The Eagles have no head coach and no interviews scheduled.
A league source said Tuesday morning the Eagles do not currently have any interviews scheduled for their head coaching vacancy.
That includes Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter and Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, who according to various reports were both going to meet with the Eagles but haven’t.
Owner Jeff Lurie fired Chip Kelly two weeks ago Tuesday, and so far the Eagles have interviewed six candidates to replace him: Eagles offensive coordinator and interim head coach Pat Shurmur, Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson, long-time Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, Eagles running backs coach Duce Staley, Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo and Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase.
Of that group, Gase has since become head coach of the Dolphins, and Staley is considered a Rooney Rule candidate, meaning he satisfies the NFL’s requirement that teams interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching jobs.
That leaves Shurmur, Pederson, Coughlin and McAdoo, with Pederson probably the most likely candidate, followed by Coughlin and then Shurmur, who served as interim head coach when the Eagles finished the season with a win over the Giants in Coughlin’s final game with the Giants.
Pederson is the only candidate in that group whose team is still playing. The Chiefs face the Patriots in the AFC conference semifinal round on Saturday.
NFL
A league source said the Eagles aren’t necessarily finished interviewing candidates but said as of early Tuesday afternoon there was nothing scheduled.
The Eagles’ three-man search committee consists of Lurie, team president Don Smolenski and executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman. None of them have ever played football.
So far, the Eagles have not interviewed any defensive coaches. Shurmur, Pederson, Coughlin, Staley, McAdoo and Gase all coach on the offensive side of the ball.
This is not a coincidence.
According to a league official familiar with the Eagles’ search, Lurie believes the most effective model to lead an NFL team these days is an offensive head coach, since he believes it’s much easier to find a qualified defensive coordinator than offensive coordinator.
Lurie’s first head coaching hire, Ray Rhodes, was a defensive coach. But his last two, Andy Reid and Kelly, come from the offensive side of the ball.
The fact that two weeks into their search the Eagles haven’t even interviewed Sean McDermott, Guenther or any of the other leading defensive candidates speaks volumes.
One other Lurie trend: He has never hired a coach with previous NFL head coaching experience. In fact, the last time the Eagles hired a head coach who had previously been an NFL head coach was 1983, when Leonard Tose hired Eagles defensive coordinator and former Falcons head coach Marion Campbell to replace Dick Vermeil.
Campbell has the lowest won-loss record in NFL history among head coaches who’ve coached at least 100 games. He was 34-80-1 with the Eagles and two stints with the Falcons, a .300 winning percentage.
One common theme during this coaching search has been all the incorrect or premature information that’s come out.
That includes reports that the Eagles planned a second interview with Gase, that they were going to interview Jaguars offensive line coach and former Bills head coach Doug Marrone, and that they planned to interview Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, in addition to more recent reports that they planned to interview Guenther and Koetter.
And that doesn’t even include the Jon Gruden reports and denials.
The Dolphins are the only team to fill a head coaching vacancy so far this year.
The Giants, 49ers, Browns, Buccaneers and Titans also have openings.