Mike McCoy has been added to the list of possible replacements for Andy Reid. McCoy hasn’t been an NFL coach for long. He started his coaching career in 2000 with the Carolina Panthers as an offensive assistant. In 2004 he became their QB coach. The next two season Jake Delhomme threw for 3886 yards and 29 TD’s (2004) and 3421 yards and 24 TD’s (2005). Delhomme is about as average of a QB as you can get and if you can get him to a Pro Bowl that’s pretty good.
He stayed with Carolina until 2008 then the Denver Broncos made him their offensive coordinator and QB coach in 2009. That was the year Josh McDaniels took over and traded away Jay Cutler. McCoy was once again charge with making another average QB look good and succeeded in doing so. That year Kyle Orton threw for 3802 yards and 21 TD’s. Orton has the arm strength of Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite so throwing for almost 4000 yards is a big achievement.
The following year Josh McDaniels traded away Brandon Marshall and drafted Tim Tebow. Orton remained the starting QB in 2010 and had a decent year statistically throwing for 3653 yards and 20 TD’s in 13 games but the Broncos were 3-10 with him under center. Tebow took over the last three games of the season and McDaniels was fired.
In 2011 Tebow didn’t begin the season as Denver’s starting QB but took over after a 1-4 start. Since Tebow is basically just a fullback that seldomly passes the ball effectively McCoy had to revamp the entire offensive scheme just to fit Tebow’s style of play. McCoy turned the Broncos into the best rushing team in the NFL averaging 164.5 yards per game. They ended the regular season 8-8 and clinch a wild spot. In the playoff they beat Pittsburg before getting their ass handed to them by a team with a real quarterback, the New England Patriots.
After that Denver had seen enough of what Tebow could do and decided to send him to the Jets when the opportunity arose to sign Peyton Manning this past off season . Now getting Peyton Manning has to be the greatest thing an offensive coordinator can hear especially after having Tim Tebow. But that did mean that McCoy once again had to overhaul an offense for a new quarterback. Denver finished this season 13-3 and will now have a bye week which will allow the Eagles to interview Mike McCoy this weekend.
The bottom line is through McCoy’s tenure with Denver he has shown an ability to adapt to the different personnel on his team each year. In the NFL adaptability is everything. The best coaches in any professional sport aren’t the ones with a one scheme fits all program like Mike Martz or Eddie Jordan. I still cringe when I hear “Princeton offense”. The best coaches are the one whose schemes are taylor made for the type of players they have. They are the coaches who are able to evolve to stay one step ahead of the competition. McCoy has shown the capacity to do just that and that’s why the Eagles rightly have shown interest in him.
