Duce Staley, Jerod Mayo Highlight Day 4 of Eagles Coaching Search
Here we go again with Duce Staley.
For the fourth time since he’s been an assistant with the Eagles, the former running back will interview for a promotion. It will be the second time he will be interviewed to be the head coach, after doing so in 2016 before the Eagles went with Doug Pederson.
Staley, who also interviewed to be the offensive coordinator in 2018 and 2020, is scheduled to interview once again on Friday afternoon at owner Jeffrey Lurie’s South Florida estate, per NBC Philly’s John Clark.
Day Four of the search was slated to begin with New England Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo followed by Staley in the afternoon.
On Thursday night, Robert Saleh was hired to be the head coach of the New York Jets. Saleh had interviewed with the Eagles earlier in the day. Also interviewed by Lurie and his search committee of president Don Smolenski and general manager Howie Roseman was Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
Smith has reportedly been offered the head coaching job of the Atlanta Falcons after two interviews with them.
Another team to fill their head coaching vacancy on Thursday were the Jacksonville Jaguars who hired former college coach Urban Meyer.
That leaves five teams that still have openings, including the Falcons, whose job could be filled at any minute should Smith accept, the Chargers, Lions, Texans, and Eagles.
On Wednesday, the Eagles interviewed Joe Brady, the 31-year-old OC with the Carolina Panthers.
The big question now is does Staley actually have a shot this time around with the Eagles?
There are no other teams lining up to interview him, or Pederson for that matter.
It was also telling that Staley wasn’t the one tabbed to call plays when Pederson opted to relinquish some of those duties as the team struggled, instead turning to Rich Scangarello and Press Taylor.
There is support for Staley among players on the team and it was Staley who filled in for Pederson when he tested positive for COVID-19 during the summer.
Still, the Eagles’ brass will no doubt want to see if Staley shares their feeling about retooling the roster and bringing in new voices rather than running it back with assistants such as Taylor and defensive line coach Matt Burke, who was believed to be in line to be the defensive coordinator after Jim Schwartz stepped away and prior to Pederson getting fired.
Then there’s the Carson Wentz question and how Staley plans on fixing the former franchise quarterback or should the team turn the helm over to Jalen Hurts.
Other than those two important areas, Lurie and his team should be familiar enough by now with Staley to know whether or not he would be the right person for the job.
Ed Kracz is the publisher of EagleMaven. Check out anything you may have missed pertaining to the Eagles by going to www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
