You may have heard a thing or two about the Eagles being interested in Chip Kelly as their next head coach. If you were following the "drama", it was a showdown between Joe Banner and the Browns and Jeff Lurie and the Eagles.
Neither won.
Chip Kelly is heading back to Oregon. And I say...GOOD.
This means the Eagles should now be focused on the real top prospects in Mike McCoy and Gus Bradley.
Jeff Lurie and crew are supposedly doing their due diligence in regards to interviewing multiple candidates for their vacant head coaching position. That sounds like the best thing to do, right?
In the real world, yes, that is the best thing to do when hiring an employee. But in the NFL world, it's usually best to identify a target, research him, and move quickly to snag him before a competitor does.
As evidenced by Chip Kelly, due diligence be damned. If Kelly would have said "yes" to the Eagles, they would have hired him before interviewing the rest of their so-called candidates.
The Eagles only interviewed Mike Nolan, Keith Armstrong, Bill O'Brien and Doug Marrone to kill time and satisfy the Rooney Rule while waiting for Kelly. However, there probably was at least some real interest in O'Brien on the Eagles' behalf, but he never seemed like a serious candidate.
So, make no mistake, there may be some due diligence, but not when you're locked in to someone being your guy.
As of now, there are no more college coaches in the mix for a head coaching position. The remaining five teams looking for a head coach will now shift all their attention to NFL coordinators and assistants.
From Day 1, my top two guys have been, and will remain, Mike McCoy and Gus Bradley.
More after the jump...
There is nothing out there as of right now to report how the interview went, so I'm not sure if that's good, bad, or indifferent. McCoy is still employed by Denver so it's not surprising there aren't reports saying things went great and he'll be the Eagles' next coach.
The same will be true with Gus Bradley. He is still employed by Seattle but is supposed to interview with the Eagles this week. We probably won't hear much about how that went either, but you never know.
I'm glad that Kelly chose to stay at Oregon, I just ultimately thought his chances for being a huge bust were significantly higher than being a success...at least in his first stint as a head coach.
Along with Bradley, the Eagles are supposed to interview Bruce Arians and Jay Gruden this week. Neither candidate is of interest to me and I'lll be disappointed if we choose one of them over McCoy or Bradley.
Arians is the better choice over Gruden, but his age and health could become an issue.
At this point, I'm solely focused on McCoy and Bradley. Those two guys have the best combination of track record and youth (aka, "up and coming").
If you want McCoy, you're likely in the mindset that you feel we need someone to develop Nick Foles and build an offense that is suitable to the personnel we have.
If you want Bradley, you're likely in the mindset that we need to get back to the days of dominating defense.
Who do you want?
In case you're interested in reading more about Bradley and McCoy (or why I really didn't want Kelly), you can check out the below articles. They're listed in chronological order...
Two Head Coaching Candidates For the Philadelphia Eagles to Consider
Eagles Head Coach Candidate Chip Kelly is a Boom or Bust Prospect
Eagles Head Coaching Search: NFL Coordinators vs. College Head Coaches
Getting to Know Mike McCoy and Gus Bradley: Video and Opinion
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