Eagles Part With Doug Pederson

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

On Sunday, reports appeared seemingly out of nowhere that head coach Doug Pederson’s job was not safe quite yet.

By Monday afternoon, the coach was out as Philly’s head coach.

Clearly, his meeting with owner Jeff Laurie did not go well and the team released the below statement from Laurie shortly after the meeting.

pic.twitter.com/0TVbNEPInh

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 11, 2021

The statement says that the two parties will part ways, but does not expressly mention when so the team could potentially get some draft capital back by trading him should someone be interested as the Jets previously were.

Doug reportedly handled the meeting almost as poorly as possible. He suggested promoting Press Taylor, who oversaw Wentz’s meteoric collapse, to offensive coordinator, promoting Andrew Breiner to QB coach.

Among his defensive suggestions were bringing back Cory Undlin, who oversaw a terrible Detroit Lions defense as their coordinator in 2020, as the Eagles defensive coordinator moving forward.

Laurie, who was looking for big, outside hires with potential, was unimpressed and acted quickly.

Pederson’s time in Philly ends unceremoniously, but was still no doubt successful with a Super Bowl win and three straight trips to the playoffs cementing him as a legend in the city.

Pederson is seemingly fine with the decision and has been unhappy for the last year or so by nearly all accounts, so that may have contributed to the poor season he had.

Some fans may be angry that GM Howie Roseman remains in the fold for his third head coach search, but it is hard to argue that Andy Reid or Doug Pederson were failures and Chip Kelly had some success here, too.

While Pederson’s suggestions were all internal hires of his own coaching group, Howie Roseman went out and hired excellent talent evaluator and former GM John Dorsey as a consultant mid-season to assist in areas that he struggles, much like he had formerly hired Joe Douglass. This might be the biggest reason Roseman is back and Pederson is not based on Laurie’s disposition.

The Eagles job is not a particularly ideal one, but the position does open up before any other coaches have been hired.

Some top coach candidates include Duce Staley internally, Jim Caldwell, Eric Bieniemy and Byron Leftwich.

The new coach will have a new staff, but could have some pieces in place to potentially keep around like Staley (should he not be hired as Head Coach) and OL coach Jeff Stoutland.