The Eagles have lost eight of their last 10 games to fall to 5-8 in 2016. The playoffs are so mathematically improbable with three weeks to play, going over the oddly specific scenario that would have to unfold will make your head spin. The roster had obvious, glaring deficiencies coming into this season, and the head coach and defensive coordinator haven't been able to maximize the talent that's here. Oh, and this franchise hasn't been to the playoffs since 2013, much less won in January since '08.
Ordinarily, in situations such as these, heads would roll, or as Steve Young likes to put it, "Every living thing out to the parking lot." That means you, executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman, and you too, head coach Doug Pederson.
There's a lot of that kind of talk around these parts right now, and truthfully, I get it. It wouldn't be very hard to come up with a list of reasons to justify firing either one of those two, and plenty of folks already have, so there's no need to get into all of that. Instead, here's why Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and team brass should refrain from making any hasty decisions about the general manager and head coach.
Simply put, this organization needs the stability right now.
The Eagles can't handle another year like the last two. The revolving door at the two top positions has been followed by a remarkable amount of turnover on the roster, which frankly it's no wonder things haven't improved. Within the last two years, the title of GM has been volleyed back and forth between Roseman and Chip Kelly, and the latter was fired and replaced by Pederson and defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz — and just look at all of the change that's followed.
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In 2015, Kelly jettisoned LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin, Nick Foles, Evan Mathis, Todd Herremans, Trent Cole, Nate Allen and Cary Williams. In their place, he brought in Sam Bradford, DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews, Nelson Agholor, Jordan Hicks, Eric Rowe, Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell.
In 2016, Roseman ripped it down and rebuilt again. He sent Bradford, Murray, Rowe, Alonso and Maxwell all packing along with DeMeco Ryans, Cedric Thornton and Riley Cooper, and in their place went out and got Carson Wentz, Dorial Green-Beckham, Brandon Brooks, Nigel Bradham, Leodis McKelvin and Rodney McLeod.
A new GM and/or a new coach just means more new players, and while this team could obviously benefit from a few of those, when is it time to finally sit back and allow somebody's vision have time to come to fruition? The fact of the matter is you can only overhaul the roster so many times before the question turns from whether the plan was working to whether the plan ever had a chance to come together, whether the players had a chance to jell in a certain system or come together as a unit.
Maybe the Eagles don't have the right people in the building, and the man in charge doesn't know how to get the right people through the door. Maybe this coaching staff isn't the right group to develop and lead the people who are there.
But how easy is it to tell after one season, when so many of the faces in the locker room are still so fresh? Is Pederson a bad coach, or was he saddled with a rookie quarterback who missed most of the preseason and didn't have the opportunity to build a rapport with his receivers, all of whom were learning a new system? Is the talent on defense really as terrible as it's looked at times, or are they still getting the personnel straight after switching from a 4-3 alignment to a 3-4 then back to a 4-3 all in the past four years?
Is it really the greatest idea to thrust Wentz into a new offense after only one year? Is that going to help Agholor or Green-Beckham? Is it any wonder guys like Connor Barwin, Vinny Curry and Mychal Kendricks look out of place, ineffective or confused amid all the change?
Plus, even if the Eagles wanted to replace Roseman and/or Pederson, there is very little an incoming coach or GM could do about the roster they would be inheriting. The organization is up against the cap, and numerous players including Fletcher Cox, Zach Ertz, Malcolm Jenkins, Chase Daniel, Agholor, Curry, Brooks and McLeod to name a handful couldn't easily be moved even if somebody wanted.
In other words, the Eagles are sort of stuck with what they have for another year in a sense, at least in terms of players. These are the people Roseman wanted, that Pederson and Schwartz wanted. They're here now. Might as well see if they can figure it out and improve.
Otherwise, somebody else is just going to come in here and try to insert a bunch of square pegs into round holes. At some point, the Eagles need some continuity so the decision makers have an opportunity to identify who fits and who doesn't. Simply tearing it down every year when it doesn't work is only going to breed more of the same.
