Running a College Program

The always insightful Rick Gosselin says “Andy Reid runs the Philadelphia Eagles like an elite college football program. He's willing to redshirt a good player in an effort to make him a great one.” It’s a great analogy.

A hallmark of Reid’s tenure has been to draft not for immediate needs, but for needs two or three years down the road. The result is that Reid is able to replace aging stars not with untested rookies (for the most part) but with 2 or 3-year veterans – think Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown for Bobbie Taylor and Troy Vincent. (Or, next year Winston Justice for William Thomas II, or gulp, Kevin Kolb for Donovan McNabb?)

Thus, Gosselin suggests, “the Eagles figure to be better in 2007 than the team that won a division title and reached the semifinal round of the NFC playoffs in 2006” because of the more prominent roles some of the 2006 rookies will be making.

Specifically, Gosselin cites Jeremy Bloom and Chris Gocong. Interestingly, he doesn’t mention at all Brodrick Bunkley. Considering only Bunkley saw the field and then only provided very limited contributions, taking into account how poorly Dhani Jones was playing, and the middling skills of Reno Mahe – anything these three can add is 1) a bonus and 2) performance above the 2006 baseline -  suggesting that the team’s play in their areas of responsibility will be net improvements this year. Improvements to a divisional round playoff team. Not bad.