by Brandyn Campbell
Will Jon Gruden put on a coaching headset again for the Philadelphia Eagles?
The fact that Andy Reid is in the midst of his last season as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles seems to be a foregone conclusion. With a 3-5 record and a team in disarray, Reid has shown no ability to remedy the problems plaguing the squad or light the needed spark within his players.
For all intents and purposes, Reid is a lame duck coach.
He’ll keep talking but, like his team, we’ve stopped paying attention.
A true indication of the fact that Philadelphia fans and media are already thinking ahead to life after Reid are the reports about possible contenders to fill the expected-to-be-vacant coaching slot. FOX29′s Howard Eskin kicked it all of on Thursday by saying that Jon Gruden is interested in a return to coaching.
More from Eskin, via Sports Illustrated,
“He enjoys working Monday Night Football in the ESPN Monday Night booth, but he is a coach and has the itch. I’m told he wants to go to a team that can win and the key has a quarterback.”
So, Eskin said that puts two teams in the mix, the San Diego Chargers, where Gruden is tight with general manager A.J. Smith, and they have a good quarterback with Phillip Rivers.
“And the Eagles are also a good fit for the Gruden requirements,” Eskin said. “He loves Philadelphia, thinks the Eagles will be a good team next year, and the keys here: He likes the backup quarterback, Nick Foles, who he has already worked out while working for ESPN.”
How much is Gruden liking Foles? In a conversation about the performance of rookie quarterbacks this season, after talking Luck and Wilson and RGIII, the conversation turned to Foles (via Birds 24/7):
“I had Nick Foles in the preseason against New England. Michael Vick got hurt on the fifth or sixth play, and Foles went the distance, on the road in Foxborough. If you like prototype pocket passers with some functional mobility and a tremendous amount of toughness, Foles is interesting.”
“What really impressed me in the preseason was they weren’t running generic formations. They ran about 30 different formations out of about eight different personnel groupings in successive plays. So I see him recognizing coverages. I see him getting to second and third receivers, just like you’d want a quarterback to do in that system, and I love his NFL size. He reminds me a lot of Brad Johnson, from his football character to his ability to decipher a lot quickly, and we won a championship with Brad.”
Birds 24/7 co-author Tim McManus gave this caution about Gruden’s remarks:
“These quotes suggest he is high on Foles, though as anyone who has listened to his Monday Night Football broadcast can attest, he sounds high on everyone at one point or another.”
So very true…
Gruden last served as head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was fired in January of 2009 after spending seven seasons with the team.
Could Jon Gruden be the next head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles? It certainly sounds like a reasonable possibility. But does anything ever go as predicted with the Birds? It’s just going to get more interesting from here.
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Brandyn Campbell of Philly Sports Muse, for War Room Sports
