As an Eagles fan who has never liked Andy Reid, it has been hard to criticize his quasi-success. He has had a lot of winning seasons, made it deep in the playoffs many years, made it to the Super Bowl, etc.
However, I always hated his aloof, arrogant presentation, his inability to answer questions or show emotion, or answer questions about his performance. IMNSHO, his game-day decision-making has been generally abysmal, from inability to get in plays, inability to manage time-outs and the clock, and his inability to make half-time modifications to his game plan based on what is happening on the field. He has been overly pass-happy, and made poor decisions with personnel.
In the recent past he has:
released his back-up veteran QB while his starter is recovering from ACL surgery - you know if Reid wanted Garcia, Heckert would’ve paid the money.
released veteran punt returners and started the season with a returner with no experience - not a single punt in a live game - this cost them Game 1 thsi season
took a leave of absence this off-season, perhaps leading to the first two issues, to deal with “family problems” that have been ongoing.
been unable to deal with veteran leadership, cutting Trotter, Douglass, and perhaps Owens. He has made several cuts of veterans who were leaders int he locker room, and the team is lacking discipline.
been unable to deal with players and men, rather than his coveted “system” perhaps he could’ve worked better with Owens… I know he was a wacko but Reid’s tough love approach was clearly not the best route and left the Eagles without a top-3 receiver.
opted for a less-than-skilled set of receivers whom he has consistently praised and coveted. Cut Stallworth, no problem, we have Curtis to complement Brown, Baskett, and Avent… sheesh! In a pass-happy offense, other than Curtis at times, these guys have had little success getting free.
been unable to every admit to a mistake… rather, he will “take a look at that”, assure everyone that “he is responsible for that”, and “we’ve got to do a better job.”
Then there is his ongoing situation at home, which has been well documented. So, the Eagles are 3-5, have no chance of turning it around, but he is saying “I think we are better than 3-5… I know we are. When we get the thing changed around and get a little momentum going, we’ll be fine.”
Has the Reid era ended in Philly? Doe she have any validity as a coach? Is his system now predictable and un-intimidating?
And should he continue to coach given that his home life is a mess and he still has 3 kids not in jail who are in various stages of middle and high school?
Personally, I dislike the guy and he has failed to deliver, only after getting your hopes up that much more…
As a Redskins fan, I’m quite pleased Reid has stayed in Lurie’s favor. With the talent on the team in the first few years of McNabb’s reign and the relative mediocrity of the NFC East (and the NFC generally), the Iggles should have had a couple of rings early in the decade. How they have been unable to bring in decent receivers except for TO is beyond me.
The sun has set on the Iggles’ dominance in the division. Couldn’t close the deal for several years and everyone in the division has gotten better. As far as his home situation goes, I’m not one to tell a guy how to raise his family, but I’d be looking to make a change if I had a stake in this team. If you bring in a couple of big-name receivers in maybe McNabb has a fading opportunity to win a ring. But I don’t see it happening.
Reid is a very good offensive coach, I think he’d be superb as an Offensive Coordinator. He makes some poor choices in his play calling because he is such a a west coast dogmatic. If he had a head coach above him who was able to veto some of those foolish passing play calls in obvious running situations and a head coach who was able to better focus on managing the game instead of dwelling on Xs and Os he could be incredibly successful. Overall that has been the story I think.
Reid has more on his plate than he can handle, and that’s been put into start relief now that we see how his home life has deteriorated. He’s an excellent evaluator of talent, generally the Eagles have had quality drafts. He’s been able to keep the team competitive while cutting and trading Pro Bowl talent, that’s a testament to his ability to restock with young talent, especially on defense. However, for as good as he has been selecting talent he’s been just as bad at managing the roster and the salary cap. As a GM he has failed because he wasn’t able to keep more of those Pro Bowlers.
As a coach he can scheme with the best of them, but he’s not capable of attacking a defense AND managing a game. He hasn’t been capable of instilling that leadership ability to his veteran players either. McNabb mirrors his coaches inability to manage a close game.
I think Reid should probably be let go. He needs to get his personal life in order and I think his time with the Eagles has run it’s course. I think he deserves another head coaching job, but I think it has to be under different circumstances. He needs a GM who has authority to control the roster and he needs an assistant head coach who can act as a voice of reason to talk him out of those brain dead screen passes when trying to move the chains late in games when he needs to be burning clock.
You Eagles fans don’t know how good you’ve had it. I don’t have a strong opinion either way about Reid the Coach, but Reid the General Manager has been superb.
