By: Jesse Larch, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Prior to this season former NFL executive and current analyst Michael Lombardi criticized Eagles' head coach Doug Pederson by referring to Pederson as "less qualified to coach a team than anyone" that Lombardi had encountered in his career with the NFL.
I wrote at length after Lombardi made these comments about why he was wrong, and since the season has begun all Pederson has done is become the front runner for the NFL's Coach of the Year honor – throwing the take that he is unqualified in the garbage where it belongs.
While he is the obvious candidate, the race is a formality and Pederson should be the undisputed and unequivocal coach of the year in 2017.
That is not due to poor coaching performances around the league either – in any other season Doug Marrone, Sean McVay, Mike Zimmer, and Sean Payton would all be serious candidates, but Pederson's performance this season exceeds all of them.
Pederson's claim to the Coach of the Year is multi-faceted. It is not only because he coaches the team with the NFL's best record, but it is because of how this team has gotten to that point.
The Eagles have been dominant on both sides of the ball, as Pederson's team is the only one in the NFL to be ranked in the top five in both total offense and total defense. The Eagles rank fifth on the "money down," converting 42.9% of their third downs. They are also third with a 70.8% success rate on fourth downs. It is worth adding that this high level of success has come with the Eagles having the fourth-most third down attempts, and the second-most fourth down attempts.
Success on third and fourth down can be directly connected to coaching. To have success on these downs you must be prepared. Pederson has shown an elite ability as a gameplanner this season and success on third and fourth down proves that.
What makes these feats especially remarkable is the level of adversity that the Eagles have faced this season in relation to injuries.
The Eagles are the only team among the group coached by Pederson, Zimmer, McVay, Marrone, and Payton to have lost three team captains for the season. In the Eagles' case it was future Hall of Fame tackle Jason Peters, special teams ace Chris Maragos, and the NFL's passing touchdown leader Carson Wentz.
Only Sean Payton's New Orleans Saints have more man games lost than the Eagles this season among these five coaches' teams, as demonstrated below:
NFL Week 15 injury plot: # of injuries vs # of wins. Total player quality lost is bubble size (Lost-av metric, weighting by 2016 quality of injured players) https://t.co/Cdo2iYVogn pic.twitter.com/Rm8cASdfj4
— Man Games Lost NFL (@ManGamesLostNFL) December 21, 2017
The reason that having more man games lost than the Eagles does not tip the scales in the favor of Sean Payton is because of the job that Pederson has done over the past few weeks.
The Eagles lost MVP-favorite Carson Wentz for the season against the Los Angeles Rams – McVay's team – three weeks ago.
Pederson managed to come from behind and defeat McVay with his backup quarterback in the game. To compound that point, Nick Foles has won all three games in which he has been eligible for a decision in this season since taking over for Wentz.
Part of Lombardi's criticism for Pederson was that Pederson would only go as far as Carson Wentz takes him. Pederson has proven over the past three weeks that he has prepared this team to win in the face of any kind of adversity. Without the league's best player in 2017 Doug Pederson is undefeated.
Before the season began the Eagles were tied for the 10th toughest strength of schedule based on 2016 records. None of the other four coaches' teams appeared higher than the Eagles in preseason strength of schedule. The Saints ranked 15th, the Rams ranked 17th, the Vikings ranked 27th, and the Jaguars ranked 30th. The level of competition has been night and day.
Doug Pederson has won more games than any other coach in the NFL this season. He has coached the only team with a top-five offense and a top-five defense. He has coached the only team to rank top-five in both third and fourth down percentage, and he has overcome injuries to the most important players on his roster. Doug Pederson has left no doubt that he is the inarguable choice for coach of the year.
