Continuity is in the Eagles' Corner

The NFC East has three new coaches trying to implement their systems without the benefit of any spring work, though Mike McCarthy and Ron Rivera have won in other cities

Continuity is a big thing in the NFL.

Nowhere is that better defined than the AFC North where the Pittsburgh Steelers have had a total of three coaches since Chuck Noll arrived in 1969. Conversely the Cleveland Browns are on No. 12 in Kevin Stefanski since their reboot in 1999.

In a half-century, all three Pittsburgh coaches - Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin - have Super Bowl titles with Cowher soon joining Noll in the Hall of Fame and Tomlin sure to follow when he hangs it up, while the Cleveland group hasn’t even averaged two years per man in those past two decades.

Staying the course matters.

The 2020 season will mark Doug Pederson’s fifth at the helm in Philadelphia and he already has the only Lombardi Trophy in franchise history with three consecutive postseason appearances.

The others in the NFC East are all coming off coaching changes. 

In Dallas, Mike McCarthy has taken over for Jason Garrett while Washington made the shift from Jay Gruden/Bill Callahan to Ron Rivera. Finally, the New York Giants continued their Browns-like regression over the past half-decade with little-known Joe Judge, a Philly native, taking the reins from Pat Shurmur.

McCarthy and Rivera have extensive resumes and real success to lean on with the former having won a Super Bowl in Green Bay and the latter once piloting Carolina to 15-1 and an NFC Championship so it’s hard to argue those two organizations haven’t added heft to their coaching staffs and at least closed the gap somewhat on the Eagles.

With Judge, the latest Bill Belichick disciple trying to duplicate the Patriot way without the actual architect of it, the jury will remain out, likely for at least a few seasons.

While not officially official just about everyone in the NFL has accepted there isn’t going to be an on-field offseason this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning no OTAs and minicamps, with the hope being the all-clear will be sounded for the start of training camp.

If it were business, as usual, all of the Eagles NFC East rivals would have been able to start offseason training on April 6, a little head start given to the organizations who’ve made coaching changes.

Everything will be virtual now when the NFL figures out the offseason protocol and fires the starting gun.

In theory, everyone will be operating under the same rules helping to ensure a level playing field, but the Eagles figure to have perhaps the biggest advantage of any NFL team when it comes to continuity vs. their division foes.

It’s human nature to crave familiarity over uncertainty. In trying times that’s only magnified.

“I’m excited, man,” said Brandon Graham to NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I really do believe we going to be back and we going to be ready to go. And, advantage us, because we the ones with the same coach in our division.”

John McMullen covers the Eagles for SI.com. You can listen to John every day on SIRIUSXM's Tony Bruno Show and on ESPN 97.3 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen