: AP Photo/Michael Perez
Tweet: @danorlovsky7
Article: Chris Cobb/ Eagles Wire
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Categorized:Eagles