The Philadelphia Eagles are moving on from Doug Pederson after five seasons. The Eagles fired Pederson on Monday after owner Jeffrey Lurie and Pederson had a second meeting at Lurie’s home in Florida. Jeffrey Lurie released a statement on the Eagles official Twitter account.
In 2016 when Pederson was named the Eagles head coach and Carsen Wentz was drafted, many fans thought that this would be the new era in Eagles history that fans have been waiting for. Instead, Pederson leaves the Eagles with a 42-37-1 record and helps the team win its first Super Bowl over the New England Patriots 41-33.
Since then, the Eagles have finished at 9-7 twice, appearing in the playoffs for three straight years. The Eagles would be eliminated in 2018 in the Divisional Round against the Saints and last year’s Wild Card game against the Seahawks. While Pederson led the team to its first Super Bowl win, the expectations placed on him did not follow after that.
Pederson benched Wentz for poor performance against the Packers in his final season to put Hurts in for the last three and a half games. In week 17 against the Washington Football Team, he took Hurts out to start the fourth quarter and put Nate Sudfeld in when the team was down by three points. The Eagles would lose 20-14 and finished with a 4-11-1, his worse season as a head coach.
What started five years ago as a new era for Eagles football has turned into a disaster, leaving fans with plenty of questions about the team’s future. No one would’ve thought that three years removed from winning the Super Bowl.
The team is now left with looking for a new head coach, a franchise quarterback who has regressed and injury-prone since 2017, a GM who can’t draft talent, and some coaches who will likely be promoted that have no business being put in leadership roles when they have done such a poor job with the team. There is also one coach we know of that is ready to take the lead, but they tend to shy away from him while his list of suitors grows stronger.
With Pederson now in the rear-view mirror, Jeff McLane reported that Howie Roseman would be part of the process in hiring a new coach. He added that Roseman and Pederson “had decreasingly seen eye to eye on personnel.” McLane also reported that this situation was boiling since last year when Pederson would not fire Mike Groh and threatened to quit after the 2019 season.
Two hours after his firing, Pederson issued a statement.
There is no question that Doug Pederson will be the head coach somewhere else. He is already linked to the New York Jets job as reported by FOX sports Jay Glazier.
The Eagles now join the Texans, Jets, Jaguars, Chargers, Falcons, and Lions searching for their next head coach. The six teams have already interviewed candidates, while the Eagles are starting a week later. In yesterday’s Opinion Trax article, I discussed that whoever takes over as the Eagles coach might not want to work with Roseman. He may want a new GM considering how poorly Roseman has done.
This year’s head coaches are Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, former head coach Marvin Lewis, and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
