A Brief and Obvious Note About The Eagles Interviewing Tom Coughlin

Blue and Red

Coughlin is extremely old by NFL standards. He'd be on his third team. He has two Super Bowl rings, yes, but they were also incredibly flukish, and he hasn't gotten to the playoffs, in a terrible division, in the last four years.

From a morality standpoint, he also failed utterly with failing to bench Odell Beckham Jr. in that Panthers loss last month. There's also the very real fact that he played Musical Running Back for most of 2015, rather than just giving the ball to the only guy on the roster (Rashad Jennings) who resembled, in any way, a complete back.

Want more? Sure. The Giants didn't have anything close to a pass rush until Jason Pierre-Paul got back on the field, and Pierre-Paul has one functioning hand. His teams have been hurt like mad, with the offensive line in particular being disguised by Eli Manning's quick release and a short passing game. The special teams, typically a good moment of shorthand for whether a coach is hitting all of the details, have been bad for years. His late game decision making in 2015 was almost historically bad, and the idea that his club, unique among NFC lEast clubs in that they could more than occasionally hang with actually good teams, wound up third...

Well, I don't know anyone in the fandom that wants the guy. It's not even that Philly Fan hates the guy from his time in NYC, because Philly Fan has never *really* hated New York, at least not the way they hate DC and Dallas. It's just that it's very hard to imagine any 67-year-old guy, let alone one that's just been let go for cause, having what's needed to get this franchise back on track.

The 2016 Eagles might win the NFC lEast; hell, any team can, because it's a very bad division. But in terms of being an actually Serious Contender, this is not the place for a transition coach. What's needed here is a young no-life type, some guy with the pure single-mindedness to just devote 100+ hours a week to turn this team around. This team needs an absolute defensive reboot, finding new weapons to replace all of those that were frittered away by Nero Kelly, all while still keeping the relatively useful sports science stuff that's helped keep the team healthy for the past few years.

You can respect Tom Coughlin all you like. You can even waste your time interviewing him if you like, as a courtesy, and maybe to help tweak Blue and/or find out some trade secret or two of dubious value. But dear Lord in heaven, do not hire him. He's just not what's needed here, and especially now.