By Tucker Bagley, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
Earlier this week, Doug Pederson made an appearance on The Doomsday Show, a Dallas Cowboys-centric podcast hosted by Matt Mosley and former ESPN reporter Ed Werder.
In addition to speaking very highly of both Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott, the Eagles' second-year head coach also talked on the team's decision to select cornerback Sidney Jones in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
"You do take a risk on it," the coach explained. "But you know if you do right by the player and don’t put a timetable on this, hopefully the reward is you get two top-notch corners in the near future."
Of course, that other corner Pederson is talking about is Rasul Douglas, the Birds' third-round pick from this year's draft. The coach has high hopes for the pair, believing they can be a top-tier cornerback tandem in this league for a long time.
"Look at the longevity, picking Rasul Douglas, and now having Sidney and getting him healthy," Pederson said. "Just looking down the road, you have two young guys that will eventually, hopefully work themselves into starting roles and contributors on defense that are two pretty good corners. That’s our expectation and hope for both of those players."
It has been a long time since the Eagles had a pair of capable of corners and even longer since the team had a true shutdown cornerback. But Pederson really believes that the Birds finally nabbed one in Jones, a guy who he didn't think would be available when they were on the clock in the first round before he tore his Achilles tendon.
"It was definitely a situation where we felt comfortable talking with our doctors and the teams that have worked on Sidney," Pederson explained. "We felt like he was a Top-10 pick in the first round — that’s where we had him, we had him extremely high. It was so unfortunate that he had the injury because he probably wouldn’t even have been there at No. 14, when we picked in the first round."
Despite the coach's seemingly boundless optimism, he did stop short of saying that Jones was going to play for the Eagles in 2017. Instead, Pederson cautioned against rushing the rookie back and left the definitive answers in the hands of the Eagles' doctors and trainers.
"I don’t want to put a timetable on it — we don’t know, exactly," Pederson said. "We’re going to continue to listen to our doctors and trainers. I don’t want to push anything with this situation. Who knows? There’s no timetable and we’re going to see how it unfolds."
