Phil Sheridan: Will Eagles owner Lurie buy Reid's bait and switch?

Now that Andy Reid has given us a preview of his sales pitch, the only question left is whether Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie will buy it on Jan. 2.

That is the day after the Eagles' season ends, the day Reid usually unveils his rationalizations and, not incidentally, the day Lurie presumably will begin reviewing his employees' performances in 2011. Whether he is looking at a record of 6-10, 7-9, or 8-8 won't matter as much as whether he accepts Reid's attempt to spin that record.

He did last year. After the team lost its final three games, including a second consecutive first-round playoff exit, Reid had this to say:

"I think there are a lot of positives to look at here. Very few teams can kind of retool the way that we retooled and still compete, put yourself in a position to compete for a championship, and we were able to do that."

There was no talking of rebuilding or retooling when Vick was lighting up the scoreboard in Washington in November. But in January, after good defensive coaches figured out how to attack and contain Vick, it suddenly became a rebuilding year.

That was hogwash then, and it was hogwash last week when Reid suddenly started talking about how young his linebackers and safeties are. It is ludicrous that, after 13 years of devaluing the linebacker position, Reid would suddenly cite it as an area of season-defining importance. He was the guy who let Stewart Bradley and Quintin Mikell walk, who never adequately replaced Brian Dawkins, who decided a fourth-round rookie was ready to start at middle linebacker.

And now this season crashed and burned because the linebackers and safeties were young?

Worse still, Reid is trying to pull the same bait-and-switch as last year. Once again, a season of high expectations retroactively becomes a "work in progress." The only difference is that this team has failed so completely that the coach didn't have to wait until after the season to try to snow us.

If the Eagles retooled last year and went from an 11-win team to a 10-win team, and they are a work in progress that can be no better than an 8-win team, what will 2012 bring? Can the Eagles rebuild all the way to 0-16?

That first-round exit after 2009 got Donovan McNabb fired. The late-season collapse and first-round exit last year got defensive coordinator Sean McDermott fired. Somehow, Reid managed to find ways to get worse at both of those vital positions. This work in progress is regressing.