Enemy Intel: Andy Reid at a crossroads

Andy Reid is at a crossroads as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Or at least that what it says in this article on Philly.com. Rich Hofman of the Philadelphia Daily News says that now that the Eagles have retooled on the fly and have transformed into one of the youngest teams in the NFL, the Eagles need to show some progress.

He is signed through the 2013 season, which means that he is going to be the coach here at least through 2012, unless he were to decide that he'd had enough and walk away himself. You have to think that everybody involved believes that the Eagles will be in the championship conversation by then - really and legitimately in that conversation, not just a wild-card-and-a-prayer kind of team - and if they aren't, well, it's going to be time.

After discussing Michael Vick’s future, Hofman turns to the defense:

The second point is this one, and it again has to do with the notion that the transition phase for the franchise is over. Specifically, this defense needs to be vastly improved the next time it takes the field.

That article was written before Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott and defensive line coach Rory Segrest were fired over the weekend. The performance of the Eagles defense spoke for itself, according to Ray Didinger of CSNphilly.com.

It is hard to argue against the numbers. The Eagles allowed 31 touchdown passes this season, the most in franchise history. They were the worst red zone defense the league has seen in decades. They were picked apart by geriatric quarterbacks (Kerry Collins) and rookies making their first start (Joe Webb). There certainly was a case to be made that the Eagles defense needed changing.

In his blog on Philly.com, Sheil Kapadia says that Segrest may have been the victim of some personnel moves made by Reid and the Eagles’ front office. In particular, he discussed the trade of former Redskin Chris Clemons and the Eagles allowing Jason Babin to go to the Titans in free agency. Babin had 12.5 sacks and Clemons had 11.

Trent Cole led the Eagles with 10 sacks, and Juqua Parker was second with six. The question that's tough to answer is: Why didn't Babin and Clemons have similar success with the Eagles? Maybe it had something to do with the system. Maybe it had more to do with the coaching. Or perhaps it's as simple as Babin and Clemons just played better in 2010. But whatever the reason was, the Eagles look bad - all the way from the personnel department to the coaching staff. At one point, they saw enough in Babin and Clemons to bring them in. But neither was an impact player here. Meanwhile, the non-existent pass rush from the front four was a major issue down the stretch as the Eagles lost to the Vikings in Week 16 and came up short against Green Bay in the wild-card round.

Didinger gets to a key issue here:

Still, it came as a surprise when the team announced Saturday that it was parting ways with Sean McDermott. I took Andy Reid at his word Monday when he said McDermott would be back for a third season as defensive coordinator. Reid said on Monday that McDermott would be back but, according to some reports, the decision was made on Wednesday, two days after Reid’s pronouncement.

This comes after a spring during which Reid said that Donovan McNabb would not be traded. After McNabb was traded, Reid said that Kevin Kolb was the starting quarterback. That pledge lasted until Michael Vick showed some flash, promoting Reid to pull the rug out from under Kolb. If Reid doesn’t have a credibility problem, he has the beginnings of one. This is not to say that this will cause the Eagles to implode and that the team’s best days are behind it. Still, if the players and coaches start to think that they can’t believe what the head coach says, things can begin to erode. Stay tuned. Update: I just read a report that said that Andy Reid is on vacation. While the organization is deciding on a new defensive coordinator and a new defensive line coach. All coaches need and deserve some R&R after a tough season but you'd have the think the timing could be better, right? Very strange. Again, stay tuned.