Eagles Set to Tap Andy Reid's Staff in Kansas City for New Head Coach

All the reports out of Philadelphia point towards the Eagles hiring current Kansas City offensive coordinator Doug Pederson as their new head coach. The official announcement cannot take place until the Chief's season ends, which could be as late as early February should former Eagles' head coach Andy Reid lead his current team all the way to a Super Bowl title.

Conventional wisdom says that the announcement will be early next week assuming that Kansas City loses to New England this Saturday in the Divisional Round of the playoffs as a five-point road underdog. I have been extremely impressed with the Chiefs incredible 11-game winning streak following a dismal 1-5 start, but I would have to agree that this tremendous ride ends in Foxborough with a loss to the Patriots.

Veteran Eagles' fans remember Pederson from his brief stint with the team as Donovan McNabb's backup when Reid first came to Philadelphia in 1999. He started nine games that season and the team went 2-7 as part of an overall record of 5-11. He returned to Philadelphia in 2009 as part of Reid's coaching staff including the position of quarterback coach in 2011 and 2012 before following Reid to Kansas City.

The big question that most Eagles' fan will have about this move is Pederson just "Reid Light" in disguise? That may not actually be the worst thing in the world given Reid's long tenure of success in Philadelphia, but somewhere along the line the new head coach is going to have to have some kind of plan on how he is going to take the next step and win a Super Bowl.

I will be the first one to admit that I really miss all those years when the Eagles were a gimme to make the playoffs and despite those four heart-breaking losses in the NFC title game (including a brutal three in a row from 2001 to 2003) it was great to have a team in the mix this time of the year as opposed to looking forward to who the Eagles are going to pick first in the draft.

So when you ask "why Pederson", I will answer with "why not". Reid came to Philly as a protege of Mike Holmgren, who was a protege of Bill Walsh so there is some pretty solid pedigree in that blood line. Only time will tell if Pederson will be a good fit for the Eagles, but I am happy to see team owner Jeff Lurie getting back to the pattern of hiring up-and-coming coordinators as opposed to tapping the college ranks for his head coach. It was painfully obvious that the Chip Kelly experiment did not go as planned and the only good news from that whole mess is that the former Wizard of Broad Street is now San Francisco's headache.