Jeffrey Lurie

AFTER BIDDING Andy Reid an emotional farewell Monday, the Eagles began the process of hiring a coach for the first time in 14 years. Team chairman Jeffrey Lurie, president Don Smolenski and general manager Howie Roseman will start interviewing candidates immediately, starting with a trio of Atlanta Falcons assistants - offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, defensive coordinator Ted Nolan, and special-teams coordinator Keith Armstrong. Those coaches are not thought to be at the top of the Birds' list, but they can be interviewed only during Atlanta's playoff bye week.

This is a post from Rich Hofmann's blog, The Idle Rich, on Philly.com HIS OFFICE? Your office? "His office," Jeffrey Lurie said. "When Andy and I talked, especially about these kinds of things, it was usually in his office. I just thought you showed respect by doing it that way. " It was coming up on 9 o'clock on Monday morning. That is when the Eagles' owner took the walk down the hall, the walk that he had been dreading. Out the door, down the hall, into a common area and then over to the football side of the NovaCare Complex.

Perhaps the biggest question surrounding the Eagles entering the offseason is whether Nick Foles can be a starting quarterback. Team owner Jeffrey Lurie said former coach Andy Reid was high on Foles, but the next head coach must determine whether Foles will start. "Nick has every opportunity, and everyone in the building thinks the world of him in terms of his promise and potential," Lurie said. "This is going to be a decision made by the new head coach, not by the owner. " Foles did not want to reveal where he'll work out during the offseason, but said he will be close to family and will return to Philadelphia for the offseason program.

It is the future, not the past, that matters now for the Eagles. This is a good thing, because Monday's attempt by Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman to revise recent team history would otherwise be deeply disturbing. They - the owner and his handpicked lieutenant - will have to sell their version of reality to potential head coaching candidates. So it was important to try it out on a room full of reporters with notebooks, cameras, and Twitter accounts. That version of reality goes something like this: The Eagles are a great organization used to "winning and winning big," as Lurie put it. This little rough patch was the result of trying too hard to win it all. But now that Andy Reid and Joe Banner are gone, Roseman and a new coach will have every resource to put the team back on the fast track to the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Jeffrey Lurie said that he was holding Howie Roseman accountable for only the 2012 season when the Eagles owner explained Monday why he was retaining the general manager. "The mistakes that were made in the 2011 draft have little or nothing to do with Howie's evaluations," Lurie said. "I think it was important for me to own up to the mistakes that were made and understand where they were coming from, and it was awfully clear. So an effort was made to streamline the entire operation.

Sometime before 9 a.m. on New Year's Eve, Jeffrey Lurie walked from his office to Andy Reid's and relieved him of his duties as Eagles coach after 14 seasons of carrying the weight of the franchise. When Reid met with his players an hour or so later he told them that he would no longer be their coach. And then he cried. "We hadn't seen him that emotional since the day that he lost his son," center Jason Kelce said. "You think about what he's gone through, not to mention a terrible season, but the loss of his son and the loss of the job that he's held for 14 years, all in a manner of three or fourth months.

Jeffrey Lurie spent the first five minutes of his news conference on Monday describing the perfect head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, or for any NFL team. The perfect man for the job is "not only an outstanding coach, but an outstanding person," according to Lurie. He is "dedicated, has an incredible work ethic and incredible ability to work with others. " He is "smart," would earn the "love and respect of every individual in this organization," and, in short, is a "gem. " Of course, Lurie was describing the guy he had just fired, not the one he will hire to replace Andy Reid.