Earlier this month, we heard that the Eagles were expected to retain head coach Doug Pederson. However, sources tell Chris Mortensen and Tim McManus of ESPN.com that owner Jeffrey Lurie is not confident in Pederson’s vision and that Lurie will meet with his HC soon to hash things out (Twitter link).
The elephant in the room, of course, is quarterback Carson Wentz, whose struggles have been (fairly or not) attributed to Pederson, and recent reports indicate that the relationship between Wentz and Pederson is fractured beyond repair. However, Mortensen and McManus say that Lurie is not just concerned about the Wentz issue, and as NFL insider Adam Caplan tweets, Lurie is worried about the direction of the offense in general. Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer adds that Pederson and GM Howie Roseman — whose job is safe — are growing farther apart on personnel issues, and Pederson himself is upset that Lurie forced him to fire offensive coordinator Mike Groh last year and might insist on more changes this year.
Pederson earned his stripes as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator from 2013-15, and while his team finished in the bottom fourth of the league in total offense this year, the rash of injuries the Eagles sustained at wide receiver and along the O-line were certainly a major factor in that performance. But injuries aside, the offense has not looked the same since former OC Frank Reich left for the Colts several years ago, which appears to be the source of Lurie’s consternation.
Still, after Pederson guided the Eagles to the Lombari Trophy following the 2017 campaign, his club managed to qualify for the playoffs in each of the next two seasons, despite dealing with myriad injuries in those years as well. He owns a 42-37-1 regular season record in his five-year head coaching career, a mark that looked a lot better before the Eagles collapsed into a 4-11-1 finish in 2020.
If Lurie elects to part ways with Pederson, he will have some catching up to do. The six clubs with head coaching vacancies are already well underway with their coaching searches, and it’s unclear how the top candidates feel about the Eagles’ QB situation.
Perhaps tanking a game didn’t sit well with Lurie
Or came on orders from Lurie. And did you actually watch the Eagles-WTF game? A last place team totally depleted to injuries with every reason not to win went toe to toe with a team fighting for the division title and every reason to win. It was almost as if the Skins didn’t want to win either. Had they taken care of business the switch to Sudfeld wouldn’t have mattered.
@Polish Hammer: did you actually watch football this year? WFT is terrible. It’s not that they didn’t want to win, either. It’s just that they’re terrible.
But even if WFT didn’t want to win, I don’t see how that excuses Pederson’s behavior. The game was close and winnable and he made some questionable calls, then yanked his QB for a guy with no experience and little skill.
You play to win the game. If that had been a playoff game, would Pederson have even considered putting Sudfield in? The answer is ‘no’, and that is a fireable offense.
Thanks, you must be a Giants fan. The Eagles season was lost, he intended to go to the backup regardless, had the Skins played like they did yesterday the Eagles would’ve been down 3 scores and it wouldn’t have mattered. Sudfeld was in the room for 4 years, loyalty to a guy to give him1 quarter in a totally blown season with no preseason tape wasn’t too unreasonable.
And it’s funny how the Giants are so upset about not getting the help from Philly to get into the playoffs. You lost 10 games and expect somebody else to come to your rescue and help you back your way into the playoffs in the worst division in pro football history? LOL!
Not to mention…the awful play calling. Inadequate drafts. Not knowing when to punt on 4th down. Bumbling postgame interviews. He’s a great fit for Howie’s team.
as a giant fan I didn’t expect help from the eagles. as an eagle fan I hope you realize next year is a dumpster fire for you your coach quit on his players period end of story players don’t let that go
Lurie has tanked and run his whole career.
if you paid any attention you’d realize that this team has actually been fairly successful in recent decades.
Its funny how fast the Lombardi trophy shine can fade on teams.
“Jeffrey Lurie is not confident in Pederson’s vision”.
Howie will now trade the first round pick for an optometrist.
Could you see them hiring an optometrist as a coach, though? There’d be a clear vision for the franchise. They could move the team out of Philly and across the pond to Eye, in the United Kingdom. New name: Eagle Eye FC.
What’s more realistic is hiring 4, all with different views.
Lurie wants Lincoln Riley from OU
The last time they hired an offensive minded college coach it blew up in their faces (Chip sucked). Maybe they would consider Urban Meyer (I hope not), but I would imagine they would hire someone with more NFL experience.
Chip eventually sucked, but in his first two seasons, before he started alienating all of his players, he was quite good.
Owner needs to leave it to the GM. It would be dumb to fire him unless he is just being arrogant. I hate the Eagles as a Giants fan, but They were completely decimated on OL which led to Wentz’s issues. It’s the same with Daniel Jones objectors. He can flat out ball. Get him an OLine.
Problem is the GM is not a “football guy”, his forte is in the salary cap yet somehow he backed them into a bad cap situation with some miscalculations. He’s also overseen a horrendous drafting history. Leaving it to the GM would be great if the GM had a better grip on football personnel.
