The Philadelphia Eagles are stuck with Andy Reid for at least another season. This means that Eagles fans like myself can only dream for a while about getting potential big names to replace him. My own personal choice is Bill Cowher, yet Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden can also be dream Philadelphia coaches - although Jeff Fisher is now out of the running.
The longer the Eagles wait to get rid of Reid, the less chance they have to land a big time replacement, since they are likely to be locked up by others in the meantime. Cowher, Dungy and Gruden might wait until 2013 to get back into action, which will be interesting if Philadelphia tanks again in 2012. But Fisher is now officially off the market thanks to finally choosing the St. Louis Rams over the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 13.
Fisher made the Dolphins and Rams keep upping their offers until the Dolphins ultimately caved and the Rams gave him the control he wanted. Eagles fans regularly complain that Reid has too much power, yet Fisher would have demanded an equal amount and more if Philadelphia took an interest in him. After squabbling with Tennessee Titans ownership for well over 15 years, he wanted the buck to stop with him in his next job. Jeffrey Lurie is more than willing to do than with Reid, but letting an outsider like Fisher do it probably would have been too much for him.
If Fisher had become an Eagle, it would have been all too easy to compare him to Reid - and in ways that might not sit all that well with us. After all, we bash Reid all the time for being unable to get over the hump, while Fisher had the same problem and even more years to do it in. Both coaches made the Eagles and Titans consistent winners, but each only got to one Super Bowl that they lost in heartbreaking fashion. The Titans came even closer than the Eagles in their Super Bowl XXXIV loss to the Rams, of all teams, yet Philadelphia went to many more conference title games than Tennessee.
While this makes Fisher look like a Reid clone - and even an inferior one in a few ways - getting someone of his caliber would have fired Philadelphia up and made us think we were turning a corner. At this point, perhaps anyone other than Reid would have done that by now.
But if/when he finally goes, Lurie will need to sign a major name or at least a promising newcomer to pacify Eagles Nation - and there are a few major names still on the market who might want to make a comeback here if we inspired them. However, now that Fisher is no longer among those names, the Eagles have to watch carefully in case any more dream replacements are snapped up while they keep giving Reid one last chance.
Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.
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