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When it comes to the Philadelphia Eagles organizations, few coaches have the same pedigree as Andy Reid.
That's right, while his legacy has rapidly become KC-centric, from his Super Bowl pedigree to his second career as a commercial spokesperson on television, “Big Red” came up in Philadelphia and still holds the record for the most wins in franchise history.
While Reid's run in Philadelphia came to an unfortunate end, with the team bottoming out as the coach dealt with his own off-the-field familial issues, even in his exit, his legacy casts a massive shadow over the organization, with owner Jeffrey Lurie using his run with the team as the benchmark all future coaches have been measured against.
“There's certain core principles of culture — it started with Andy — and we don't deviate from that culture,” Lurie told NFL.com. “Every time we've hired a coach, it has been unique to the moment, but they incorporate the core principles we have. We're not asking them to create the culture. We provide what we have, and we think they are the best at that moment to accentuate it all. It's one question I don't want to answer. You can call it the secret sauce. It's self-evident to us. When we watch the coaching carousel, it almost doesn't relate to what we're trying to accomplish. The core organizational principles are in cement.”
Lead executive Howie Roseman got in on the action, too, noting just how important Reid's legacy has been to Philadelphia's team-building strategy.
“I certainly feel I'm indebted to a lot of people in the NFL, and Coach Reid is a big part of that,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said this week. “It was always offensive line and defensive line. It was obsessiveness about it, and we won. So to me, it was very clear that's where it starts. I learned that from him.”
Outside of Chip Kelly, who, in many ways, was the anti-Andy Reid, every coach Philadelphia has hired since has had connections to their former leader, with Doug Pederson working as an offensive coordinator under “Big Red” and Nick Sirianni having some early run in KC before joining Frank Reich in Indianapolis. The Eagles have continued to focus on prioritizing the offensive and defensive line in both free agency and the draft and while they took things in a slightly different direction this offseason, prioritizing the defensive secondary and the running back position in free agency and the draft, in the end, those units remain among the team's best.
Will Sirianni finally get himself over the hump and become the second member of the “Big Red” coaching tree to win a Super Bowl with the Eagles? Only time will tell, but if he does, it's safe to assume that Reid will be proud to see his former assistant make good in the city that got him his NFL start.
