The Andy Reid tree: Many with ties to Eagles coach in the playoffs

Reid hired a quarterbacks coach from run-heavy Wisconsin to eventually nurture a franchise quarterback in the West Coast offense. He hired a safeties coach with no NFL coaching experience, who last coached the Frankfurt Galaxy. He hired a defensive-backs coach with only 2 years of major-college experience and a linebackers coach who had more time as a TV analyst than as a coach.

Reid also retained a special-teams coordinator who was part of the 3-13 club whose futility led to Ray Rhodes' firing.

All of those former assistants now are either head coaches or coordinators for playoff teams this season.

Reid will face that Wisconsin guy, Brad Childress, Sunday afternoon in a wild-card playoff game in Minnesota. He was beaten in November by that special-teams coach, John Harbaugh, a first-year head coach whose Ravens will play in Miami in the first game Sunday.

The one-time Frankfurter, Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, is using his bye week to enjoy head-coach courtship for the second straight postseason. He reportedly is the front-runner for the Jets' vacancy.

And, for the second straight postseason, Reid's original defensive-backs coach, Leslie Frazier, will join Spagnuolo as a hot head-coach candidate, even as Frazier readies his defense in Minnesota for Reid. Passed over last season by Miami and Atlanta, he will interview with the Lions for their opening.

No team is hotter than the one Mr. TV, Ron Rivera, works for. He was promoted from linebackers coach to coordinator at the end of October, and his defense helped the Chargers win four straight and steal the AFC West title from Denver. The Bolts host the Colts tomorrow evening.

"I'm proud. I'm proud of the guys," said Reid, his voice catching in a rare emotional moment. He tried to lighten it: "If you're around long enough . . . "

Hardly.

Reid took plenty of heat when he compiled a staff with such unremarkable pedigrees. He insisted he wasn't limited by a restrictive budget. He shrugged off the whispers that his own, unimposing leadership record led him to hire lesser-known coaches.

Reid simply didn't believe past displays of football genius guaranteed future success. He'd rather have a strong man than a famous one.

"We won a lot of football games with good people," Childress said Wednesday.

"It wasn't that he brought in the best resumés," Harbaugh agreed. "He tried to put together the staff with the best chemistry. The best people."

That's why, in part, Reid retained not only Harbaugh but also three other of Rhodes' assistants, all of whom remain on Reid's staff. Reid, with a Super Bowl ring and, after two seasons, the football operations director title, never bullied.

"That's the heart of the whole thing," Harbaugh said. "With Andy, and Jim, you always felt you had the respect of those men. And they liked you. They never made you feel small. Over time, they built you up."

All of Reid's former assistants cite the duo's preparedness as a template from which they now work. Much is made of Reid's interview with Lurie, how Lurie was bowled over by Reid's blueprint for success as a head coach, compiled over decades as an assistant in a three-ring binder.

Little is made of the nurturing atmosphere Reid and Johnson created.

"Jim's not selfish. For instance, he let me script his practices after a while," Rivera said. "He would let me edit and put together the game-plan book. Then, when it was my time, I was ready."

When it came time to make personnel moves, Reid and Johnson asked their assistants for input. Reid hosts an annual offseason picnic for his staff. There is little tolerance for grandstanding. When players play particularly well, Reid and Johnson take pains to recognize the position coaches' contributions.

When the generals are deferential, it pays dividends - especially when the troops are grounded to start.

"There weren't egos," Harbaugh said. "On other staffs I'd been on and heard about, you'd pull into the parking lot and just see some guy's car, and it would bring you down. On Andy's staff, you couldn't wait to be around the guys."

"He makes a point to find guys that have great character, and smart guys," Frazier said. "You get a guy who has character and is a relatively bright guy, Andy's philosophy is, 'If he's a good person, all the other stuff will come.' There's a lot of truth to that."

Of course, they had to be able to coach, too.

Frazier helped send Brian Dawkins, Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor to the Pro Bowl. Spagnuolo coached the defensive backs when Lito Sheppard and Michael Lewis went. Rivera helped Jeremiah Trotter get there. Childress oversaw Donovan McNabb's early development, and helped him get to Hawaii. Even Harbaugh saw one of his charges make it: special-teams standout Ike Reese.

Now, they all continue to draw from the painstaking preparation habits of Reid and Johnson.

"Always, they told us: 'Expect the unexpected,' " Rivera said. "That there's a right way to coach football."

No one understands that better than a pair of Reid's current coaches. Sean McDermott, hired in 2000 as a low-level assistant, and quarterbacks coach Pat Shurmur, part of the original staff as tight ends coach, are considered the staff's up-and-comers, according to two NFL sources.

McDermott might be hotter, given the profiles of Johnson's former assistants (Harbaugh coached defensive backs in 2007 and attended defensive meetings during his tenure as special-teams coach). Each has adopted a version of his blitz-heavy scheme that creates sacks and forces turnovers.

"They have their own ideas, but they have a foundation, the philosophy of the defense - the pressure package," Johnson said. "I know all of them are using it."

Frazier's Vikings ranked fourth in sacks, with 45, and, for the second straight season, allowed the fewest rushing yards in the league. Harbaugh's Ravens led the league with 26 interceptions. Spagnuolo's defense was, at times, dominant, despite the retirement of end Michael Strahan and a flood of injuries.

Of course, it was Reid who hired, empowered and retained Johnson - a move of genius itself.

What does it say that Reid's original staff has had so much success?

"I don't know how to answer that," Reid said.

His departed protégés do. They talk about it when they congregate at the annual scouting combine in Indianapolis, where the guy who got the biggest promotion or raise buys dinner for the rest.

"They do?" asked Harbaugh, this year's designated host. "I didn't know that. I can't wait."

It will hardly be a last supper for these disciples.

"Andy taught us all an awful lot about professional football - not just the X's and O's, but the administration, running a good staff, that sort of thing," Childress said. "It's a pretty doggone good template."

It seems to be working. Everywhere.

The tree and the branches

* Brad Childress: head coach, Vikings, 2006-2008; offensive coordinator, Eagles, 1999-2005.

* John Harbaugh: head coach, Ravens, 2008; secondary coach, Eagles, 2007; special-teams coordinator, 1998-2006.

* Leslie Frazier: assistant head coach/defensive coordinator, Vikings, 2006-08; defensive backs coach, Eagles, 1999-2002.

* Steve Spagnuolo: defensive coordinator, Giants, 2007-2008; defensive assistant coach, Eagles, 1999-2000; defensive backs coach, Eagles, 2001-03; linebackers coach, Eagles, 2004-06.

* Ron Rivera: defensive coordinator, Chargers, 2008; linebackers coach, Eagles, 1999-2003