IS TAKING DOC TO SEE THE DOC
More from the hourlong chat with Andy Reid at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Fla.:
Do you see Trotter coming back?
Right now, no. but I still think he can play.
Where is Gaither in his rehab?
He’s doing pretty good. He’s making progress here. He can run.
Will he again back up Bradley at MLB?
He’ll compete for the WILL position and back up MIKE. (Joe) Mays came on late in the season. Ended up having a great year as a special teams player. I think he just matured as a football player.
The strongside situation?:
You’ve got Chris (Gocong) and (Moise) Fokou. We’ll see what happens there.
Do you want to be a club president like your buddy Mike Holmgren some day?
I kind of feel like that sitting at this table right now. He’s good at that. He’ll do a good job.
Surprised nobody has signed Brian Westbrook?:
I hope he does (play again). He mentioned that he wanted to play again. And I think he’s still working on things he needs to do.
Surprised that the overtime proposal passed so overwhelmingly?:
No, I really wasn’t.
Are you in favor of the change?:
We voted for it.
That wasn’t what I asked you. Are you in favor of it?:
No response.
How much longer do you want to coach?:
I enjoy doing it. I guess when you can’t come back from summer vacation, that’s when you’re done. It’s when you just can’t get out of that La-Z-Boy, then it’s time to hang it up. But I haven’t felt any of that. I love what I’m doing.
How much does the two defeats to the Cowboys dictate your offseason?:
You kind of know where you have to be. They lost in the playoffs, so you know you have to be even better than that. So that’s what we’re striving to do. Bring in the best players we can possibly bring in. And then, there’s a part of that that’s scheme. You’ve got to coach well and play well and execute well.
Joe Banner said he doesn’t see much of a difference between you and the Cowboys. Agree with that?:
It might be more than that. I’ve got Wade (Phillips) by about four inches in the waist. Listen, we’re just trying to put the best football team out on the field that we can.
If you get a really good offer, will you part with at least one of your quarterbacks?
Possibly. Right now, we’re going to go back and evaluate the situation. We’re entertaining offers.
Leonard Weaver’s role next season…..will it continue to grow?:
He could. He’s talented in a lot of ways. Obviously you don’t pay fullbacks what we’re paying him and not give him an opportunity to carry the football. We feel he can do both. He catches the ball well. You can screen to him. Great hands. Great protector. More flexibility than we’ve had before at that position. The way we worked him in last year. Maybe that increases (this season).
All the change on your roster the last couple of years?:
Iif you’re fortunate to stay some place as long as I have here, you’re going to go through things like that. It’s not an easy thing, but it’s gonna happen. You’ve got to get used to change. It’s part of the game. You’ve got to embrace it as opposed to being afraid of it.
Are you reloading, rebuilding, what?:
We expect to win games. When we bring young guys in, we bring them in with that in mind. We expect them to hold up the tradition that we’ve built.
Is this team capable of competing for a championship right now?:
It will be when it’s all put together. We can go play right now. And compete. I think we have a pretty good football team. But I think we need to add more to it to even solidify that. But we’re in a position where we could do it if everybody was healthy. But in the draft, you’re going to bring in some guys who are going to have an opportunity to play. That’s happened the last few years. Guys have played well for us. I think it will be the same way this year.
Are you focusing on defense in this year’s draft right now?:
That’s the way it looks. If there’s a great offensive player there, I’m not going to pass him up. We’re going to trust the board with that.
So you’re saying you expect to get one or two guys in this draft who are going to be able to step in as rookies and play?:
I’m comparing it to the last couple of years. Every year we’ve had a guy or two step in and play. I don’t think this will be any different.
Deep draft?:
If you take certain positions, if you take defensive end, maybe in years past, you felt there were a couple defensive ends that were talk quality, this year you might have ten who are going to have an opportunity to play. They might not all be top quality, but there isn’t that huge dropoff that there’s been in other years. You can get a good player from 24 to 36. Good, solid starter types, where in years past, it might’ve stopped at 24.
What do you think of the new three-day draft format?:
I’m interested to see how it works. I’d love to have that first pick of the second day. Where you can sleep on it, regather your thoughts, which you normally don’t get to do. I don’t think (the new format) is a bad thing.
Would you vote for Jon Runyan?:
I would. I want to see the first argument he gets into. I want to see the guy’s expression that he’s yelling at.
Frustrating to see other coaches who haven’t coached nearly as many years win Super Bowls and you’re still chasing the brass ring?:
I’m probably like that little kid that’s sitting at the pearly gates. The Lord says, let me show you an optimist and a pessimist. Takes him into the first door and there’s this kid sitting on this big pile of horse manure, saying, Lord, you told me there was a pony in here somewhere. That’s a pessimist. Then they go into the next room and there’s horse manure flying everywhere. The little kid in there says, I know there’s a pony in here somewhere. I’m kind of that guy. I’m alright with that. I feel very fortunate to have reached this level, and now we’re going to take it to another level.
To read Part 1 of the Andy Reid interview, click here
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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