Brandon’s World: #ThankYouDoug
After winning the Eagles franchise their first Super Bowl in 2018, Doug Pederson wrote a book titled Fearless: How an Underdog Becomes a Champion. With help from senior NFL writer Dan Pompei, Pederson detailed his journey to the top of the NFL. From a player, to a high school head coach in Louisiana, to an assistant, to the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Pederson showed how his fearless personality helped him overcome obstacle after obstacle.
Fearless is what led Pederson to call the infamous “Philly Special” play in the Super Bowl that helped the Eagles dethrone Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in a 41–33 shootout.
Fearless is what also cost Pederson his job.
Reports surfaced early on Jan. 10 just before the NFL Playoffs that Pederson’s job status, which was once viewed as safe, could be in jeopardy, despite winning the Lombardi Trophy three years ago.
The next day, Pederson was let go of his contract.
Among the reasons Pederson was fired has to do with his coaching staff. In his exit interview with Owner Jeffrey Lurie, Pederson reportedly “failed” the interview. Numerous reports suggest Pederson wanted to promote from within rather than look at outside voices to fill voids in the coaching staff, “underwhelming” Lurie.
Pederson especially did not want to fire Quarterback’s Coach Press Taylor, someone he views as a protégé. Instead, after a struggling season in which the Eagles finished 4–11–1, their worst record since 2012, were ranked №27 in the NFL in total offense and have a quarterback controversy, Pederson wanted to elevate Taylor into the offensive coordinator position, a position previously held by Mike Groh, who was fired at the end of last season by Lurie and General Manager Howie Roseman, not Pederson. Lurie and Roseman would go on to hire Pederson’s coaches for the 2020 season, including Senior Offensive Assistant’s Rich Scangarello and Marty Mornhinweg, and it did not work out. Both were fired prior to Pederson.
Pederson sacrificed himself rather than letting Lurie and Roseman pick his coaching staff for the second straight season.
Why? Because he’s fearless.
In 2016, Pederson was reportedly the last guy the Eagles wanted to be their head coach, but after “hot candidates” such as Adam Gase and Ben McAdoo were scooped up by the Dolphins and Giants, Lurie and Roseman settled for Pederson.
Lurie and Roseman knew Pederson way before they interviewed him for the head coaching opening in 2016. Pederson was the Eagles opening day starting quarterback in 1999 under first-year head coach Andy Reid and would later return to the Eagles from 2009–2012 under various coaching positions within Reid’s staff.
What made Pederson such an interesting hire was his interview with the Eagles was his first ever interview for a head coaching position. Nobody knew if he could have the same success that other former Reid assistants have had in the NFL, hence the reason why Pederson finished dead last in the NFL.com coaches rankings entering the 2016 season.
Pederson entered his first year on the job with veteran quarterbacks Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel on the roster, but he also had the №2 overall pick Carson Wentz on the team. Wentz was pegged as the future of the franchise, the Eagles trading up from №13 to №2 to snag the North Dakota prospect. A week before the 2016 campaign began, Roseman traded away Bradford to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2017 first and fourth-round draft pick. The Vikings were in need of a quarterback after 2014 first-round selection Teddy Bridgewater went down with a grueling knee injury in training camp.
Here came Pederson and Wentz!
The dynamic duo started the season 3–0, and the Eagles were the surprise of the league. Wentz had thrown five touchdown passes, no interceptions, and he had an average passer rating of 78.5. However, the Eagles would finish their season 4–9, and Wentz regressed, throwing only 11 touchdowns the rest of the way, and he threw 14 balls to the other team in that time period, leading those in the Eagles organization (and myself) to question whether or not Pederson was the long-term answer for their franchise.
But then, 2017 happened, and it was magical.
It was the best season in the history of the Eagles franchise. Fueled by doubters such as Mike Lombardi, who called Pederson the “most unqualified head coach he’s ever seen”, Pederson, Wentz and the Eagles took off. Entering their Week 14 showdown with the Rams in the LA Coliseum, the Eagles were 11–2 and looking to clinch their first NFC East Title since 2013. Late in the third quarter, with the Eagles at the Rams two-yard line, up by three, Wentz scrambled to his right against the Rams man coverage defense and dove towards the middle of the endzone. On the dive, he was sandwiched between two Ram defenders. He would finish the drive by throwing a touchdown pass to Alshon Jeffery, but that was the last throw Wentz would make during the season.
His ACL was torn and in came Nick Foles.
