Contemplating the Andy Reid Era

Andy Reid is not a perfect coach.

You’re probably laughing at that. Being as human as the rest of us, Reid has great strengths and great weaknesses. The man has an incredible ability to accomplish amazing things, and an unbelievable propensity to screw up simple things.

First, the good: Reid keeps his teams focused on the task in front of them, not the one a week or two away. How else can you explain some of the unexpected late season runs in recent years? Just when the world buries the Eagles, Reid answers with a winning streak and, at least, first round playoff win.

Speaking of playoffs, Reid has never lost a first round playoff game. Ever. Find another coach with that on his resume.

Reid knows how to get quarterbacks ready. The best years of Brett Favre’s career came when Reid was his position coach in Green Bay. Reid has won with the likes of Koy Detmer, A.J. Feeley, Jeff Garcia and, of course, Donovan McNabb. The only ones with which Reid didn’t win were Doug Pederson and Mike McMahon, but that’s because they weren’t any good.

Reid has consistently built winning rosters. There have been draft busts (think Quintin Caver, Freddie Mitchell), but there have been far more hits than misses. McNabb was the only QB from his draft class to amount to anything. Brian Westbrook was a little known Division II star. DeSean Jackson was supposed to be too small to be an every down wideout in the NFL.

Now for the bad: Reid is mind-numbingly stubborn, flying in the face of common sense on a near weekly basis. There’s no opponent unable to stop the run that Reid won’t throw the ball against 70 percent of the time. It’s not as if he hasn’t had one of the best backs in football during that time or anything. And before Westbrook, he did have a healthy Duce Staley and Correll Buckhalter. So there is no logical reason not to use them.

Reid’s clock management stinks. There’s simply no way to say it. Think Super Bowl against the Patriots.

Reid’s record on official challenges. It’s the worst among all NFL coaches since challenges were introduced.

Reid’s unwillingness to make in-game adjustments. Remember the Winston Justice game at the Meadowlands: A rookie OT playing out of position, pressed into duty due to Tra Thomas’ injury, left alone on an island against Osi Umemyiora. No extra TE or back in there to at least chip block. McNabb was sacked six times that night and there was nobody to blame but Reid.

Reid's so-predictable-you-can-recite-it-from-memory post mortems. "I've got to do a better job of getting the players in a good position." "We probably could have run the ball a little more."

So where does that leave us? We think it's time to think about someone else, but it can't be just anybody. Someone along the lines of Jon Gruden - filet mignon, not ground round.

Because when you dump Andy Reid, you lose the whole bird - the bad and the good.