This was the moment when I really fell in love with Doug Pederson.
It happened a week after the Eagles defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 52. The NFL Films released one of its always excellent “Turning Point” videos in which it chronicled the birds’ historic victory, and there was a scene that explained why Pederson defeated the greatest coach in football history, Bill Belichick, on the biggest stage of the game (beginning at the 0:38 mark).
It was a simple moment between two main coaches. Belichick approached Pederson and shook his hand. Belichick mentioned that “you tried to find a game this season when you lost and you couldn’t find one!” Pederson replies, “There were too many!” (There was not). So Doug just spat and spoke to Belichick as if they were old war friends. He talked about the length of the Super Bowl week and how desperate he was to just play the game.
Doug Pederson did not look like a football expert, but it was clear that he was not afraid of Belichick or the moment. He was not afraid to fight Tom Brady and the five-time Super Bowl champions. Pederson went on to call one of the best games that a calling player has ever played, outperformed the Pats in every play and, in the end, won the Lombardi Trophy.
Pederson was a magician
Pederson won a Super Bowl in one of the most difficult ways possible. He lost his MVP QB three-quarters of the way over the course of the season and had to create a new attack from scratch with a completely different type of player in Nick Foles. Frank Reich was an excellent running mate, that’s for sure, but that was Doug’s attack. In 2018 and 19, the Eagles were one of the NFL’s most defeated teams and yet he guided the franchise to consecutive 9-7 records and three more playoff games.
He is one of seven top coaches in NFL history to have three playoff appearances and a Super Bowl in his first four seasons. His 35-28-1 record since 2017 is the 6th best in the NFC, and he has made the playoffs in three of the past four years. Only the Rams, Seahawks and Saints achieved this feat at the conference.
By Andrew Siciliano of the NFL Network, he is the first coach fired three years after winning a title since 1973. On the surface, this makes no sense.
The last choice
It has become clear in the past 12 months that owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman have never fully embraced Pederson as their head coach. In a long list of coaching candidates after Chip Kelly’s removal, Pederson was nearing the end. Names like Ben McAdoo, Adam Gase, Hue Jackson, Dirk Koetter and Mike Mularkey were all ahead of him on the Eagles’ head coach candidate shopping list.
Here are the records of these top coaches at the charts where they were hired in 2016.
- Eagles. Doug Pederson: 42-37-1
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Dolphins. Adam Gase: 23-25
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Browns. Hue Jackson: 3-36-1
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49ers. Chip Kelly: 2-14
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Buccaneers. Dirk Koetter: 19-29
- Giants. Ben McAdoo: 13-15
- Titans. Mike Mularkey: 20-21
The Eagles were lucky, but it doesn’t look like Lurie and Roseman ever recognized that.
Doug disrespected
Doug Pederson was the most disrespected Super Bowl winning coach in NFL history. The eagle chiefs acted as if they had won the title although of Pederson. They did not trust his judgment on the coaching staff, which is why the team insisted that he fire Mike Groh as an offensive coordinator after the 2019 season, the day after Pederson told the press that Groh would be back.
Right or wrong (and it was probably the right decision), Pederson’s legs were cut under him. He was castrated and probably should have given up on the spot.
The Eagles tried to do this again this season, as Pederson allegedly wanted to promote Press Taylor to offensive coordinator and elevate other coaches as a way to fix the attack. Again, one can question the wisdom of making these moves, but a Super Bowl winning coach must be allowed to control his own team.
Lurie and Roseman didn’t see it that way. They would force you to make different changes. Pederson said, “That’s enough,” and the two sides parted ways.
As I wrote last week, Pederson should have been allowed to sink or swim in 2021. If his decisions resulted in another lackluster season (and let’s face it, everyone recognizes that the team will not be very good for years to come), Lurie and Roseman would have reason to switch to someone else.
Failures in 2020
The offensive failures of 2020 certainly influenced the decision to remove Pederson. Carson Wentz’s decline shook his mind and Pederson’s inability to straighten the ship was alarming. Lurie did not indicate at his press conference on Monday that the reported split between Pederson and Wentz had anything to do with Doug’s resignation, but one would imagine that Wentz’s return is more likely without Pederson.
(By the way, if anyone can explain to me why there was a feud between Wentz and Pederson in the first place, I’d love to know. Outside, Pederson seemed to spoil Wentz, gave his quarterback a lot of freedom to design the attack as he wanted and waited more time to put you on the bench than most main coaches would.)
If the Eagles are doing a complete reconstruction here, which they seem to be, blowing up everything makes sense. To dismiss Doug Pederson under this scenario would have been justified, but not without also dismissing the architect from this ruined list.
Of course, Jeffrey Lurie has Roseman’s Disorder Syndrome, an inability to see the mistakes his consigliere has made in the past five years, despite his glorious off-season in which all the free agent’s moves and negotiations have worked. Lurie’s inability to see the draft of Roseman’s story, or at least excuse it, confuses everyone.
Jeffrey Lurie chose Howie Roseman and Carson Wentz over Doug Pederson and, at the end of the day, it makes a very disappointing sense. Jeffrey Lurie has an emotional connection with Howie Roseman. Jeffrey Lurie has a monetary connection with Carson Wentz.
Jeffrey Lurie apparently had no real connection to Doug Pederson and lost confidence in the Super Bowl winning coach’s ability to turn the franchise around.
Doug Pederson will get a good job elsewhere and will likely succeed with a front office that supports him properly. This is good news for him. It is bad news for Eagles fans, who need to deal with an owner and general manager who will conduct yet another technical survey and conduct yet another series of NFL summonses for a team that desperately needs cheap and good talent.
It is also a cautionary tale for anyone who takes on the role of the Eagles. It will not be your team. It’s Howie’s team. It’s Jeffrey’s team.
And they will not let you forget.