Will Eagles bring in Frank Reich after he was fired in Carolina?
Will Eagles bring in Frank Reich after he was fired in Carolina? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
After news broke that Frank Reich was fired by the Carolina Panthers on Monday morning, there was an obvious question in Philadelphia:
Will the Eagles bring Reich in?
Not only was Reich the offensive coordinator on Doug Pederson’s staff when the Eagles won Super Bowl LII, but Reich is one of Nick Sirianni’s most important football mentors. It was Reich who made Sirianni his offensive coordinator in Indianapolis and it was Reich who gave a strong recommendation to the Eagles when they were thinking about hiring Sirianni in 2021.
As of Monday afternoon, though, Sirianni didn’t have much to say about the possibility of bringing Reich aboard.
“It's obviously very early with everything that's going on, so I haven't thought about that quite yet,” Sirianni said.
But what we do know is that Sirianni and Reich are extremely close. And during Sirianni’s head coaching tenure in Philly, he and Reich have kept in touch.
What we also know is that the Eagles haven’t been hesitant to add coaches to their staff during the season.
Last November, the Eagles hired former Colts offensive coordinator Marcus Brady as a consultant. And then for the playoff run, the Eagles hired veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to serve as a consultant. For the most part, Brady provided an offensive perspective to the Eagles’ defensive staff and Fangio provided a defensive perspective to the offensive staff.
While Fangio eventually left to take the defensive coordinator job in Miami, Brady stayed on staff and was promoted to the position of senior offensive assistant this offseason.
Sirianni didn’t get into the possibility of bringing in Reich in 2023, but he did have this to say about adding a coach during the season:
“As far as bringing somebody in in the middle of the year, what goes into that, a lot of times is familiarity with the person,” Sirianni said. “So that's what goes into that quite often, is the familiarity with the coach, the relationship with the coach.
But I'm not there yet. Obviously, we just finished up our evaluation of our game and starting in on San Francisco.”
If familiarity is one of the main ingredients, it’s pretty obviously Sirianni and Reich have that.
And if you need a reminder of how much Sirianni cares about Reich, all you have to do is look at the Eagles-Colts game last season after Reich was fired a couple weeks earlier. After the Eagles 17-16 win over the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Nov. 20, Sirianni was extremely emotional.
“Yeah, you know, I'm emotional because I love Frank Reich. I really do,” Sirianni said after the game. “He's one of the best damn football coaches I've ever been around.
“Yeah, I was hoping him and I would be able to coach against each other in this game, but he is one my of biggest mentors.”
Sirianni admitted it was sweet for him to go to Indianapolis and leave with a win just a couple weeks after Reich was fired.
The next question is about whether or not Reich would want to join a coaching staff during this season. He’s still getting paid handsomely by the Panthers and the 62-year-old coach intimated in an interview with the Charlotte Observer that his coaching days might be over.
“This is probably the final chapter of my NFL journey,” Reich said to the Observer.
But that was also not long after getting fired by David Tepper. Perhaps Reich would return to coaching if he finds the right situation.
And joining a Super Bowl contender with his biggest mentee at the helm might be pretty darn attractive.
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