Julian Dorey
Writer

It’s time.

After what will be 14 seasons of both good and bad times, the Philadelphia Eagles must part ways with Andy Reid.

Another season is preparing to come and go without much hope for a mere playoff birth.  The team has tuned him out, making the same amateur mistakes week-in and week-out. Turnovers, penalties, lack of fundamentals, poor blitz-pickups, etc. The laundry list of repeated issues has been growing for the past several years.

Calling for Reid to pack his things and walk out the door isn’t meant to paint him as a bad football coach. In fact, he’s a good one, and if he can find a way to put a ring on his finger one day, he’d be a great one.

No, calling for Reid’s job is simply a task in applying a simple “law” of human fallibility: he’s been coaching in one place for too long.

Reid is an Eagles institution. His West Coast offense, his ability to develop quarterbacks and his many winning seasons will eventually be recognized by Philadelphia faithful with respect and gratitude one day. But right now, every fan’s primary wish is to start over with a new Eagles hierarchy next season.

For years, Philadelphia has been fed the idea that their team is “this close” or “on the verge” of winning the big one. Talented Pro-Bowlers like Donovan McNabb, Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter, Hugh Douglas, Troy Vincent, Brian Westbrook, Terrell Owens, Asante Samuel, Trent Cole, Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy have played at the highest of levels for Reid at Veterans Stadium, and later Lincoln Financial Field. But the team trophy case lacks the most important one of all.

How can an owner who at least claims to be so hungry for a championship prove to the rest of his organization that he means it? He can start by moving out the winningest coach in franchise history. You know why? Because wins don’t mean much in the long run when you can’t win the big one.

Let’s face facts here. I mentioned earlier that Reid’s teams have seemingly tuned him out at times over the past few seasons. The results would reflect that. Since the 2008-2009 season, the team has appeared in just two playoff games over three seasons (not including this year’s seemingly hopeless 3-6 squad) and lost both of them. Since a Super Bowl appearance in 2004 that followed a streak of four straight NFC Championship game appearances and five straight trips to the playoffs, Reid’s teams have returned to the postseason just four times over seven plus seasons, and they’ve won a grand total of three postseason games. If you put those stats up next to other NFL coaches’ stats over the past seven years, you would find them to be middle-of-the-pack at best.

For all of Reid’s great qualities, his same issues have persisted. He is a poor clock manager, he fails to make in-game adjustments and his play-calling is about as hopelessly unbalanced as it gets.

With another season ready to come and go without so much as a winning record, it’s time for owner Jeffrey Lurie to come to his senses and start anew with a coach that will wake the players on the Eagles’ roster up.

If you ask me, Reid doesn’t have the ability to do that anymore.