November 27, 2023
A former Eagles coordinator on a Super Bowl team was fired less than one year into his new head coaching job. It's just not the one that was expected before the season.
The Carolina Panthers have fired Frank Reich after a disastrous 1-10 start to the season after inking him to a four-year deal to be their new head coach this past offseason. Improbably, Jonathan Gannon remains the Arizona Cardinals' head coach (for now). Assistant head coach/running backs coach, Duce Staley, who previously held those titles in Philadelphia, was also let go.
Of course, Reich was the Eagles' offensive coordinator in 2016 and 2017, helping pilot the Birds' offensive attack on the way to a Super Bowl win. He spent five seasons as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, beginning in 2018, before being relieved of his duties there in the middle of the 2022 campaign.
For a further connection, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni served as Reich's offensive coordinator in Indianapolis from 2018 through 2020 before coming to Philly in 2021. Those ties go back to their shared time (2013-2015) with the Chargers as well.
I haven't been on-the-scene NFL scribe long, but the way that Sirianni talks about Reich with such reverence feels unique and not the standard around the league. I wonder if Sirianni would bring in Reich for a consulting role for this offense for the stretch run. Obviously, just two offensive players remain from that 2017 Super Bowl team in Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson, but that Doug Pederson-Reich-John DeFilippo coaching nucleus worked wonders with Carson Wentz and Nick Foles. This could be akin to the way that former NFL head coach Vic Fangio found himself doing some work for the Eagles in the middle of the 2022 season before landing a new job for the 2023 season.
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