With Ryan's firing by Norman Braman, Ryan's former Offensive Coordinator, Rich Kotite, took the helm of the franchise. Although Cunningham suffered a season-ending ACL tear in the season opener, veteran backup QB Jim McMahon performed admirably in his stead and the Eagles still made a respectable showing, missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker. In 1992, Kotite led the Eagles back into the postseason with an 11–5 record. In the Wild Card Round, the Eagles soundly defeated the New Orleans Saints by a final score of 36–20. The Eagles were eliminated by Dallas in the next round (34–10). At the end of the season, DE Reggie White would leave the team through free agency. In the 1992 NFL Off-season, DT Jerome Brown died in a high-speed automobile crash on June 25. In 1993 and 1994, Kotite's Eagles would fall apart after initially promising starts, and missed the playoffs in each season, going 8–8 and 7–9. By this point, Braman had become unpopular among most local fans and a polarizing presence in the front office. Under rising scrutiny and deflating optimism, he sold the team to current owner Jeffrey Lurie. Almost Lurie's first act was to fire Kotite.