Eagles fire McDermott
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Eagles
Eagles fire McDermott
Jeff McLane, Inquirer Staff Writer
After two seasons as defensive coordinator, the Eagles have fired Sean McDermott, the team confirmed.
A replacement has not yet been named, according to an Eagles source.
McDermott's firing comes just five days after head coach Andy Reid said that McDermott would be back next season. The 36-year-old's defense had regressed in nearly every statistical category this past season. Despite such alarming numbers Reid gave McDermott, who had worked his way up from the bottom, a vote of confidence on Monday.
“You’re dealing with a guy that’s a tremendous worker and is a very smart individual,” Reid said a day after the Eagles’ season came to an end with a 21-16 playoff loss to the Packers. “And so I look at it a little bit different than what you do in that I’ve seen him work with young guys, I’ve seen him work through injuries, I’ve seen him stay positive through those situations and still put us in a position to win football games.”
Apparently, that was not enough to keep his job. Reid actually told McDermott that he was going in another direction on Thursday, a league source said.
Reid is away this weekend and will not have a comment, a team spokesman said.
Attempts to reach McDermott have been unsuccessful.
"I'm really surprised because I didn't expect that to happen," Eagles safety Quintin Mikell said in a text message. "I don't know how to take it."
Defensive backs coach Dick Jauron, who the Eagles granted permission to the Browns to interview for their vacant defensive coordinator position, is a candidate, according to a team source. The Eagles are expected, though, to interview a number of other possible replacements.
There are a number of former defensive coordinators looking for jobs, including ex-Browns coach Rob Ryan and former 49ers head coach Mike Singletary.
McDermott, of course, now joins that group. The Eagles promoted him in July, 2009, just days before his predecessor, Jim Johnson, died from cancer. McDermott worked under Johnson for most of his time with the Eagles. He used his aggressive style of blitzing, but his approach was different in many other ways.
McDermott liked to tinker with his defense and substitute players in and out during a series. He dealt with his share of significant injuries in two seasons, but the defense was a major crutch for the Eagles this season. It allowed a franchise-worst 31 passing touchdowns and had the worst red zone efficiency in the NFL since 1998.
"That's business," Eagles defensive end Darryl Tapp said when contacted. "Honestly, the last I heard he was coming back. Yeah, I'm disappointed. You work with a guy all year long you get to like him. But this is the business we work in."
Gosh, you mean that Andy Reid said something that he knew wasn't true?!? Wow, that never happens! Who knows whether he's a good coach. It's kind of hard for a defense to get better when Reid doesn't draft or sign anyone in the off-season to upgrade a defense that anyone who knows anything about football knows wasn't very good.— egret234
Yeah blame him for you terrible defensive draft history. What a joke fire Andy Reid he is the true culprit. I can no longer be a fan of this organization.- Singletary and Ryan are too "colorful" for this regime. A "beige" re-tread like Juron is more like itl the Marty Mornhimweg pf DCs. BTW, funny how MM went from being a so-called hot HC candidate to not so hot / frigid.— fakeplastic
- How long before pitchers and catchers report. The Eagles are getting like that old peice of cheese in the back of the fridge.— fakeplastic
thats nice, give him garbage players like moise fouku and ernie sims and then on top of it pass the ball OVER AND OVER which does NOTHING to help a defense, especially one that is young, inexpereinced, injured, and full of crappy players. If they had any chance of being succesful they need some help from the offense in controlling the clock. way to blame McDermont for your stupid moves Andy. or was it akers fault. HOW ABOUT CHANGE THE STUPID PLAYCALLING, REID WILL NEVER WIN A SB IF HE IS IN CHARGE OF THE PLAYCALLING IN ANYWAY. IT DOESNT MATTER WHO THE DC IS, 60-80% PASSING IS GARBAGE THAT HAS MYSTERIOUSLY WON 0 SUPERBOWLS IN HISTORY. shocker.- Players had nothing to do with it, this guy was indecisive in his playcalling and his personel groupings, he didn't know whether he wanted to play a 4-3 or 3-4. To top things off you drop your best pass rusher into coverage, yeah it was time for him to kick rocks. — realtruth
Without Bradley, Graham, and Allen, Eagles never had a chance but McD was a poor game manager.- with all of Andy's "tweeners", they should bring in an experienced 3-4 defensive coach and switch it up like the rest of the NFL's ellite teams. 5 out of the 8 teams still alive going into this weekend's divisonal round run the 3-4: steelers, patriots, jets, packers & ravens. i would take any of those Defenses over ours!— wavydavy2000
- Wow, this just made my day!!!! Bring in Singletary or Jouron, Oh Happy Day!!!!!— realtruth
- I have been a diehard Eagles' fan since Oct. 30, 1960. That's the date I was born. With that being said, the Eagles have not had a solid dozen years of success than they have with Andy Reid. For those of you who want to get rid of Reid, tell me who you want, and an honest projection of the percentage indicating the likelihood of getting him. Granted, I'm not happy with his giving the ball to Shady 12X last week, or trading D-Mac, but we've never seen a better stretch. As far as Mike Vick, I'm still not completely sold on him either. I give him another year (franchise him) and keep Kolb (just in case). As far as the new DC, I think it will be Jauron, but in all honesty, I'd prefer Singletary. Good, bad, indifferent, this is my team, and I support them. Gone are the days of ABC coming back from a commercial on Monday Night Football and the Eagles' fans singing the "The Impossible Dream" because we took a lead in the 3rd quarter of a game.— jhnesunshine
- — wavydavy2000 agree but the problem is that all those teams that you mentioned have good linebackers, All-Pros or near All Pros. Not one Eagle linebacker could start on any of those teams. You need a compete overhaul of that group, plus a really big defensive lineman for the middle, players they don't have at this time.
— watsonmr - Now we just got to get rid of the HEAD coach!!!— johnnyk3
- One down (the dumb) and one more to go and that's Reid (the dumber).— 2:01TimeOut
- Yo Andy, we want s Super Bowl championship so how 'bout you fire yourself?— txflyer
- He can't fire himself. Why? He's too busy listening to left-right-left-right-left-right as he walks the sidelines. Lurie and Banner are too cheap to take a risk of eating his contract but some "bridesmaid" wanna be owner will pay him. We can not win with this idiot who outdoes himself week after week. He is truly a DAFFY (Dumb-A**-Fat-F**k-YourMoneyBackGuaranteed).
— 2:01TimeOut
