Time’s His until 2013.

Andy Reid will continue to try to, "Put Guys in Better Positions."

It was inevitable.  A little slide a month ago had some people hoping that this would be the final year in the Andy Reid era.  Loyal Eagles fan had seen enough, they want a new voice to lead this franchise.  Well, it isn’t happening.  And, it wasn’t going to happen.  The Eagles were going to give Reid an extension, and now, after three straight wins…the timing is perfect.  The Eagles locked Reid up through 2013, a run that will push Andy well into his second decade as the Eagles head man.  Coaching stability like that isn’t too common in Philadelphia.  Note the two teams that play in the Wachovia Center. 

Andy Reid wins games.  You can’t argue that.  He’s the most successful coach the team has ever had, and since they’ve never won a Super Bowl, there isn’t some old legend to live up to either.  The Eagles make the playoffs almost every year, have been to five NFC championship games, a Super Bowl, they’ve done everything but win the big one.  Aside from Donovan McNabb, Reid has accomplished this with at least two different eras of players.  There was the no-receivers/great defense era, and that has slowly evolved into this complete youth movement/offensive minded team that they have now.

Reid wins, does a decent job in the draft, has handled being in Philadelphia reasonably well, those are the arguments for him.  The argument against is that there is a perception the Eagles will never win a Super Bowl under Reid, and that should be the ultimate goal.  Piling up 10-6 seasons is great, but some fans would trade all those in a heartbeat for one Super Bowl.  Reid seems determined to set the record for most Pro Bowl coaching appearances.  You can’t say he hasn’t had his chances.  The previous point can be used against him as well.  A couple generations of Eagles have come through, different style teams, and he didn’t get it done with any of them. 

I’m of the mind that a guy loses his ability to be effective after a certain amount of time in one place.  I think Mike Shanahan is a good coach, but it just died for him in Denver.  It was time to go.  The same could be said for Tony Dungy in Tampa.  It happens.  I’m not sure it’s happened in Philly.  Reid still seems to be able to get the guys to play for him, they’re still winning, but this doesn’t feel like a Super Bowl team.  And, part of that is because Reid still has the same tendencies, the same flaws that he had when he started a decade ago. 

The only pause I would have is that it isn’t terribly easy to find a good coach in the NFL.  The failure rate is pretty high, so you’d hate to see a guy come in, and ruin the talent here, ruin Don’s last couple effective years.  I don’t want the next Todd Haley, or anything.  But, I think the right guy coming in, to an established situation like this, where there were players in place to win, it could have been effective.  But now, we’ll never know.  Andy will probably be here until this team swoons again, and at that point it’ll be up to the new guy to rebuild, not push them over the top.