Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Not counting Fred Bruney nor Pat Shurmur’s respective interim tags to end the ’85 and ’15 campaigns, and of course assuming these current Birds don’t suddenly suffer a ’93 Dolphin-like collapse, seven of the last eight Eagles HCs (starting with Vermeil) have led the Eagles to at least one playoff berth. Not bad for a franchise still awaiting a Lombardi.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:Not counting Fred Bruney nor Pat Shurmur’s respective interim tags to end the ’85 and ’15 campaigns, and of course assuming these current Birds don’t suddenly suffer a ’93 Dolphin-like collapse, seven of the last eight Eagles HCs (starting with Vermeil) have led the Eagles to at least one playoff berth. Not bad for a franchise still awaiting a Lombardi.

McCormack went for the quick fix, having arrived as a George Allen assistant, but the plan blew up in his face. That ended up handicapping Vermeil for the first few seasons. Here's the Eagles picks from 1974-78:

1974: Traded away picks in the first two rounds.
1975: Traded away picks in the first six rounds.
1976: Traded away picks in the first three rounds.
1977: Traded away picks in the first four rounds
1978: Traded away picks in the first two rounds.

who in the world did they obtain while trading away all those draft choices?

vikingsfan1963 wrote:who in the world did they obtain while trading away all those draft choices?

If I remember correctly, Roman Gabriel, Bill Bergey and Stan Walters were some of the players they received for those picks.

vikingsfan1963 wrote:who in the world did they obtain while trading away all those draft choices?

You did ask...

1974 - 1st went to the Rams for Roman Gabriel
1974 - 2nd was part of a trade to the Colts for Norm Bulaich
1975 - 1st and 3rd were still part of the Gabriel trade (which also included Harold Jackson. Heavy price, even though Gabriel was better than John Hadl, the Eagles never went any where with him)
1975 - 2nd was traded to Buffalo for DT Jerry Patton
1975 - 4th was traded to New Orleans for LB Dick Absher
1975 - 5th was traded to New England for LB John Tarver
1975 - 6th was traded to Cincinnati for QB Mike Boryla
1976 - 1st was part of the Boryla trade. Boryla was a 4th round pick in the 1974 NFL draft. A month and a half later, the Eagles give up a future #1 for him! Moreover, Gabriel was coming off a big year in 1973, backed up by former #1 DC John Reaves!
1976 - 2nd was part of a trade with Cincinnati where they got QB Wayne Clark and T Stan Walters in exchange for the DC and QB John Reaves. Walters would start for years, but Clark never made the team.
1976 - 3rd was traded to Cincinnati for K Horst Muhlmann
1977 - 1st was traded to Cincinnati for LB Bill Bergey
1977 - 2nd was traded to Oakland for RB James McAlister
1977 - 3rd was traded to Dallas for G John Niland
1977 - 4th was traded to Kansas City for DT Cliff Frazier. Frazier was a #2 DC who was holding out. The Eagles got him for the bargain basement price of this pick and a future #8 pick. Of course, he spent the year on IR, then went to the Rams, then the Chiefs again. He later had a featured role on HBO's first and 10.
1978 - 1st and 2nd went to Cincinnati as part of the Bergey deal.

Bergey would likely not have been available from Cincy, but Paul Brown was outraged after Bergey signed a future deal with the WFL. The seemingly frequent deals with the Bengals was likely due to the fact that McCormack played for Brown from 1954-62.

McCormack led Birds to that fine 4-1 start in ’74, Week #2 MNF win over Dallas being the highlight. Six straight losses after that but some of those could have gone the other way thus earning Philly an actual early-’70s playoff berth. Such a thing may have prevented Vermeil from ever showing up; McCormack possibly given another go at it in ’76. No ‘Invincible’ flick 30 years later.

Swamp Fox had himself that 6-5 start in ’85; Eagles beating Dallas which winners, NYG & Wash, couldn’t do. Jaworski was having himself his finest season in awhile. Had Birds averted the collapse that would follow (likely propelled from that heartbreaker of a Wk 13 comeback loss to Minnesota), perhaps no Buddy Ryan in ’86 as well.

Looking back, McCormick actually had a good draft in 1973: Jerry Sisemore, Charle Young, Guy Morriss, Randy Logan. Joe Lavender late. Vermeil and co. did better than average with the picks they had as well.