With Reid, connect the dots
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of LeSean McCoy's contract extension had nothing to do with the running back himself.
With Reid, connect the dots
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of LeSean McCoy's contract extension had nothing to do with the running back himself.
But rather, what it revealed about Andy Reid.
Scrolling through this morning's coverage, the nuggets about Reid are what stood out to me. Per Jeff McLane of the Inquirer, Reid took an "atypical central role" in negotiations.
And Drew Rosenhaus told Les Bowen of the Daily News that the Eagles thinking this offseason has seemed different:
Your Eagletarian asked Rosenhaus if he thinks the Eagles' thinking about the handling of such negotiations with key players has changed over the past several years.
"Yeah, there's no question," Rosenhaus said. "To me, the Eagles are one of the more aggressive ballclubs when it comes to retaining their players. Guys want to stay here. There's great stability here [with Reid]."
It's been assumed for awhile now that Reid has final say on all personnel decisions. Yet, we've seen players time and again point to contentious relationships with the front office, while hailing Reid as a coach whom they're willing to run through a brick wall for. All along, it seemed the Eagles were comfortable handling things that way - whether the player was Brian Westbrook, Sheldon Brown, DeSean Jackson or Asante Samuel.
But now? It seems, in McCoy's case at least, that Reid is at the table. And that ended up being a positive, as the Eagles made a deal with the 23-year-old running back prior to full-team OTAs.
Looking back at last offseason, the franchise made a lot of aggressive moves, but most of them involved paying outsiders (Nnamdi Asomugha, Jason Babin, Cullen Jenkins, Vince Young, Steve Smith, Ronnie Brown), who were new to the organization. Clearly, that didn't play well with some of the guys in the locker room, like Jackson.
And perhaps it didn't play well with other veterans too, who chose to just play and stay quiet.
But in the past several months, the Eagles have extended productive veterans like Trent Cole and Todd Herremans. They re-signed Evan Mathis and made their splashiest acquisition via trade, acquiring respected veteran linebacker DeMeco Ryans from the Texans.
The most interesting case study might just be Jackson. When on his game, he's one of the most explosive playmakers in the game, beating defensive backs for 50-yard bombs and giving special teams coaches fits as a return man. When he's at his worst, he's a distracted receiver with shaky hands, who lets his teammates down (like when he was suspended for the Cardinals game).
I've written about Jackson at length in the past four seasons, and the posts always attract a wide variety of strong opinions.
Back in March, several NFL sources told Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com that there was "a debate within the Eagles hierarchy" about whether or not the team could trust Jackson. A couple weeks later, the two sides were able to get a deal done. Perhaps that means Reid won the debate. Or maybe it just means Jackson brought his price down to a point where everyone felt comfortable. Either way, given what we know about Reid's relationship with Jackson, it seems unlikely that the head coach was the one expressing the most doubt in the room about keeping the speedy wide receiver.
One more item from the past to call your attention to. Remember when highly-respected NFL writer Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times dropped a couple Eagles-related bombs back in March? One related to Peyton Manning. But the other was about Reid:
Two NFL insiders, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said that Philadelphia Coach Andy Reid was ready to walk away from the Eagles if he didn't get more personnel control, and now he has it.
Any perception that Reid is going to mortgage the future to win now because he knows he could lose his job after next season seems silly at this point. Other than the moves mentioned above, we know the Eagles were rumored to have some level of interest in trading up to land Robert Griffin III. And we know that eventually, they spent a third-round pick on a quarterback, Nick Foles, who will likely have no impact on how the team performs in 2012.
The bottom line is Reid has not made decisions like a guy worried about his long-term job security. For one, that would be completely out of his nature, given what we've learned about him in the last 13 years. Instead, Reid is operating under the belief that the Eagles will improve in 2012 and contend for a Super Bowl with this roster. Right or wrong, that is his approach.
And secondly, Reid has no reason to worry about his job. Jeff Fisher just got a five-year, $35M deal from the Rams. He has a .542 career winning percentage and has led teams to the playoffs six times in 16 seasons with one Super Bowl berth. Reid has a .609 career winning percentage, nine playoff berths in 13 years and one Super Bowl appearance.
