Its back to the drawing board for the Philadelphia Eagles. While reports Wednesday morning had indicated that former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin was inching closer to being named the new Eagles head coach, it sounds like the 69-year-old Coughlin is no longer part of the search. Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, Coughlin has withdrawn his name from the pool of potential candidates.
Tom Coughlin is withdrawing his name from consideration for Eagles HC job, per sources. Not the right fit.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 14, 2016
"Not the right fit," could mean a lot of things, but looking at the situation it more likely than not means one of two things specifically - the Eagles and owner Jeffrey Lurie approached Coughlin and offered a kind of stop-gap job, wherein he would take over control of the team for the next few years, but that a succession plan would be in place throughout and Coughlin would be expected to "quit," just as he did with the Giants this offseason, whenever a better candidate became available or an in-house candidate, like running backs coach Duce Staley, proved ready to shoulder the mantle.
There's also the possibility that the thought of working with de facto GM Howie Roseman scared Coughlin off. It's been reported in the past and earlier this offseason that the notion of being under Roseman has worried several Philly head coaching candidates. Roseman is a close confidant of Lurie and has shown some acumen for the player personnel game in the past, but he's also made massive mistakes and reports of his massaging information to his benefit within the Eagles building have swirled even before his battle with Chip Kelly over the 53-man roster last year.
Per Dan Graziano of ESPN, Coughlin's "concerns" over the Eagles job included an uncertainty as to who would be the offensive coordinator. Pat Shurmur, who served as Philadelphia's interim head coach for their final game - against New York, of course - this season and has been the team's offensive coordinator for the past three years, interviewed for the head coaching gig last week.
No matter the reason, it sounds like the Eagles are going to have to continue their head coaching interviews, something they were said to be done with, or select from a pool of candidates that looks to be led by Shurmur and Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson.
