I'm curious to know what you guys think of Andy Reid as a head coach and GM. He may not have the GM title but we all know he has the final say.
One thing I hear a lot is that the Eagles should take away his GM power and keep him as just the coach. I think this is backwards and would be a big mistake unless we can get a better GM (which I doubt). I don't think Andy would ever go along with it anyway, but that's not really the point.
Andy Reid is in my opinion, a bad in-game coach. Play calling, adjustments, clock management.. he's been bad at all of that the 10 years he's been here.
I know there are a million Eagles fans that would (and have
) laugh in my face for this, but I think he's a good talent evaluator and drafter. I think he values positions correctly, he builds from the inside out which is the right thing to do. I'm glad we don't use our first round pick on a WR every year like some teams.
He's made plenty of mistakes in drafts, and left some holes on our team over the years (remember not having a punt returner last season? or the FB position this season) but for the most part I like how he constructs a team. Here's what I think of the team he put together...
On defense we have a deep line, a good LB core and one of the best secondaries in the league. And they're all young for the most part. Dawkins is getting up there in age but I think Demps will be a good player even though he made some huge dumb ass plays against the Cardinals. Ikegwuonu was supposed to be first or second round talent before his injury, so we may have another stud CB on the bench.
The offensive side is a bit blurry. I think McNabb will be an Eagle for at least a few more seasons, so what do they do with Kolb who I think is a free agent after the 2010 season? Does Andy admit drafting Kolb was a mistake and let him go?
Buckhalter is a free agent so currently the only decent RB we have is Westbrook who looks to be on the decline. Hopefully Andy has a plan to get another RB, otherwise a 70-30 pass/run ration is heading our way. And we obviously need a FB.
The O line is solid in the middle but the tackles are showing their age, and are free agents. This is obviously the biggest need going forward IMO. Winston Justice appears to be a bust and no one knows what to expect from King Dunlap. The consensus seems to be that Herremans or maybe even Andrews will be moved to the tackle spot. It's still unclear how the line will look though.
We have the best WR core since the TO days. A popular opinion is that the Eagles need a legit #1 like TO. Having a big time WR would be nice but those guys aren't exactly easy to get (unless the Raiders are trying to trade them) and I think the O line and RB position is a much bigger need. I hear all the time "the one time the Eagles got to the Super Bowl was when they had TO"... well, we made it through the playoffs without him. Remember he was injured?
I think Celek is a solid TE. He gets open, and can get some much needed yards after contact. The TE position isn't all about athleticism. He needs to work on his blocking, and time will tell if his ability to get open is a product of defenses not paying much attention to him. I'm willing to wait and see though.
So in summary, I think the weaknesses of the team are the offensive tackles and running backs. Those are two important parts of a team but if those are the only weaknesses you have to feel good about the job your GM is doing. A solid running back to share the carries with Westbrook shouldn't be hard to find (Buckhalter is/was good enough if he actually got touches), the tackles may be a different story.
The bottom line is I think the Eagles are prone to getting out-coached, not out-talented. This leaves me torn, I think we need a better in-game manager but I don't want to risk putting the team in the hands of another GM.
I think we're better off leaving things as is, hoping the team Andy puts together will be good enough to overcome the awful play calling. Maybe getting a better offensive coordinator will help but I still think Andy will have too much control for that to make a huge difference. What do you guys think?
In a fantasy world (since in the real world I don't think anything will change until Andy wants to step down) if you were the owner of the team would you fire Andy or take GM control away?
