-Courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles
On how the free agency process will differ without head coach Andy Reid, who is taking a leave of absence until mid-March 2007:
“There are really two parts to free agency. One is the process of deciding what you want to do with your own guys and the other is what you’re going to do in the market of available players from other teams. Before any of this had happened we had finalized our own plans as to what we’re going to do and not do with our own guys, and we’d been working on that for awhile. We’d also put together our preliminary plan for the non-Eagle players that we could be interested in, in free agency. Andy is going to continue to be available and we will be talking to him regularly and he will retain final say over whatever we do. But, the actual finalization of the work, which at this point really is – all of our scouts have watched all these players and made their decisions – we’re at the phase now where the assistant coaches and the coordinators will watch those same players. Once they’re done with that, we’ll review, led by [general manager] Tom Heckert and in consultation with Andy, kind of a final free agency plan. If we brought free agents in for visits, Andy will be here and be available to participate in the recruiting of those players.”
On whether there is a chance that this leave of absence could lead to a longer leave of absence:
“No. All we’ve talked about and what our plan is – and just to clarify it, in the press release we wrote ‘middle of March-ish’ [that Reid would return]. I don’t know if he’s coming back on the 13th or the 17th or the 18th. That’s why that’s a little bit vague, but he will be returning in and around that time frame here.”
On what the arrangement is for the leave of absence:
“It probably is a little bit of a misnomer. He’s not going to come into the office. His priorities will be his family for that period of time. But, he will be available to have a couple of calls with us and collaborate, and as I said, make the final decision of what we do or don’t do in free agency, to be updated on the status of negotiations with our own guys that we want to keep, and as I’ve said, if he needed to be here for a visit of a free agent. So, we felt this came closest to defining what was actually taking place without being the perfect description of what’s actually going to happen.”
On whether there is any chance that Reid will not return:
“Everything we’ve talked about, everything he’s said – and I want to try to be as clear about this as I can, although I know there will be speculation. Other than whether we’re talking about the 13th or the 17th [of March], he will be here ready to go and fully back engaged at that point in time [in mid-March].”
On whether Reid will go to the NFL owner’s meetings:
“Yes, the plan is for him to attend the owner’s meetings.”
On whether they offered to allow Reid to take an extended period of time off:
“No, this wasn’t an ‘allowed to’ [situation] or anything. This was just a discussion as to what was going on. I think anybody who knows Andy knows the importance and priority his family plays in his life and what he needed to be able to do, what he needed to do. This, fortunately, made sense from a football calendar perspective, but really is a reflection of what the anticipated time requirements in the immediate future are for him.”
On whether he had initial concerns about whether Reid would return when this first happened:
“Not really, but it’s obviously a major situation any time something comes up of this magnitude. I would be dishonest to say your brain doesn’t scan the full range of possibilities, but I talked to him almost immediately after this happened and I’ve never really felt any serious concern other than how you deal with the immediate future here, about where his head is at and what his plans are.”
On whether he has to delegate the responsibilities Reid usually has during this timeframe:
“It’s not delegating. But, we have the [NFL scouting] combine coming up. Frankly, Andy’s main function at the combine is the interviewing of players. But, a lot of that is done by assistant coaches and scouts. If there are players there that he would have otherwise interviewed, we will be able to make arrangements for him to interview them under other circumstances. So, there are a few specific things that he would actually physically do. But really, Tom Heckert and the scouting staff do almost all of that. The assistant coaches do a lot of the interviewing. We’re lucky in the sense that the timing that this is all taking place, is really the best it could be in terms of everybody being able to step in and get everything done that we need.”
On how Reid is doing:
“I don’t think I want to go beyond saying that I think any parent, any father probably has – I’ll speak for myself. Every day you look at your kids and you hope everything is going to be great, from a one-year-old scraping their knee to the things as you get older. It’s challenging and he’s a very caring, loving guy. We’re hoping that everybody that is directly or indirectly affected by this comes through the thing and everybody is fine at the end.”
On why he’s confident that Reid will be able to return in mid-March:
“I think that people deal with circumstances in life of all different kinds, some more serious, some less serious, some more preoccupied and less so, and are still able to carry on with their careers and their professions. I think that’s the kind of guy that Andy is, that he’ll both be able to have his priorities in the right place, do what he needs to do, do the right thing, and also be able to return as the head coach and do the same quality job he’s always done.”
On why they decided on Reid coming back in mid-March:
“This was really just looking out, as best we could tell, of what the upcoming immediate needs are for him and his family, and when would be a reasonable time in which the most time consuming aspects of what he wanted to do would be ending and he’d be in a better position to come back. That doesn’t mean after mid-March there won’t be things he has to deal with or a day he needs to do this or that, but he’ll be back and working here.”
On whether it was a mutual decision or whether Reid asked for time off:
“I think we were in frequent communication about what was going on and through that, from a timing perspective, it became kind of obvious what the requirements of it were. And Andy made it clear that he wanted to be in a position to do anything and everything he could to get his family any assistance or support that they needed. If you know myself or [owner] Jeff Lurie, we share those values and what to do seemed fairly obvious.”
On whether there was much discussion about it or whether it was an “Andy, whatever you need” type of situation:
“It was pretty much an ‘Andy, whatever you need’ [type of situation]. There was some discussion about the particulars of the timing, what did he need? We obviously had some discussions about how to announce it and that kind of stuff, but we pretty much said to Andy, ‘Listen, we know you and we know what your priorities are and we’re here to support you. Let us know what you need and we’ll be there.’”
On what type of impact this will have in the time he is not here:
“I think it’s going to be fairly minimal. As I’ve said, he’s still going to be engaged. We’re still going to be in communication with him. He’s going to retain final decision over everything we do. From a timing perspective, from a pure football perspective, this is a time that is easier to deal with. But, I think all of you know, the role that Tom Heckert, for example, plays in all this, free agency preparation, the draft, and the
On how much of this decision was affected by him possibly being in the public eye at the NFL combine:
“I’m sure that won’t be pleasant whenever it happens, but I think this plan was totally driven in timing by what the immediate needs were with his family and his sons and what he needed to do, and when he felt he’d be in position where he’d done that to the extent that he could comfortable come back to work.”
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