Ray Rhodes
When the Philadelphia Eagles fired Rich Kotite, effectively ending Buddy Ryan’s influence on the organization, the NFC East club began cutting branches off the Bill Walsh coaching tree with Rhodes, who was coming off of leading the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl win in 1994 as defensive coordinator.
Rhodes had immediate success in Philadelphia. The Dallas Cowboys weren’t sweeping them as they did the last two seasons. They won a playoff game in his first season. Even though Rhodes moved on from Randall Cunningham and to Rodney Peete in ’95, the Eagles were still a formidable team.
That all changed in 1998 when Philadelphia still hadn’t solved its quarterback problems and followed up a 6-9-1 record with a 3-13 finish, which setup Rhodes’ successor, Andy Reid, with a premium first-round pick.