In other words, the guess here is that the Eagles think Reid's future in Philadelphia is brighter than Jeffrey Lurie might have indicated publicly at the end of last season. And if for some reason next year turns out to be a disaster, Reid knows he'll get a fresh start somewhere else, assuming he wants one.
But if the Eagles rebound in 2012, it seems likely that Reid could be coaching McCoy through much of the five-year extension he signed yesterday.
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Have your say: Grade the Eagles' 2012 draft haul
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Guyguy, no prob. I'm not excited so much as I am happy with what the Eagles have done this off season. They invested in their own so that could lead to a happier club house. No telling how much all that money going to non-Eagles hurt them last year...it obviously bothered DJ and I can't say I blame him. BTW, if you notice I didn't include DJ in the ones I'm glad they resigned. I didn't care one way or the other but when the best FAs were taken off the market...eh, why not. The draft can't really be assessed until they play but they got some real football players...at least in the eyes of the experts. Some will flame out, no doubt, but this is the first draft in years where the consensus is they got the right guys. Bowles wasn't available was he? If he was, and Lynn was the wrong choice, well, they corrected that mistake. IMO I don't think I'm gushing about the team. If you think I am I'll correct that now. I'm just saying that at this point in the off season what the Eagles have done has pleased the vast majority of fans and even with that the fans are restrained. I haven't seen anyone predicting a SB win. I think you may be overreacting to the perceived good job the fans think the FO did. Tough sked, lots of rookies, etc...SB...eh, not likely. It's just that what I saw as a second rate FO somehow now looks like a real good FO. The proof is in the pudding though, can't argue that. Thanks for the response.— tpizza- raltman...chuckles has been known to "invent" a stat or two to support his "arguments. Caught him more than once. Might want to ask him about the old SB running percentage stat sometime...that's a REAL hoot.
BTW, that 38% winning percentage, even if true, is the dumbest stat in the world. Don't fall for it, it doesn't mean a thing, and certainly not what it sounds like. If chuckles actually thought about it he'd realize that for himself...but there's that word "thought" again. It's always somethin'.— tpizza - Kevin Kolb? Let's see, what other troll used to post here advocating KK for future HOF status? What sane fan would even contemplate trading KK for Vick? Please...— tpizza
rattman, I dont know, I think I looked it up myself onetime as I can easily remember the Eagles game-to-game since 01 so I can look at the schedule and come up with it pretty quickly, and then saw another writer or something had a similiar number, so its pretty accurate. I just googled it again and one article says he is 24-42 or .364 and that was like a year ago. It might be that bad or as high as .390...either way its still terrible. and I also am curious about other coaches but you hope they would be at least .500 against good teams and maybe .600 against the bad ones. Andy is an anomoly of lke .380 against bad teams but like .800 against the bad teams. 11-0 and 0-5 in one season. Meaning he doesnt emotionally motivate his team properly against the best teams, when the other coaches are just as good and that motivation might be the difference in which team wins, he doesnt have it. Instead he has them like robots who sysmteically beat the physically weaker teams, but come up short when they themselves play a physically better team. The best coaches adjust, adapt, and MOTIVATE in the biggest games, lifting thier team to victory. Andy does not. Probably the biggest reaason why he is only .380 and a big reason why he has never won a SB in 13 years and never will. His strategy is flawed and weak, so no matter how many years you give him the outcome will be the same every time. every. time.- Here's an actual site: http://firethewalrus.com/2011/01/31/reason-12-to-fire-the-walrus/
There is a serious flaw in the stats and it just proves you can use stats to prove anything...but at least here is a site you can look at...NOT 38% but hey, who's counting and I guess that was just another "estimate"...
