Is Andy Reid on the hot seat in 2012?

Andy Reid has spent 13 seasons as the Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach, compiling a regular season record of 126-81-1 (.609 win %). In those 13 years, as the Eagles’ head man, the Eagles have appeared in the playoffs 9 times, including 5 NFC conference championship appearances, and one trip to the Super Bowl. In his time with the team, Reid has also led them to 6 divisional titles.

There’s no question that Andy Reid has put together an impressive resume in his 13 years with Philadelphia. Last year, the Eagles were a preseason favorite to make a Super Bowl run. Backup quarterback Vince Young went so far as to declare that the Eagles were a “dream team,” and it looked as if the Eagles were poised to do what they had failed to do with Reid as their head coach; win a Super Bowl.

The season started off with an easy victory over the St. Louis Rams. Expectations were high, and the team had easily delivered on the road. The following week, the Eagles traveled to Atlanta where they were narrowly beat by the Falcons. While the loss did hurt, the Falcons were also considered an NFC powerhouse, and the loss didn’t concern many fans, analysts, players, or coaches.

In week 3, the Eagles suffered a home loss at the hands of a division rival, the Giants. That loss was followed by another barn-burner in week 4 against the visiting 49ers. Yet again, the Eagles came up with the short end of the stick. Then, in week 5, the Eagles were topped by a touchdown, losing to the Buffalo Bills by a score of 24-31.

At the time, the Eagles were just 1-4, and many were beginning to wonder if they could recover. They did. The Eagles bounced back by winning 2 straight, putting them back at 3-4. Then, they were dealt a death blow to any postseason aspirations they had in early September, losing 4 of their next 5 games. To the Eagles’ credit, they never gave up. They ended the season by winning 4 straight games, although none of the teams they beat made it into the postseason.

So we now revert to our central question. Is Andy Reid’s job on the line in 2012? The easy answer is that every NFL coach’s job is on the line at the beginning of the season. This is a results driven league where everyone wants to win now, not later. Reid’s team underperformed in 2011, losing to almost every quality team they played. Their most impressive win came against the Cowboys in Week 8, winning by a score of 34-7, and that success didn’t last.

On the other hand, Reid has proven over the past 13 years that he can get a lot of mileage out of his teams. He’s not a pushover coach, and the Eagles will almost certainly come out of the gate in 2012 with something to prove.

Great head coaches don’t just “lose it” after years of success. Last year, the Eagles were trying to gel as a group with a lot of new acquisitions on the squad. That shouldn’t be an issue this season. By September, they’ll have had the entire offseason to come together as a team. The individual components of the Eagles are very impressive, and they have the coaching staff to get that talent to act as a unit instead of a group of individuals. No, Andy Reid’s job isn’t on the line just yet. He’s been too consistent for too long for one bad season to put his career in jeopardy. Right now, I’m not worried about his job security. The only thing Reid has to do is put a winning team on the field, and the rest will take care of itself. Luckily for him, he’s been putting winning teams on the field for over a decade. I don’t think he’s too worried about the task at hand.

About Shane Clemons

Shane Clemons came from humble beginnings creating his own Jaguars blog before moving on to SBNation as a featured writer for the Jaguars. He then moved to Bloguin where he briefly covered the AFC South before taking over Bloguin's Jaguars blog. Since the inception of This Given Sunday, Shane has served as an editor for the site, doing his best not to mess up a good thing.

Quantcast