The Los Angeles Chargers hired Brandon Staley to be their next head coach on Sunday night, the fifth team to find a new head coach this offseason.
Staley was scheduled to meet with the Eagles on Monday, an interview that now will never happen. And it sounds like that interview could've been pretty important.
In Monday's Football Morning in America column, NBC Sports' Peter King - regularly one of the sport's most plugged-in reporters - dropped a few interesting lines about the Eagles and Staley that make it sound like their interest in Staley was more than just another interview.
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First, while discussing Staley's hectic weekend, King wrote this about the Chargers' seemingly fast hiring of Staley:
"[Staley] scheduled to fly to West Palm Beach at the crack of dawn for his interview today with the Eagles. (They’ve been doing the interviews in Florida.)
"I don’t think the Chargers rushed to hire Staley because they feared the Eagles might; I bet it was a factor, but a small one."
Okay, a "small" factor. That by itself isn't a clear and obvious arrow. Teams are always keeping an eye on each other during head coach search season, wary that an interview could turn into a job offer before they have a chance to make their move.
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Did the Chargers think the Eagles could hire Staley? Probably, but by itself that's not damning.
However, later on in the column, King was discussing the Eagles' thorough process when he tossed out this telling phrase:
"Who knows who the Eagles will hire, with Staley now off the market."
Hmm.
It's possible that's just an innocuous turn of phrase, but it feels like an indicator of where Staley stood, status-wise, in the Eagles' search. Now that Staley is off the market, they have to turn their sights elsewhere.
Staley is a pretty intriguing candidate for someone like Jeffrey Lurie, who is known to swing for the fences when given the opportunity (hello, Chip Kelly), and also isn't afraid to take a chance on an inexperienced head coach (hello, Doug Pederson). Staley is 38, had a meteoric rise, and became a hot name in the last few months. If Lurie was looking for a splashy, culture change-y hire, Staley absolutely would've fit the bill.
In any case, Staley is no longer available, and the Eagles will look elsewhere. But we'll always be able to wonder about this intriguing what-if.
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