Through his first twelve years in Philadelphia, Andy Reid had never fired a coordinator. Offensive coordinator Rod Dowhower retired, although maybe with some encouragement, but he did never work in football again. Brad Childress and John Harbaugh left for head coaching gigs while Jim Johnson of course passed away. Rory Segrest was demoted, but not fired. Andy has always been known as a fiercely loyal guy that promotes from within and generally protects his guys.
However, we've seen two coordinators fired in the past two years. The first was special teams coordinator Ted Daisher, whose firing was probably equal parts due to availability of Bobby April, his own performance, and his infamous time out that sent Andy into a rage. It's also worth noting that Andy fired the strength and conditioning staff after that year.
This year however, the biggest head fell when Andy relieved Sean McDermott of his duties. Changing special teams coaches is one thing, but firing a defensive or offensive coordinator is another thing altogether and it's something Andy has never done. It sure seems like a sign that Andy believes the rebuild is over. There's no more time for a young coach to learn on the job. I think with Vick at QB, he sees a real chance to win it all in the next couple years... and he isn't going to risk wasting that opportunity while allowing one of his young proteges to learn on the job.
Now, there's a legitimate question to be asked regarding how much of the defense's struggles are on McDermott's coaching failures as opposed to Andy's own failures in the personnel department. Whether you're a McDermott fan or not, you'd have to admit that many players on this defense simply aren't good enough and that's on Andy. We can only hope that his unwillingness to let an unproven coach learn on the job extends to the players. There will be very talented veteran defensive players on the free agent market this year. Will Andy be as aggressive in addressing the personnel as he appears to be with the coaching?
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