PHILADELPHIA – Eagles coach Doug Pederson does not believe his job is at risk and “hopes” to return to the same position next season.
“I feel totally confident of being the Eagles’ head coach in 2021,” he said during his radio appearance at 94.1 WIP on Monday morning. “What I am most proud of, this football team, we have been in postseason three of the last five years since I’m here, and that’s very good. We won a championship here. playing due to injuries, we are playing with many young players.
“There will always be an evaluation in the off-season and my work is also evaluated. But I hope to be the coach next season and I appreciate the opportunity to get it right, fix it and take this team to the next season.”
The Eagles (4-10-1) were the first NFC East team to be eliminated from the postseason dispute with a 37-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. As the only team in the division to return to its technical staff in 2020, Philadelphia should have an advantage in an unprecedented year, when there was a reduced off-season due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, it was a disaster.
Quarterback Carson Wentz regressed dramatically in year 5, establishing career lows in most statistical categories before being replaced in favor of newcomer Jalen Hurts in early December. The season was full of injuries and unruly football.
Philadelphia will end its worst record since 2012, when a 4-12 campaign led to the dismissal of coach Andy Reid.
But Pederson took the Eagles to the playoffs in the previous three seasons. He helped deliver the city’s first and only Super Bowl championship in February 2018, becoming only the eighth coach in NFL history to lift a Lombardi trophy in his first two years at the helm.