With Reid, connect the dots
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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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Philly sports writers are all over the map on Reid's security in Phila. Reid is the Shot Caller down at Camp Eagle. 13 years as a success in Phila and some of you has him on a survival list, that's a joke. Reid has made Phila all but forget Dick Vermile.
The Eagles purchased good will in the signing of McCoy after pulling a grimy move on Peters a few days prior.
The McCoy signing at the time was exception to keep the locker room together.
— Dexter- These are great points, Sheil, but I'd like to add that Andy Reid has a fat stomach.— JofreyRice
- Your not supposed to sign on without parental consent. Now to be serious you my little dweeb are exactly what is wrong with this country. Grow up and be a man idiot. — eagle fan for life
- These are great points, Sheil, but I'd like to add that Andy Reid has a fat stomach.— JofreyRice
- Its nothing more than usual...Reid looking out for Reid. He knows that he needs a happy McCoy to improve the 8-8 record and save his job. Reid don't care about future money, he knows to keep his job, its about this season. And he likely does not care about McCoy beyond what McCoy can do for him.— Carlos2
Dexter - how was that a grimy move by the Eagles on Peters? They followed he rules in the CBA that was agreed upon by the players? Hopefully Peters had injury insurance. The players wanted to work out in places they preferred rather than the teams facilities, away from the facility injuries are considered non-football related. Players can't cry about it now, they should have thought more carefully about it before they agreed upon it. He still gets a little more than 2 mil this year. Not bad money for rehabbing. I wish short term or even long term disability was that much, heck, it doesn't even come close to my yearly salary.- Exactly people forget that playing in the NFL is a job just like us normal people, and if I get hurt outside of work they dont have to pay me either hell they dont even have to keep me. If ya ask me Peters has it pretty good compared. — eagle fan for life
- Football players also get workers compensation when injured.. — crohnkiller
- The number 1 reason that teams win is that their star QB stays healthy and plays every game. Vick will go down in some game (he always does) and that will be the season.— farley
Comment removed.- First of all, I'm not sure what kind of punch everyone is drunk on over the past several weeks but I'd like a double shot of it. All the Eagles have done to shape their team since that morbid dreck of last season was bring back Andy, Juan and the entire coaching staff (which has never won anything) sans Johnny Lynn.
As for as the actual roster they have added Demeco Ryans, lost Jason Peters, had a draft (like every other NFL team) and brought back the same players who haven't really done anything close to winning a Super Bowl.
So net result of all this? Everyone is super-duper elated. Yay!!
Anyway, to my point, if the author or anyone else doesn't think Reid's job will be on the line if the Eagles go 8-8 or 9-7 or anything short of making the playoffs next season they are severely disillusioned.
I know everyone's drunk on something right now but the sobriety of a playoff-less season will put Reid back on the chopping block fast enough to make your head spin.— guyguy4 - This comment has been deleted. — bedpan
- I agree. and sadly true. Theres 2 or 3 kool-aid drinkers that keep posting, but 51% a MAJORITY of fans want Reid gone according to a poll on this very site. Reid barely kept his job for this year, and if he doesnt do AMAZINGLY well he will be fired. Lurie doesnt want to, but if enough fans want Reid gone, he will be forced to fire him, or allow him to "step down" and take a job in San Diego or something. And yes, alot of the Reid-lovers just do not seem to understand the game unfortunately. And the writers dont know one way or the other either, as no one knows until some games are actually played. The "Dream Team" roster also looked good on paper... until they went 4-8. Alot happens NOT how Andy Reid "envisions" it.
- when have the Eagles done anything to please the fans? As I see it, the Linc is sold out on a consistent basis and team is making a killing in $$$. Why would Laurie fire Reid? If ticket sales dramatically drop, which it won't, see waiting list for season tickets and sales plummet, which it won't, Reid will be here — crohnkiller
- Andy has not righted anything except his potential to remain the coach. He is still on thin ice, so he used his influence to finally get guys signed instead of hanging them out to dry as long as possible. He knows he doesnt have any more wild cards to play in terms of seasons so he has to have happy players in an established system as his best shot of keeping his job. They wont make the same mistakes as last year of letting leads slip away and losing close games on bad plays at the end.— peteike
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