A decimated OL does not explain some of Wentz’s terrible decisions or his poor throws. I swear, the Wentz defenders seemingly did not watch him play this year.
Wentz was absolutely awful this year, no doubt. However, there are/were a lot of reasons for it. The OL was terrible, the play-calling was worse, and skill position players showcased almost no skills.
Am I a Wentz-defender? I’m not sure. I’ve seen his skills and abilities, and they wouldn’t have won the SB without him. I’ve seen him make great plays, and bone-headed ones.
My biggest concern is that moving on too quickly might backfire. For as much “fun” as Jalen Hurts provided, he wasn’t any better than Wentz in terms of results. It will be costly to get rid of Wentz and bet on Hurts—and if they’re wrong about him, the franchise is set back 5+ years. Not sure that’s a gamble they should take after this crazy year, and a few quarters of “exciting” football by a rookie with nothing to lose.
Good points Tom. More reason why drafting a QB in the 2nd round and making this situation worse was inexcusable.
…But they did win a SB without him…
Yes, they did win that game without him…however, they wouldn’t have been playing in that game without him. Many teams have won games, even multiple games, without certain players, but it doesn’t define a player’s career or team’s trajectory.
Fire him
They caught lightning in a bottle that year. The luster is gone and the aggressive decisions that made him a great coach a few years ago didn’t work at all this past year.
seems unlilely he leaves at this point
can some Eagles fans help clarify this for me?
Pedersen is known as an offensive guy. He is forced to hire somebody to run the offense, the offense tanks this year, and now the honus is on Pedersen for the direction of the team. This seems like a case of an owner micromanging and not trusting the guys he hired to do their jobs.
the problem is he didnt. they didnt have an OC. they had a collection of advisors who didnt do much to help the team. it was the team who dismissed their 2019 OC, and while it was arguably meddling, said OC did terribly from all outward appearances. i think it was tbe right move and Peterson should’ve hired someone to fill the spot.
He just led them to a Super Bowl with Nick Foles. He was flying high a whole two years ago and now they don’t believe in his vision. I know NFL coaching jobs can be short lived but I think he’s earned the right to see this through another year or two
Doug Pederson should’ve had a backbone about keeping Nick Foles and refusing to tank in Week 17.
Nick Foles isn’t exactly setting the league on fire, either.
Backbone because Nick got hot in the playoffs? He’s been poor since then. At the time the Eagles made the decision they had a backup coming off a streak and a guy that played at an MVP caliber when healthy and they gave up a ton to get him. Regardless of those loyal to Nick for the SB run, regardless of this seasons results, at that time they made the right decision.
Is there somewhat out there who is a guaranteed commodity that can win now? This team as it is currently constructed is much more suited for now than a rebuild. I’m not sure any of the names out there are any better? I’m guessing Doug gets picked up elsewhere as a HC if he gets fired tomorrow.
my thinking exactly. maybe Doug is less then 2017 Doug without Reich, but I question wether or not any other options are better. id consider moving on for Daboll maybe, but who knows if he is even interested.
Bama wins another championship. Saban says I’m done. Goes to the Eagles with Hurts. Trades Wentz for Julio. Drafts one of the three of his top draft day prospects. I then wake up and still see Doug starring at me with a tub of turkey hill vanilla ice cream in one hand and holding two fingers in the air because why not go for two.
This season was a disaster from top to bottom. Pederson needs to take a step back and realize with better coaches, his team performs better. If they trade Wentz, they will be mediocre at best with Hurts. Wentz went 3-1 in his rookie season in his 1st- 4 games, and he was named the starter a week before game 1, so please don’t defend Hurts with no time to prepare. Hurts 4 game performance 1-3, and they didn’t score more then 17 points.
This team has glaring holes, but the most important position in football, they have covered Wentz, 28yr old and has shown signs that he is a franchise QB. Wentz has zero help. Average at best WR, RB, TE and average O-line
If we move on from Pederson. My top 2 choice would be the OC from Buffalo or the QB coach from Buffalo. The reason is Wentz is very similar to Allen and in 3 seasons, Allen has improved every season. Wentz skill set is a lot like Allen’s, and before I would try and move Wentz, I would get him some new coaching. I don’t wany to trade a franchise QB for a few mid round picks.
Setting aside the underwhelming draft history of Howie Roseman, Doug’s main issue as HC has been player development. To be very clear: a vast majority of players drafted during Pederson’s tenure have not improved and realized their full potential.
The Eagles have not hit on Pro Bowl players who were drafted by Roseman. Conversely, drafted Eagles who left the team for green pastures have been producing for their new teams.
I believe this is backed up by their SB run in 2017. Because it really took a bunch of recent FA signings to make significant impacts on the team. Yes, Barnett/Clement/Agholor were big contributors, but it was Jeffery, both RBs that really made a huge impact.
I wonder if Doug spends way too much of his time being his own OC and not enough time being the HC.