Yes, the same Foles who threw 27 touchdown passes and only two interceptions for the birds in Chip Kelly’s first season as head coach in 2013, leading the team from a 3–5 start to a 10–6 finish and an NFC East Title.
Foles struggled replacing Wentz in the regular season. In the three games he started, he finished with five touchdowns and two interceptions, but he only had a 56% completion percentage and a passer rating of 61.5. Nobody thought the 13–3 Eagles would be able to win a playoff game even though they had home-field-advantage throughout the NFC bracket. Because of Foles’ play, the 2017 Eagles became the first-ever №1 seed to be underdogs in a playoff game.
Foles did not play well in the divisional round game against the Falcons, throwing for only 246 yards on 23 pass completions, but he managed to score just enough points as the Eagles defense shut down the high-flying Falcons, and the Eagles moved on to the NFC Championship Game with a 12–10 victory.
Then, the magic happened.
Foles tortured the Vikings and Patriots’ secondary's in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, and with the help of Pederson’s play calling, racked up a combined 725 yards, six touchdowns, one interception and one Super Bowl MVP in those games.
Many NFL experts called those two performances by Foles the “greatest back-to-back game stretch ever played by an NFL quarterback”.
Doug Pederson did it. He won the Eagles their first-ever Super Bowl, a city and a fan base that was starving for a Lombardi Trophy since its inception in 1967, and Pederson, a former QB of theirs, did it for them.
You can’t ask for anything else from an Eagles fan.
Yes, since the Super Bowl, the Eagles have had an under .500 record in the regular season (22–25–1), and an under .500 record in the postseason (1–2), but you can make the argument it’s not all on Pederson.
The Eagles have been the most injury-riddled team since Super Bowl LII. In 2018, the Eagles became the most injury-plagued team ever to win a playoff game when they defeated the Chicago Bears off Cody Parkey’s “double-doink” and were a dropped pass away from potentially beating the Saints and moving on to back-to-back NFC Championship Games.
The next year, sitting at 5–7 and with a supporting cast decimated by injury on the offensive side of the ball, Wentz and Pederson rallied the team, winning their last four games to secure an NFC East Title at 9–7.
This season, yes, Wentz did regress. Yes, he was one of, if not the worst starting quarterback in the NFL. Yes, the Eagles did finish 4–11–1, but the team was doomed from the start.
It didn’t help Roseman drafted quarterback Jalen Hurts №53 overall in the second-round of the 2020 NFL Draft, reportedly against his coaches wishes.
It didn’t help the Eagles relied on old-aging veterans to play over young stars and because of that decision, the Eagles are now way over the cap entering 2021 and have hardly any room for improvement.
It didn’t help Roseman passed on two star receivers in the last two drafts in DK Metcalf and Justin Jefferson while JJ Arceda-Whiteside looks to be a bust, and Jalen Reagor looks to be a gadget guy at best.
It didn’t help the Eagles had 14 different offensive line combinations out of 16 games in 2020, an NFL record.
All of these mistakes add up. Sure Pederson had a bad season and should receive some of the blame. If the relationship between him and Wentz is fractured, that’s on him and maybe it was time for Pederson to go, but the blame shouldn’t ALL go on him. There’s a lot to fix in Philadelphia, not just coaching.
When Pederson was hired, none of the fan base believed in him. He was an unknown Andy Reid pawn who could either flame out in one-two seasons or bring the Eagles back to relevance after the Kelly era ended in disaster.
The latter ending up being true.
As an Eagles fan my whole life, all I ever wanted was a replica Super Bowl ring, and Pederson gave that to me. Feb. 4, 2018, is one of the best days of my life! It’s hard to let that go. Yes, I doubted Pederson when he was hired, but I’ve been proven wrong many times before, and I’m glad I was wrong on this one!
The thing I admire the most about Pederson is his guts. Yes, he can be stubborn to a fault, but I love how loyal he is to his coaches and his team. He never loses faith, and he believes in himself.
Pederson is the type of mentor and leader I want to be. While leading Kent State’s student-run radio station Black Squirrel Radio for the spring of 2021, I will use some of Pederson’s traits to my advantage to ensure our station is the best it possibly can be each and every day.
I will always be an Eagles fan, but I will be cheering for Pederson wherever he goes. I’m not saying he’s going to win a Super Bowl, but he will win.
Why am I so confident?
He’s won everywhere he’s been, he’s fearless, and he’s a grown man that loves ice cream!
That’s a winning combination for whatever organization hires him.
#ThankYouDoug
