Potential Suitable Candidates For The Philadelphia Eagles Coaching Job

“One, I wanted to get a jump start on our head coaching search”, the Eagles’ owner said.

The Eagles, who aren’t wasting any time searching for Chip Kelly’s replacement, have interviewed running backs coach Duce Staley to be the team’s head coach. He did not get into whether he wants to be considered for the head coaching job, but he did speak about the attractiveness of the Eagles’ opening and his affection for the organization.

Staley played for the Eagles from 1997 to 2003 and served on Andy Reid’s staff as special teams quality control assistant in 2011 and 2012.

During the news conference Wednesday when he explained, or tried to, why he had fired Chip Kelly, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie uttered fewer than 30 words of his opening statement before referencing the rarity of what he had done the day before.

Interim coach Pat Shurmur, who will lead the Eagles (6-9) into Sunday’s season-finale against the Giants (6-9), has not yet been interviewed for the full-time position, according to Philadelphia Magazine’s Tim McManus. I could’ve sworn half the Giants played the second half of that game in their street clothes.

Sunday’s matchup was supposed to have playoff implications on the line, but after the Eagles 38-24 loss to Washington, both teams playoff hopes were dashed.

Coughlin, a two-time Super Bowl champ, would’ve coached against Kelly on Sunday when the Eagles and Giants finish their season. He alienated some of his players, though the only ones who spoke out against him did it after they were gone.

It looks as if the Eagles are examining their current coaching staff, as they begin their search. Not many football coaches get to 52 without being fired, but Kelly, as we know pretty well by now, is not just any football coach. But Lurie pronounced the grand experiment a grand failure by giving Kelly a quick hook earlier this week.

Former Eagles cornerback Brandon Boykin had some harsh words for Kelly when Boykin was traded to Pittsburgh last summer, saying that Kelly didn’t know how to relate to players.

The fact that he went to battle on the field for the Philadelphia Eagles might enable him to win over the fans as a head coach a little easier. With the No. 2 overall selection in the 1999 draft, he didn’t pick Ricky Williams, or Cade McNown, or Akili Smith, or even Daunte Culpepper. Three. Then Lurie hired Kelly, and his starting quarterbacks were Vick, Foles, Mark Sanchez, and Sam Bradford. With Kelly’s mid-week release, it becomes that much more challenging to guess how the players will respond.

Lurie told fans in an email that he decided to make a change after “evaluating the many factors involved in our performance as a team”. And I think they will.