How DeFilippo’s firing in Minnesota affects Eagles
PHILADELPHIA >> About 15 minutes before Mike Groh was to be made again to answer why Carson Wentz was having a flat season Tuesday, the early information was leaking into the NewsControl Compound: John DeFilippo was fired as the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive coordinator.
With that, it was on. With that, unfair as it will be, it will continue.
With that, there would be the questions.
So while there was a slight delay before the Eagles’ offensive coordinator would hit the podium for his usual reflections on the weekend’s events, it gave the football illuminati time to concoct two things: A conspiracy theory … and some questions.
Was Groh delayed because he was being finger-wagged by his bosses, alerting him that the quarterback coach who’d helped mold Wentz into an MVP candidate a year earlier was about to be jobnetworking? And if not, is his job in peril anyway?
That, indeed, was a question hurled his way, and not even a full 365 days since he was on the coaching staff that won those in the industry call the Super Bowl. How does he handle gossip about his job security?
“I just come to work,” Groh said. “And I don’t get involved in that stuff. I’m just trying to put together a great plan and try to win one game this week.”
Groh replaced Frank Reich, who coordinated the world-championship offense last season then took the head coaching job in Indianapolis. Prior to that, DeFilippo, the former Radnor High quarterback, had bolted for Minnesota and a promotion to offensive coordinator. Had those parts moved differently, DeFilippo likely would have replaced Reich. They didn’t. And Groh got the job and months of grief about the whole thing.
The NFL a results industry, Groh has been able to help put together plans good enough only to win six games this season. Fans and other critics expecting another Super Bowl push have been willing to settle for the easy explanation, blaming the decline on the loss of Reich and DeFilippo. And they are not likely to rest until the Eagles win another Super Bowl, DeFilippo is reunited with Wentz, or Groh is demoted on Doug Pederson’s staff.
Groh might as well drop back in protection. Because he is about to be speared, at least until DeFilippo is back out of the job market. And, well, even if DeFilippo is considered one of the NFL’s bright, young offensive minds at the age of 40, it’s not exactly a resume highlight to have been fired, in season, from a coordinating job. So he could be jobhunting for a while.
“I just heard that before I walked down here,” Groh said. “John is a really good friend. And obviously I feel for him today. Unfortunately, it’s part of this business. I wish him all the best.”
Plenty is part of the football business. Timing. Injuries. Results. None of that has worked in Groh’s favor. No matter who followed Reich, he was unlikely to win the Super Bowl again. So the perception was inevitable that the replacement would be inferior. More, Reich and DeFilippo had the benefit of working with a healthy Wentz and doing so with brilliance, crafting him as one of the best weapons in the sport. Groh, though, was made to begin the season with Nick Foles in the lineup and Wentz in continuing rehab from career-threatening knee trauma. Even when Wentz was declared healthy, he did not demonstrate the excellence that he’d shown under DeFilippo and Reich.
With that, there was a situation where, before Week 15, Groh was being asked about his livelihood. And that’s how it will always work in the big leagues.
What will happen? There is only one certainty: The Eagles will do what they find to be the best for Carson Wentz. Do not expect anything else. They did not trade two first-round picks, a second, a third and a fourth for the opportunity to draft him without the prenup agreement to make their investment work at any cost. If it meant trading a third-round pick to rent Golden Tate, or benching the reigning Super Bowl MVP, or adjusting the offense to account for Wentz’s recovering knee, that’s what the Eagles would do.
They are either going to begin Jeff Lurie’s everpromised collection of Lombardi Trophies with Wentz, or it is not going to happen. They will do what is best for Wentz first. They will do what is best for Mike Groh next to last. (They will do what is best for the press last.)
So it will come down to whether they believe Wentz’s decline this season was stitched to his injury. If so, Groh could be spared. And Monday, Pederson finally began to drop hints that Wentz needed all of his recovery time, and maybe more.
“I think about the mental journey coming back from an injury for any player,” Pederson said. “In Carson’s case, he missed the first two games and then really kind of missed training camp. But now he’s feeling good. He’s feeling as healthy as he’s ever been.”
That was before DeFilippo was fired, apparently for being unable to win consistently with high-priced Kirk Cousins. And once that happened Tuesday, everything changed. Carson Wentz’s old quarterback coach is available again, and this time he has NFL coordinating experience.
“That’s a bummer,” defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said, “any time a coach is let go.”
Around there, the bummers may just be beginning.
To contact Jack McCaffery, email him at jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @ JackMcCaffery