Eagles Coach Doug Pederson Impressing During Preseason

By Denny Basens, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 

One of the biggest question marks concerning the Philadelphia Eagles is new head coach Doug Pederson. 

Pederson enters the season as one of the biggest unknowns in the entire league as far head coaches are concerned. But throughout the preseason, followers of the team have been able to get a taste of what the new coach will bring to the table for the 2016 season and beyond. 

There have been questions about how qualified Pederson is to serve as a head coach. While he has plenty of experience working in the NFL as both a player and assistant coach, there is still doubt surrounding him. 

As offensive coordinator in Kansas City, it has never been made clear about how much say and control that Pederson had over the offense of the Chiefs. Andy Reid has always had his fingerprints all over his offenses throughout his career, rarely (if ever), surrendering playcalling duties to his assistant coaches. 

Pederson now has full control over the offense in Philadelphia, and while the preseason game plans are always vanilla and not very elaborate, there have been some encouraging signs from the new head coach. 

The biggest thing that has stood out to me about Pederson is that he's been able to put together some good plays and packages that take advantage of the talent he's be given to work with. 

One of my biggest complaints about Chip Kelly was that he was hellbent on players assimilating and adjusting to his system, refusing to adjust himself and put players in a good position to succeed. 

In last week's preseason game against the Colts, Pederson ran a handful of plays that allowed struggling wide receiver Josh Huff to succeed. Throughout his career, Huff has flashed explosive ability whenever the ball has been placed in his hands. However, the problem has been that the Eagles just haven't found ways to get him the right opportunities. 

Pederson managed to do this last Saturday, most notably in the red zone when he called a jet sweep for Huff. The play was well-designed and well-executed, and simply called upon Huff to use his quickness and speed to get to the outside and make a play. 

Later in the game, Pederson employed a number of three tight end sets that allowed Trey Burton to get involved in the passing attack. Burton has had a great camp, and has earned himself the opportunity to carve out a role on the offense. Pederson put him in position to succeed, and Burton delivered a handful of receptions, and a score in the Colts game. 

An important trait for successful head coaches to have is to be able to find ways to get the most out of a limited pool of talent. Once the regular season begins, it will be very interesting to see the kinds of gameplans that Pederson implements. 

The former Chiefs' offensive coordinator still has quite a bit to prove, but the early signs are that he's got the team going in the right direction.