Eagles blew it by limiting their search
For an NFL franchise that searches for a new head coach, there are some obvious negatives associated with the process, the largest being that your team does not happen to have a head coach in place.
For an NFL franchise that searches for a new head coach, there are some obvious negatives associated with the process, the largest being that your team does not happen to have a head coach in place.
Talent is talent, and money is money, but nothing shapes a team's direction and prospects for success like a good head coach. He institutes the system, directs the training and coaching programs, and imparts the confidence (or lack thereof) throughout the organization that things are on the right path.
To be without a head coach is to be temporarily rudderless, whether the previous occupant of the office has retired, run the course to a mutual parting, or been fired. Usually, of course, it is door number three.
But a coaching search, like the one apparently concluded by the Eagles with an agreement to hire Doug Pederson, can also provide a great opportunity for a franchise, and one that, hopefully, doesn't come along that often.
If the search to replace Chip Kelly is really over, as is being reported by several credible sources, then the Eagles absolutely blew it.
That doesn't mean they blew it by hiring the wrong guy. Pederson might turn out just fine. He played only sporadically, but was on an NFL roster under Don Shula, Mike Holmgren, Andy Reid and Mike Sherman, and has coached seven seasons with Reid, the last three as offensive coordinator of the Chiefs. Along the way, he's been exposed to good ideas and good coaches.
He represents for the Eagles something very attractive at the moment, stability and familiarity. It is as if they can push a reset button and move all the settings back to that long stretch when Reid was running a smooth operation, before that came apart, and before Kelly came along to add loop-the-loops and sudden descents to the ride.
It does mean they blew it, however, by not taking full advantage of the search, which can be an incredible tool for learning what the sharpest minds in the league think about how the game is developing and changing. It is a chance for the franchise to not only cast a wide net over the field of candidates, but to pick their brains for ideas.
If this is really where it ended, with just six interviews and three of those with guys they already knew very well, then the Eagles missed out on the opportunity. They didn't bother with Hue Jackson or Sean McDermott or any of another half-dozen potential candidates, all of whom would have shared their philosophies for how a draft should be approached today, how a practice schedule should be put together, how a staff should be assembled, and where the cat-and-mouse between offense and defense in the NFL is headed.
There is a value to hearing a wide range of ideas and simply learning what smart guys are thinking. And, in the process, maybe a candidate would have surprised them and changed their own thinking about the job. Instead, they apparently went for a small pool and fished out Pederson. (The hire that can't be announced as long as the Chiefs are alive in the playoffs, so if Kansas City advances to the Super Bowl, you can look forward to another three weeks of stories using words like "reportedly" and "apparently.")
Why wasn't the search more extensive? It would be nice to know. Could it be that some candidates didn't like the look of the new front office structure, one in which Howie Roseman appears to have regained all the power he lost? Maybe, although that's probably too pat an explanation. Coaches want to be head coaches. There aren't that many jobs available, and it's always better to take an interview and be in the mix.
More likely, the Eagles self-edited the list because they didn't want to hear what they didn't want to hear. They interviewed Adam Gase and Ben McAdoo, along with Tom Coughlin, but if they were truly interested in an outsider, they would have made it happen. They were looking for a comfortable place to rest after suffering the lumpy cushions of the Kelly era.
The search was limited internally because they didn't have the taste for taking another chance with another outsider. They didn't feel that had to interview a large number of candidates. They didn't have to ask a lot of questions.
What you hope is that wasn't because they think they already have all the answers. That hasn't worked out so well in the past.
@bobfordsports