Coaching Moves

Posted: March 5th, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Coaching Moves

The Eagles haven’t made any announcements, but they are in the process of hiring a couple of WRs coaches. Gunter Brewer will be the WRs coach and Carson Walch will be the assistant WRs coach.

Brewer has been the WRs coach and co-offensive coordinator at UNC since 2013. He has coached QBs and WRs in his career. He’s been also been a passing game coordinator. Brewer has a strong track record with developing good WRs. He coached Mack Hollins and you know Hollins has to be thrilled to be reunited with his college position coach. Ryan Switzer had a great career at Carolina and is now a member of the Cowboys.

The interesting thing about Hollins and Switzer is how different they are. Hollins didn’t catch many passes, but had a gaudy yards per catch figure. He was a big guy that made lots of big plays down the field. Switzer is small and thrived in the slot, racking up lots of catches.

Prior to his time at UNC, Brewer coached at Oklahoma State and had a slew of stud WRs. Justin Blackmon, Dez Bryant, Adarius Bowman and D’Juan Woods were all college stars. Blackmon was the best of the group, but off-field troubles killed his career. Bryant is the one guy who became a star in the NFL.

In the late 90’s, Brewer coached at Marshall when they had this guy named Randy Moss. Not sure what ever became of him.

Brewer coached under Mike Gundy at OSU. Larry Fedora was the offensive coordinator from 2005-2007. Fedora then left to be the head coach at Southern Miss from 2008-2011. Then he went to Carolina in 2012 and hired Brewer to come work with him again. I mention these coaches because Gundy and Fedora are gifted offensive minds. They believe in the spread attack, with some elements of the Air Raid. Gundy has always run the ball a lot. Fedora is a believer in tempo. You don’t spend 10 years working with those guys without learning a lot about how to coach offense.

I think Brewer is being hired as more than just a WRs coach.

My guess is that the Eagles think Mike Groh will get snatched away in a year or two and they want a veteran offensive coach on the staff who could possibly replace him. The Eagles hired a young assistant WRs coach so they have depth at that spot.

Andy Reid did a brilliant job of building his first staff, but as Childress, Rivera, Frazier, Rivera, etc., got pulled away, he struggled to replace them. That hurt the team from 2005-2012. Pederson is challenged with replacing coaches after just two years and is trying to make smart hires for the long term and the short term. There is no salary cap for coaches so go spend money to build a deep, talented staff.

Walch is a CFL guy, but he did work under Groh in Chicago back in 2013 and 2014. Walch has coached receivers, but he has also been an offensive coordinator. Pederson likes to bring in guys who understand the passing game and how to call plays. He can then have them focus on part of the Eagles offense (Red Zone vs 2-minute vs run plays vs 3rd down vs trick plays). You then take all of these elements and build them into a gameplan.

The beauty of hiring Brewer and Walch is that you get someone from college football and someone from the CFL. That means new ideas and new perspectives. One of the problems with the West Coast Offense and hiring guys with that background is that you can get the same ideas being recycled, with just slight changes. Bringing in outsiders allows you to draw upon different minds and backgrounds. That can be a good thing if done right.

Based on how Pederson did things in 2017, I think he knows what he’s doing on offense.

*****

Forget Vanna, this is the sexiest thing ever on Wheel of Fortune.

*****

This is amazing.

My favorite part is when he gets the offense to huddle up after BG’s strip-sack. Foles meant business. Love that focus and that leadership.

I’m blown away by the way his teammates responded to him before, during and after the game. You can tell those guys really love him. That was something special.

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