Four early candidates for the job:

 

Adam Gase

Let’s start it all off with the most intriguing option, Bears Offensive Coordinator Adam Gase. Gase is intriguing because he’s the young gun of the group. For example, look at how embarrassingly short his Wikipedia page is:

adam gase

He’s also currently the prettiest girl at the dance – a cross-eyed Vladimir Putin – with no fewer than three interviews lined up (Eagles, Browns, Dolphins). He’s speaking to the Eagles tomorrow, his first interview. If he lands a head coaching job, he’ll be the youngest in the NFL. “He’s known as a smart, ultra-competitive offensive mind who’s capable of improving quarterback production,” said the Chicago Tribune. He specializes in “scheming to maximize players’ strengths and relating well with players.” Relating well with players? That’ll be to his benefit. The Browns are expected to “go hard” for him, but they might not be the best fit since Gase supposedly favors “big, pocket passers.” Sam Bradford is an inch taller than Gase’s current QB, Jay Cutler.

 

Sean Payton

Perhaps Payton’s greatest strength, other than his career .603 win percentage, is that his players seem to actually love him. Like, family-style love. Like, they can’t live without him. He coached for the Eagles before, from 1997-1998, as QB coach under offensive coordinator Jon Gruden. After Gruden left the Eagles, head coach Ray Rhodes and Payton were both fired in what was Jeffrey Lurie’s first head coach firing.

After Lurie’s most recent change, Payton could be a great get. He’s got two divisional wins under his belt, a Super Bowl title, and he took his son’s sixth-grade football team to the league championship when he was suspended for his role in the Bounty Gate scandal. An immediate-transition smoother? He also LOVES visors.

The Saints would reportedly be looking for a second round pick in exchange for Payton (as he’s under contract), but the Eagles do not have a second round pick in this coming draft. They’d have to hope the Saints would be willing to take a 2017 second and be willing to forego having a second rounder in two straight drafts. Or they could offer something else.

 

Doug Pederson

The Prodigal Doug returns: The first starting QB of the Andy Reid era in Philadelphia (led the Birds to a 2-7 record in his nine starts that year), Pederson is now serving as Reid’s offensive coordinator in Kansas City. Before that, he was the Eagles’ QB coach and offensive quality control coach. He’d be the first Eagles coach to have also played for the Eagles since Marion Campbell.

According to different reports, Pederson is either a top candidate or not, but he (and Reid) have turned Kansas City into a playoff team. Unfortunately for Pederson, Eagles fans (and Jeff Lurie) know exactly how Andy Reid likes to run his offense (aka he calls most, if not all, of the plays himself).

 

Pat Shurmur

Finally, the last rumored leading candidate is already in-house. Pat Shurmur, Chip Kelly’s offensive coordinator and Sam Bradford’s pick:

“The quarterback-head coach relationship is extremely important in any organization. Given the history I have with Pat — we were together my rookie year [in St. Louis] and reunited this year — I think it would mean a lot to me. I would love to play for him. I really enjoyed playing for him today. If he is a candidate, I hope that he gets serious consideration.”

Shurmer and Bradford, with Shurmur as offensive coordinator, turned the 1-15 2009 Rams into the 7-9 2010 Rams, improving in total yards, points, and third-down percentage, among other categories. After that, he was poached by the Browns as their head coach and put up nine wins in two seasons. With his win last week, his career record as a head coach improved(?) to 10-23. In his coordinator and head coaching career (minus that awful 2009 Rams season), his teams have finished an average of 17th in points, 18th in win percentage, and 17th in yards. How responsible he is for those stats under Kelly, however, is up for debate

Shurmur would be an interesting choice in the wake of Kelly’s firing. Sure, he was the offensive coordinator, but Chip called the plays and apparently Duce chose which running backs played. It’s hard to know how much of an impact Shurmur actually had.

The longer the Eagles take to make this decision, the more names will be added to this list. But for right now, these seem to be your early candidates.

 

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