February 24, 2016
Before he was hired as Eagles head coach, Philadelphia knew Doug Pederson as the guy who started nine games before handing over the reins to Donovan McNabb.
Something else happened during that 1999 season that also had a long-term effect on the franchise: Andy Reid hired Jim Johnson and gave him full autonomy to run the defense, a page that Pederson seems to be taking out of Reid’s playbook. At least to start 2016, the plan is for the Eagles defense to be Jim Schwartz’s show.
“His head coaching experience, obviously I wanted someone on that side of the ball, being a first-time head coach, that I could sort of turn the keys over to and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got the defense,’" Pederson told reporters at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. “’I’ll help run the offense, and then we’ll go from there.’”
Pederson didn’t know Schwartz before this year besides from coaching against him, but the former Detroit Lions head coach “came highly recommended” to Pederson. Under Schwartz, the defense will be making a change back to a 4-3 scheme.
Pederson mentioned that he is currently involved with implementing the offense with the offensive coaches. As for the defense, that responsibility clearly belongs to Schwartz.
“He’s a guy that I have a lot of confidence in, a lot of trust,” Pederson said. “Love what he does on defense. The aggression, the attacking style of defense. Just looking forward to working with him.”
At this time last year, the Eagles were drafting players who fit a very different scheme than the one Schwartz will bring to Philadelphia. That presents an interesting challenge for executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman and his front office.
“When you change systems, without getting into specific people, the first thing you’re doing is making sure that you’re not missing guys,” Roseman told reporters at the combine. “So if you’re a 3-4 team and you’re looking for two-gap defensive linemen, you have to go back and go over your defensive linemen and talk about those guys.”
From how Roseman made it sound, the Eagles started their pre-draft work later than usual, which is predictable considering the coaching change.
“We spent more time doing that in our pre-combine meetings than normally we would have because we got to make sure we’re thorough on all those guys,” Roseman said. “And not missing guys who change because of scheme or because of what we’re looking for now as opposed to then.“
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