Fire The Walrus

It’s official! Andy Reid finally used his giant hairy flippers to find his Walrus balls and fire one of the worst Defensive Coordinators to ever come through the great City of Brotherly Love-Taking-The-Head-Off-The-Other-Teams-Quarterback.

Sean McDermutt, LET the door hit your ass on the way out of town! It’s the least you can do for us.

Sure, his D wasn’t the WORST ranked defense the last two years – ranked 12th overall in 2009 and 2010 – but the way they let offenses walk all over them on 3rd-down and in the redzone was an ugly, abysmal site.

The stats are glaring. In 2010, the Eagles ranked 30th in opposing touchdowns in the redzone, averaging 2 per game, and dead last in redzone scoring percentage, allowing opponents to score on almost 80% of their trips inside the 20-yard line. They also ranked 20th in 3rd-down conversion percentage (5.2 per game) and 21st in scoring defense, giving up 23.4 points per game.

Awful.

A football team is only as good as it’s defense (watch the remainder of the playoffs), and the Eagles were a 7-9/8-8 team at best. The Eagles didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs… Michael Vick did. The stats prove it, the offense was good (and with a real line, could have been great), but the defense was simply mediocre. Vick was worth two wins.

Now the question is what happens next? Will The Walrus stay in house (likely) and snatch up Dick Jauron before the Browns pry him away? I’d say doubtful, considering Andy could have made that change at any point in the season. Rory Segrest, Defensive Line Coach, and Bill Shuey, Linebackers Coach, were both considered candidates to replace the late-Jim Johnson, before the job surprising went to McDermutt, and will probably get another look.

As you know, I’ve been screaming for Rob Ryan – Buddy Ryan’s son and Rex’s twin brother – because he has the attitude, swagger and balls that this defense has sorely been missing. He demands a hardnosed, tough, head-hunting unit… in other words, Eagles football. Plus, the Eagles can steal him from the Cowboys, who are reportedly close to signing him.

What are the other options? Besides starting from scratch and firing The Walrus… I don’t know. As I pointed out yesterday, one of things Andy has a knack for is putting the right assistants around him. He swung and missed (miserably) with McDermutt. Let’s hope he connects this try. At least for now, we can be happy that Ginger is gone and hopefully forgotten. Now all The Eagles need are three new linebackers, a real defensive tackle, another defensive end, at least one cornerback and a strong safety (the slightly-underwhelming Quintin Mikell is a free agent). Awesome.

Let’s just Fire The Walrus instead.