January 19, 2016
On Tuesday, Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie introduced Doug Pederson as the organization's 23rd head coach.
The two spoke and answered questions for the better part of an hour, and you can read the full transcript of the press conference here, but because you likely don't have the time, here are the 10 most important quotes that you need to know:
"In this process, we started with about 25 candidates that we completely researched, analyzed, vetted, however you want to describe it," Lurie said. "And that research started during the season -- at some point late in the season -- and it gave us some time to -- if we needed to go this direction -- be fully prepared for the search process. The good news in the NFL is that there's a lot of real good candidates. When we went from looking at 25 viable candidates, we then reduced it to about 10 candidates that we were very, very interested in, some of whom were existing head coaches on other teams, waiting to see if they would be available and creating our own top tier of candidates, in addition to internal candidates. So that list ended up being about 10 or 11 candidates that we were totally focused on."
"You want to put the best people in place, not only for the Philadelphia Eagles, but people that are Doug Pederson people," the new Eagles coach said. "People that I can trust, coaches that I can trust, coaches that I can trust that they are doing the best things for their players, whether it be in the training room, the strength and conditioning department, the personnel department, and obviously the coaching department.
"And so I'm proud to announce right now, Jim Schwartz will be our defensive coordinator for the 2016 Philadelphia Eagles. I'm excited to have him, his track record and his defenses that have led the National Football League. I've had a chance to coach against him and I'm glad he's on our team now. So I'm honored to have him to be a part of my staff."
"I haven't decided yet on an offensive coordinator. Interviewing a few people, and again, just evaluate that position," Pederson said. "I know it's an important position. From where I come from the last three years, [the offensive coordinator is] tied directly in with the quarterback position. And looking at the quarterback position here, I think Sam's a quality quarterback; I think he's a top-notch quarterback. Look what he did the last half of the season and the numbers that he was able to put up. I feel like he's an individual, he's a quarterback that would fit perfectly into a system that I'm going to bring. And so, you know, as we evaluate, as I evaluate that position, those decisions will be made as we go."
"I know this, it's a collaborative effort," Pederson said. "It's Howie, myself, Tom Donahoe, there's a bunch of people but that's the nucleus of the group and we’ll make the best decisions for the football team."
Q. Who breaks the tie?
[Lurie raises hand off stage]
"...we're about to do a search for a player personnel head," Lurie said. "That will really be an important search that we are all participating in, starting this week. Given that search and given the competitive nature of that search, what I'd like to do is really talk to you more about structure and the exact nature of those once the search is over, because I don't want to sort of telegraph anything we're doing."
"I'll tell you this, we’re still in an evaluation process," Pederson said when asked which coaches he would be retaining. "I would tell you that Dave Fipp will be retained. I like his style. He's one of the top special teams units in the National Football League the last few years. I like his style.
"Jeff Stoutland as offensive line [coach], I like his demeanor and what he brings to that room. I think there's continuity there. There's a toughness there and there's a style that I like with him."
"I know it's an important position," Pederson said. "From where I come from the last three years, [the offensive coordinator is] tied directly in with the quarterback position. And looking at the quarterback position here, I think Sam's a quality quarterback; I think he's a top-notch quarterback. Look what he did the last half of the season and the numbers that he was able to put up. I feel like he's an individual, he's a quarterback that would fit perfectly into a system that I'm going to bring. And so, you know, as we evaluate, as I evaluate that position, those decisions will be made as we go."
"I think, really, this is the time to leave that to the evaluation process," Lurie said of Bradford. "We have a new head coach who understands the quarterback position a lot more than I do. I think all the input of someone who really is now in charge of our football team as head coach will have a very large influence over that.
"Sam did a lot of good things and he seemed to get better during the course of the season, but that's -- it is the key. Structure is -- accountability is crucial and franchise quarterback is very, very important."
"I'll tell you -- I'll even go back a little bit further. I was able to call plays [this season] really since the Pittsburgh game on, if you follow the Kansas City Chiefs. Coach Reid and I had a great understanding and a great feel for the game. He allowed me to call the second half of every football game from that Steeler game on. The second half of our playoff game the other night, I had the second half. I did have the second half and so I called the entire second half at that point."
"It took us time because No. 1, we did not want to give [Patriots QB] Tom Brady the ball back. We knew we were going to score. We knew we had timeouts and time. We were also limited with the number of receivers; we had [Chiefs WR] Jeremy Maclin out of the game at the time. We were down numbers. We felt like at that point, not to give the ball back to Tom Brady. We still had timeouts and time, even with the onside kick, to put ourselves in a position to tie the football game."
Jim Schwartz introduced to Philly market: "Here's Doug Pederson, new head coach, just gets done thanking his wife, and right away...
— Tim McManus (@Tim_McManus) January 19, 2016
"...it's, 'What took so long on that last drive?' The honeymoon is short in Philadelphia, man."
— Tim McManus (@Tim_McManus) January 19, 2016
"I do [believe we'll be back in serious playoff contention next season]," Pederson said. "I do. And there's some pieces that we’ve got to work on and try to get back, and free agency, as you know, you're going to lose some and you're going to gain some. I think the nucleus of this football team is very good. It's structured very well. There's some talent here and I do believe that you can put yourself in a position to not only win the [NFC] East, but have a chance to get yourself into the postseason and then go deep into the postseason."
"I think there's a little bit of a -- you say West Coast; I think that has kind of gone by the wayside just a touch," Pederson said when asked what kind of offense he'd like to run. "I’ll tell you this: the core values of the offense, the core principles, some of the core plays are West Coast-ish. We have developed a hybrid-type system. We utilize our players' and quarterback's strengths with the offensive system, use our players’ strengths."
• Pederson on understanding the passion of Eagles fans:
"I understand the culture and the passion of Philadelphia," Pederson said. "I get it. I experienced that as a quarterback in 1999. I experienced that firsthand. And now coming back, I understand what it feels like to win in this city. This city hasn't won and this organization hasn't won in quite some time. It's my job to turn that around. And you do it one day at a time. You do it one player at a time and you do it one coach at a time."
• Pederson talked about his family being excited to come back to Philadelphia.
"Yeah, that was -- our kids were thrilled, honestly. Our oldest son actually graduated from Morristown High School [in Morristown, NJ], spent four years here. Our second son, Josh, is going to graduate this spring there in Kansas City [in the] Overland Park area, and our youngest who will be a freshman, is actually probably the most fired up because all of his buddies are texting him and telling him, ‘Come on back. We’ve got travel baseball spots for you, we’ve got basketball spots, we’ve got your high school spot ready to go.’ It does make that transition much easier knowing that you're coming back to a place that's very familiar to you."
Follow Matt on Twitter: @matt_mullin
