Can Reid make moves
to get Eagles airborne?

In the Nest
By William Campbell

The offseason is fast upon us, certainly a little earlier than usual, and Eagles coach Andy Reid is now officially on the clock.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, Big Red, let’s see what you got.
If you’re Reid, this is where you really start earning that multimillion-dollar paycheck. There is a whole lot of work to be done on the shredded remains of this once-proud football team.
The window has not closed on this core assemblage of players and coaches. The way the parity-ridden NFL plays out these days, there’s no reason the Birds can’t bounce back and be Super Bowl contenders again in 2006. To do so, they’ll need a productive and aggressive offseason.
First up for Reid and staff is self-evaluation.
He and his coaches will review game film and discern if they have done a good enough job, as Reid says, "putting guys in the right position to make plays." Once they assure themselves that they are not the problem, they’ll then start looking at the individual players to grade them.
What they see will not be pretty.
With sordid evaluations in hand, they’ll then take into account the injured players returning in ’06. This will give them a clearer picture of what they’ll be working with next season. From there they can then determine their areas of greatest need, the order of priority of those needs, and then what course they’ll take to address those needs.
The chief means of addressing personnel needs are free agency and the draft.
Eagles fans want bold action. They’d love to see free agent-to-be wide receiver Reggie Wayne signed and then a cunning move in the draft to grab a difference-maker.
But thanks to a losing won-lost record, the Birds won’t necessarily have to move up to get a rookie who can help. They will probably be picking at no worse than the 13th spot in the first round. There will be good enough players available at that spot. But it sure wouldn’t hurt to crack the top 7.
For a team that needs immediate help in several areas, the strategy in the first round should be to pick the best available athlete at one of their most needy positions. Those neediest positions, not in order, are: defensive line, offensive line, linebacker, wide receiver and a big running back.
This is a great year for linebackers, a position Reid has never addressed with a No. 1 pick.
But what they do with their first pick — and remember, the draft goes far deeper than the first round — will be heavily influenced by what they accomplish through free agency. If they get Wayne, for example, there’s no urgency to draft a wide receiver first. The same is true if they ink Jets’ defensive end John Abraham, and/or Seahawks’ defensive tackle Rocky Bernard. That assuages the defensive line needs, at least temporarily, and that position can then be addressed later in the draft, if at all.
One free agent who can really help the Birds and who should really be at the top of their wish list is Seattle guard Steve Hutchinson. Yes, the defense is atrocious, but if you can’t block people, it doesn’t matter how great your defense is. Wasn’t that a big lesson from the Buddy Ryan era?
Hutchinson is a potential future hall-of-famer who has been named to three straight Pro Bowls, and who, along with tackle Walter Jones, is largely responsible not only for Shaun Alexander’s monstrous statistics but also for a lot of Seattle’s offensive success this season. He’ll be entering his sixth year next season, would be a huge upgrade over Artis Hicks at left guard and would allow Hicks to become the top backup again, a role for which he is better suited.
There are no stud linebackers available through free agency this year, except the 49ers’ Julian Peterson, who will probably be re-signed or slapped with the franchise tag.
If Reid addresses the offensive and defensive lines in free agency, then it’s a good year for drafting a linebacker early.
A dream scenario from this vantage point would be free agents Wayne and Hutchinson signed and a trade up in the draft to snag top-five linebacker A.J. Hawk from Ohio State.
Add big back Lendale White from USC (if he comes out early) early in the second round and a quality defensive tackle thereafter, and the Birds will have some serious momentum flying into 2006.
Tick-tock, tick-tock. Yo Red, let’s see what you got. ••
William Campbell can be reached at bccomm@juno.com