long time eagles fan here, haven't really posted much in this thread, and excuse my rant but from what I always observed, I thought Reid was pretty much "coach-for-life" with Lurie. But with Lurie getting divorced and Joe Banner going to Cleveland, and then finally Lurie "going public" that Reid has to do better -- I'm really wondering what's going on in Eagle-ville?
8-8 means Reid is fired? Lurie starts to pander to WIP chatter? With no Banner, what does Lurie do? What's his involvement level? When Jerry Jones presumed to know enough to be involved in Football decisions, he went from 3 SB wins, to 1 playoff appearance in over 15 years.
The NFL has changed a lot. A lot of rule changes even since 10 years ago.
Can a team win a SB without an Elite Qb anymore? Not that many did before either -- but the Phil Simms, Brad Johnsons managed, and the occasional Trent Dilfer.
If Nick Foles ceiling is Joe Flacco is that good enough? If his ceiling is Ben Rothlisberger, that would be.
The thing about McCoy, Desean and Maclin is that they are still young. As is Bryce Brown, who looks to have NFL pedigree. That's 2 WR and 2 RB that could be around for a while. On D, Cox and Kendricks and DRC are still younger side of things.
Gruden and Cowher don't interest me, as I don't think former coaches who already won a ring, can leave the NFl, come back and do it again. Dick Vermeil remember, was A) an excpetion and super unusual situation B) hadn't actually won it before ...
On some forum I saw the mention of Chip Kelly and spread offense... said Bellichick is using it and is ahead of the curve.
I don't know...
But I'm very curious about Lurie now. The thing he did early on, was to separate himself from the Norman Braman era, he consulted the Bill Walsh's and took a shot at Ray Rhodes and then went through benching RC, and picking up Waters, Troy, Steve Everitt, Irv Fryar -- he tasted playoffs and then it fell apart and then with some experience got Reid and Donovan and we know the rest ...
But that was 15 years ago -- and now Banner is gone....
What can we expect? If Andy does anything less than 10-6 and playoffs, doesn't Lurie have to keep his word to save face with the fans and media? And if Reid is out, who is the master-mind on personnel? Do Washburn, Mudd and Bowles all go out the door too? Does Bowles elevate as the young up-n-comer and get a new O Coord to work with young Foles?
I'm really curious where the franchise is going...
It's 8 years now since 2004. No one left from those 12 win teams ... No Tra/Runyan, no Chad Lewis, No Troy/Bobby, no Lito/Sheldon/Lewis, no Trotter/Emmons/Hugh ... no Donovan....
This bunch's longest tenured player is Mike Patterson. Yes. Cole Celek Peters Nnamdi, Demeco are all vets.
And frankly this bunch hasn't done much. We've tasted one 11 win season since 04 and were one n done in playoffs.
I'm really curious as to the future, and if our only hope is if Foles becomes a Ben Rothlisberger caliber Qb?