Chaos now defines Reid's final days
Eagles fire Jim Washburn
Chaos now defines Reid's final days
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
The Eagles are gripped now by chaos. There is no other way to look at it. With four games remaining in a down-spiraling season, just hours after a late-night loss in Cowboys Stadium, they abruptly fired defensive line coach Jim Washburn, apparently telling him not to let the door hit him in the wide-9 on the way out.
In the midst of an eight-game losing streak, they now have fired a defensive coordinator (Juan Castillo), a defensive end (Jason Babin), a defensive line coach (Washburn) and, just for fun, a couple of front office executives.
As it turns out, even Nixon’s final days were more orderly than Andy Reid’s.
Washburn had, fairly or not, become a symbol of everything that had gone wrong with Reid’s tenure as coach. He was brought in as part of a radical overhaul of the coaching staff in 2011. He brought with him what was viewed by some as a gimmicky scheme, the wide-9 defensive front, and he was brought in and hired before Reid decided on a defensive coordinator. It was done exactly backward -- and then, when Reid promoted Castillo, his offensive line coach, to be the defensive coordinator, the scheme and the setup and the coordinator made for a trifecta of dysfunction.
It was the kind of gamble that Reid had never taken before. It was the kind of haphazard decision-making that was the exact opposite of Reid’s careful persona. Now, here we are.
I saw Washburn leaving the locker room after Sunday night’s loss to the Cowboys. He was dressed in a suit and tie, as is the custom, and he looked kind of mad at the world, his red face contrasted against his silver goatee. I didn’t think anything of it as Washburn left, by himself, and headed for a team bus -- because after eight straight losses, everybody associated with that team either looks angry or looks like they just witnessed a car wreck.
That Babin was one of Washburn’s favorites went without saying -- he resurrected Babin’s career when they were together in Tennessee, and Babin flourished as a pass rusher for the Eagles in 2011 -- and the team’s decision to fire Babin last week could not have been Washburn’s idea. That Washburn’s personality could be prickly also was not in dispute; he and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg got into it on the sidelines at one point last season, you will remember, and Washburn was very open about being concerned only with his guys and his scheme. Whatever happened behind them was somebody else’s problem.
In recent days, all of those elements must have been shaken into a toxic cocktail -- and it had to be toxic, because there is no way you fire an assistant coach in December for anything short of toxic. And while it speaks to Washburn, and to the perils of losing in the NFL, it speaks more to the head coach.
The thing has spun completely out of control now for Reid. The questions get harder, the answers get weaker, and the one thing you could always say about Reid -- that he was organized, that he could make the trains run on time, and that his teams were always modeled after his persistent, consistent personality -- is now being questioned in the cacophony of 3-9 and the certainty that Reid is about to be fired.
Chaos now defines. Chaos, and losing.
He stole the Nixon reference from Mike & Mike on ESPN radio this morning. The Milton Berle of columnists.— VA-PhillyPhan- lol @ andys getting the crazy hot feets.
maybe he can desperately dig up lombardi's corpse and name him next years d-coordinator.— bloodymess - Washburn and his wide-nine should have been fired long ago. Good riddance. Now let's dump RC and the rest of the coaching staff.— billtfla
- Andy Reid is and always has been a fraud. He took over a young team handed to him by the Ray Rhodes regime that included Hollis Thomas, Troy Vincent,Brian Dawkins,Duce Staley,Chad Lewis,Bobby Taylor,Al Harris,Hugh Douglas,Brandon Whiting,Ike Reese,Jerimiah Trotter and Tra Thomas. That's 10 pro bowlerws and a whole lot of leadership and character guys. The only positive move Reid made was to bring in D coordinator Jim Johnson. That group plus Johnson got the Eagles to the super bowl in 2004 and were solely responsible for the great record up to 2004. As those players retired or were not resigned and Andy started making his own BAD draft picks and signings the team started to slide and basically have averaged 8.5 wins a season since 04.In the 4 years Ray Rhodes was here he drafted more pro bowlers than Andy has in 14 years.Ray Rhodes also brought in d coordinator Emmitt Thomas and O coordinator Jon Gruden and quarterbacks coach Sean Payton. I don't know who the GM was under Rhodes but we need to bring them back. Andy has parlayed someone Ray Rhodes players into a 14 year career and taken credit for it when he actually has had little to do with the success. Those great players and leaders were the heart and soul of those 2000-2004 teams and Andy had nothing to do with bringing them here!! He is a FRAUD!!!!!— REL3
- I would take a player with guts like Jeff Garcia over a player with no brains, no common sense like Mike Vick.
I cannot wait until the house is swept clean.
Give me a coach who prefers a brusining run game.
Give me a coach who drafts LBs who split skulls.
This secondary sucks. They have no guts. They don't tackle.
DRC Sucks
NNamndi SUCKS— 1000hugs - The Eagles need to lose out the rest of the season. They need to draft Luke Joeckel, OT, Texas A&M, and he'll go early in the first round.— 4thand10
- What a mess. This could literally take years to fix.— raven13
- 13, THIS TEAM IS SO BEREFT OF TALENT (THANKS TO ARROGANT ANDY) IT WILL TAKE THE NEW MGMT. TEAM 5 OR 6 SOLID DRAFTS TO MAKE THIS AN NFL CALIBER TEAM. RIGHT NOW THIS IS A BAD NCAA DIVISION 3 TEAM. — bedpan
- This reporter is another loser. The facts are that Reed made a bad pick in an improper fashion and the guy is a sour puss who is not a team-oriented coach. I would rather see this happen than nothing being done and the wide nine goes on until the end of the season.
This is all Reed's doing starting with a bad and untimely hire. He is history at the end of the year so let's be patient and hope for the best.— hankhammer2 - Look for the positive, a banged up offense did well. Marty called a good game.
— camasbud - While your on the secondary, what about Coleman and Allen..They suck in coverage and brains like DRC and Nmamdi suck at tackling. What is Dawk, Vincent and Bobby Taylor think of the legacy they left this bunch of CREAMPUFFS...Final thought, Reid is to blame for the hirings but he should be given a chance to right the ship next year.— Trot
- Trot - Disgusting the way DRC handles himself. Can you imagine Dawk just letting a guy prance his way into the endzone? Remember when Dawk pummeled Vick in the playoffs? Vick was going to score but Dawk still gave him a shot to think about doing it again. Where is that heart? Not here. — Philalawyer
- "This could literally take years to fix." Oh heavens, bedpan and raven13 thinks the roster is bereft of talent. Goodness no! Someone quantify the changes that Peters, Mathis, Kelce, RG, and Herremans play together for a significant stretch of time, starting in training camp? Anyone? What are the chances? Because above all else, continuity along the offensive line (assuming individuals have talent to play) is the most important thing for success of a football team (followed by D line's ability to get a pass rush). Last night I saw a line that, due to playing together now for a few weeks, has shown the ability to play better. They are still not good, but they are much improved. Granted the personnel will change, but the only chance is to fix the lines and that means having continuity, which in a big way is depended upon the fates. Recall how Peters injured himself? Me neither.— Murrayman
- i look forward to seeing more of the fireman next season at RG
— hannibal barca - Still trying to decide which franchise is in worse shape: Eagles or Phillies?— Copper34