— tpizza - BTW, last year was not in those stats but we all know they stunk last year.— tpizza
- @CG25: I'm not saying everyone has to like Reid. I certainly don't love the fact that he can't seem to understand time management and that he seems to neglect one position every year and that seems to cost the team a game or two every year. But overall, he's a very good coach and for someone to continually come on here every single day, say the exact same thing, throw out made up numbers, and contribute absolutely nothing to the discussion is completely pointless. If you don't like Reid, fine. That's your prerogative. However, if you can't come up with something more clever than "Reid will never win a SB" or "Reid has the worst record of all time vs winning teams" or "Reid is a loser" or "Reid never runs the ball and only running teams win the SB" or "Reid is terrible" or "Reid is worse than Kotite and Rhodes" or blah blah blah blah, then there's really no point for you to come on here. Even all of those flaws aside, your biggest problem is that you operate from a position of hindsight and provide absolutely no realistic solutions to any problems that you seem to identify. It's pretty easy to say someone sucks, but it's an entirely different proposition to actually put yourself out there and come up with REALISTIC solutions. You either have no solutions or are afraid to put forth some for fear of being ridiculed or fear that if one of those solutions actually happened and it failed, you would look stupid.— Penfold18
- lol, come on penfold, i didnt even read all that. its the same kool-aid responses over and over...you post yours...il post mine...and i will be right. unfortunately. ANDY REID WILL NEVER WIN THE SB BEING IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING. NEVER. FIRE HIM NOW AND GET ME A REAL WINNER, NOT MORE MEDIOCRE GARBAGE. PATHETIC.
- I'm now wondering if Eagles A.T. Ricky Burkblunder ever injected Jason Peters heel tendons with steroids. If so, this wouldn't be the first Eagles OL superstar he's ruined. — mccloudmj
- I realize that you cannot say too much about the draft before they actually play in the NFL but you'd have to be pretty negative not to be thrilled with this years draft vs. last years. Last year they took a guy with little football experience in the 1st, a guy with a 4-5 round grade in the 2nd, and a project in the 3rd. This year they traded up for the consensus best DT in the draft at a very low cost, then a LB who is clearly a phenomenal athlete and a 4 year division 1 starter, and a DE with a 1st round grade (and a lifelong Eagles fan!) in the 2nd. And what look like steals in the 4th, 6th and 7th round. If these guys are half as good as advertised it will be a big upgrade.— juaniflaco
- Same old garbage in, garbage out by CG25. Typical. I'm sorry that intelligent, well-thought posts confuse and frustrate you. Keep living in your dream world pal. I feel sorry for you. There's no helping the weak-minded.— Penfold18
- This is the time of the year when the Eagles usually start to hit their stride. Then the games start and that's that.— jtj06
- Andy and I had dinner at Geno's last nite, and then we walked across the street for dinner at Pat's. He will be the coach for the Eagles as long as HE wants to be the coach. Sorry guys. For you knowledgeble fans out there who can comment on more than somebody's abdominal circumference-start a list of alternative candidates and write down their attributes. Don't just say "Fire Andy", tell us who you want and why, so we can comment on YOUR suggestions.— tommy_the_k
- AR does exactly what he is expected to do. He sets up a team that will give the faithful hope, which fills the seats. It's a business (ask Peters), filling the seats is much more important to Lurie than winning it all. This isn't true for all owners but it seems to be a requisite for Eagles owners.— 2ndNlong
- Interesting idea that last year the went outside to the point where the vets were disgruntled. Staying inside and developing what you have will probably make for a really harmonious locker room. Also, now some really key positions are not wondering about their future DeJ and Shady, for instance. Look for explosive seasons from them alone. Another point, Eli Manning gets such good protection. If Vick had that protection he wouldn't get injured. He certainly wouldn't suffer any affects of accumulated hits. Eli is simply a mediocre talent with protection. In the NFL, give anyone time and they can complete a pass. Eli simply plays in the NY media area so he's on his way to the HOF. Both SB rings are flukes. The 2nd one was way more of a fluke than the first. They would not have gotten to the first round if either, Reggies tries that stupid pass, Seahawk meltdown, or Cruz is correctly called on that ref-blown call when he "gave up" the ball, thinking he was in college. Any one of those and Eli is playing golf. I don't even want to bring up the D***m Team but if they had one last year that only gelled late, think what they have this year. I wish there would be one season where they don't have goofy things happen, like breaking your fott getting off the team bus, Trotter getting thrown out before the game starts, and those ref calls like Chicago when a snap goes way over the QB head and we recover only to find that the refs call the play illegal motion, false start or whatever they thumbed thru the book for, etc.— RitchieAllen64
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