I strongly disagree. From 2000-2004 the Eagles were consistently excellent without ever being in salary cap trouble. They fell apart in '05 when everything that could go wrong did (from injuries to intra-squad psychology), and they were very good last year (better than their 10-6 record; should have been 12-4 but for some very unlucky bounces over which they had no control).
They don’t seem particularly good this year, but I agree with Reid that they’re better than 3-5. They barely lost to the Packers, who are very good. They lost to the Redskins, who are pretty good. They crushed the shit out of the Lions, who apparently are also pretty good. They lost to the Giants who are pretty good (and, I’m trying to be a good teammate here, but I will say that Winston Justice had some protection problems in this game). They beat the Jets, then they lost to the Bears at home (ok, that’s a bad loss), then won at the Vikings (who aren’t nearly as bad as some people make them out to be). And this week they got beat up by Dallas, the best team in the conference. They look ok, based on those results. Checking now, DVOA happens to agree with me (they’ve got Philly ranked 11th after Week 8).
Gee… where to start with this one? I’m a bigtime Eagles fan, let’s start that way.
It’s hard to criticize Reid because of all the success the Eagles have had. The organization is a model for how to redevelop and overhaul a roster without “rebuilding.” That said, the team and organization have been extremely arrogant during Reid’s tenure (not signing marquee free agents when the team is always WAY under the cap, cutting Pro-Bowlers outright, letting leaders go, sticking to a passing attack that isn’t working, etc.). He’s terrible with play-calling (I guarantee I could call better plays than he could) and the clock. It’s telling that you can usually determine how an Eagles game will end by halftime, and how an Eagles season will end by the first three or four games. When they lost to Dallas (a team the Eagles absolutely can matchup with), they seemed to have lost that game before the Cowboys got the ball the first time. Who do you blame when a team can never adjust and turn things around?
The window seems to have closed on this current Eagles collection, and I’m not sure Reid is the man to get the team back to where it was in 2000-2004. Look, the team has had an inordinate amount of bad breaks (Like in 2005, if I remember correctly, when the team had at one time over 11 Pro-Bowlers hurt or on IR, and there isn’t a season that goes by without a major offensive player getting hurt for an extended amount of time) and they suffer this season because of some bad luck, but really, I don’t see it changing.
This is definitely a team better than their record indicates, but they just don’t have the leadership or toughness to turn it around. They’ll keep losing games late, giving games away, and putting it together for one isolated week so that they finish the season just outside of a high draft pick. That’s the Eagles for you, the ultimate tease.
I don’t have any warm or fuzzy feelings about Reid, but that’s neither here nor there. As I try to keep reminding myself, I don’t KNOW any of the athletes, coaches, actors, musicians or other celebrities I see on TV. I may form opinions of them, but my opinions are of no value. Andy Reid may be an asshole, he may be a wonderful man, or (like most of us) he may be somewhere in between.
As a fan, I think he’s done a great job at Philadelphia. I respect him as a professional.
But as a husband and father, think Reid probably ought to resign, just because his family situation is such a mess that he can’t and shouldn’t keep putting in the kinds of hours every NFL head coach puts in.
These “kids” aren’t kids, they’re adults- 22 and 24, who are now going to be in jail. Nothing he can do for them in jail, and he can’t stop his life to tend to other adults. It would have been extremely easy for him to resign in the midst of a bad season, I respect him for not taking the easy way out with the team. And the judge pubically scolding him was an ass.
I essentially agree with your points but I draw a different conclusion from it. This has been a very talented team that has been unable to get over the hump. I think much of that can be attributed to the teams lack of continuity and the shortage of playmakers on offense. They have under-achieved and the fact that have played hardball and lost so many great players should not be seen as a sign of strength. They have brought in great talent to replace them, but usually there has been at least some drop-off in performance as a result. Collectively the experience and the football IQ drops when the roster turns over like that, it’s why they have struggled to get a ring. Additionally, you’d expect that a team that has resisted long contracts and not committed large contracts to defensive veterans would have been able use some of that flexibility to build a functional WR corps and depth at RB.
Yes, this team hasn’t been terrible in spite of the roster turn over, but they haven’t been great either.
True, they are adults, but let’s not forget that he was spending his time away from the family during their earlier developmental years, and he still has 3 kids in Jr. High an High School… this can’t be easy on the family, and it is hard to imagine that the three younger ones are unscathed by all the press, not to mention an father who is not home.