If you’re like us – and we like to think you are – you’re likely a daily reader of the tremendous work of ProFootballTalk.com, a site/source we reference quite often.
Today though, the face of PFT, Mike Florio, wrote a piece titled “Signs Point, For Now, To Reid Staying Put.”
While we’re far from surprised by the title and angle of the piece – we don’t realistically see The Walrus being fired after this season – we do take umbrage with some of the points Florio makes… even though they are credible. Here’s an excerpt:
The fact remains that Reid is a very good coach. He has proven to be one of the best quarterbacks coaches in league history, as evidenced by the reality that quarterbacks play better with Reid than they do with anyone else. From Mike Vick to Kevin Kolb to Donovan McNabb to Vince Young (with limited time in the system) to A.J. Feeley to Jeff Garcia to Koy Detmer to Mike McMahon, Reid has shown on a consistent basis that he can coach up quarterbacks. Since quarterback remains the most important position on the field, that ability should not be underestimated.
Then there’s the fact that Reid would quickly find himself on the wish list for pretty much any team that fires its coach. As Howard Eskin of NBC 10 and WIP radio pointed out on Monday’s PFT Live, Reid could be a perfect fit for the Chargers and quarterback Philip Rivers. If the Vikings, who once hired Reid’s right-hand man, decide to move on from Leslie Frazier in an effort to get a new stadium built, why not give the keys to Reid?
Then there are the Redskins, who may be more inclined to move on from Mike Shanahan if the man who has beaten the Redskins 16 of 25 times since Dan Snyder bought the team becomes available.
Regardless, someone will want to hire Reid. And the fear that he could go somewhere else and finish the job he started in Philly could be the factor that prompts owner Jeffrey Lurie to let Reid keep trying to finish the job where he started it.
Nobody – even us here at Fire The Walrus – would ever deny that Reid is a good coach – possibly the best in franchise history – and a savant when it comes to coaching up QBs.(*)
(*)This is not blasphemy, we promise. These are simply facts, regardless of how you feel about The Walrus.
With that being said, here is the part of the story that Florio, as an unbiased observer, totally misses…
We are more than ready to let him try to finish the job somewhere else and have someone different come in here to try to finish the job he started. There just simply comes a time when a coach – whether good, bad or otherwise – wears out his welcome, and that time came for Reid at least three years ago (and likely way before that). Andy Reid, no matter how good of a coach he may actually be, is not the end-all-be-all of Head Coaches. The Billionaire pulled him out of complete obscurity (remember, he was the Packers’ Quarterbacks Coach and never even held the position of Offensive Coordinator), so who’s to say it couldn’t happen again.(**)
(**)Though, in a perfect world, The Billionaire would sell the franchise and take his money-driven desires back to Hollywood where he belongs began. But alas, we do not live in such a world.
Eagles fans simply need a change… from the top down. We’ve watched what Andy’s capable of for 13+ years, and though we would never say he CAN’T win a Super Bowl, we’ve long ago run out of faith that it will happen in our city.
We’ve said it before and we’ll keep repeating it: The Colts needed a change at coach to get over the hump. So did the Bucs with Dungy, and we’d say he’s a pretty damn good coach (who also finished the job elsewhere). Thirteen years of the same abysmal playcalling, horrendous clock mangement and arrogant press conferences is more than enough. It’s time to make a change.
If Andy wins a ring somewhere else, so be it. Will we be pissed/annoyed/suicidal? Probably. But It’s just not gonna happen here, so he may as well take his “talents” elsewhere.
And as for his work with the Quarterback position… it really is a testament to what Andy Reid truly is: a Quarterbacks coach. Maybe a good Offensive Coordinator. What he’s not is someone who deserves to run the whole show… unless he has a Defensive Coordinator as talented as Jim Johnson was – you know, the real reason the Andy Reid-Eagles sustained success for so long.
So Fire The Walrus… no matter how well he coaches QBs or how likely it is for him to win else where. We just want to be done with him.
Fire The Walrus 