January 18, 2016
Nobody really knows whether Doug Pederson will be a successful NFL head coach, including Doug Pederson himself. The real story of his ascension to the job is how inept the Eagles were in the 16-day search that led to this illogical conclusion.
Pederson is a 47-year-old ex-quarterback who has distinguished himself at no job he has ever held in football. He was a lousy quarterback, a nondescript assistant and hasn’t even called the plays as offensive coordinator under Andy Reid in Kansas City. Prior to last week, no NFL team had ever interviewed him to be their head coach.
Of course, there’s always a chance that Pederson is one of those rare finds who just needs a chance to show what he could do as the boss. No one really knew if Reid himself could go from quarterbacks coach in Green Bay to head coach here before the Eagles hired him in 1999.
In fact, I had lunch with Andy Reid at the legendary Dante & Luigi’s in South Philadelphia soon after got the job, and I will never forget the moment when he looked across the table and asked: “Do you think I can do this?” When I said I had no idea, he laughed and said he wasn’t really sure himself.
The problem with the decision to hire Pederson is not the winner of the competition; it is the people who ran it. That is owner Jeffrey Lurie and his associate Howie Roseman, both of whom removed all doubts about their already dubious credentials with a bumbling search.
Lurie began the process when he said he fired Chip Kelly before the end of the season because he wanted a six-day “head start” on the other teams looking for a new coach. Then he and Roseman came up with a list of candidates that excluded all people with a background in defense and all college coaches.
At best, Pederson was their third choice. If you believe their first target was Chicago assistant Adam Gase – I do – they failed when Miami proved to be far more decisive. Ben McAdoo ended up back with the Giants because they had home-field advantage, and New York legend Tom Coughlin wisely chose retirement over a deal with these wannabes.
What really happened here is easy to decipher. After three years with the people-unfriendly, power-hungry Chip Kelly, the Eagles considered only those candidates who could tolerate Roseman – in other words, only those coaches who didn’t have the power to challenge the restored status of the owner’s yes man.
In the end, Lurie and Roseman surrendered to the brazen politicking of Reid, to the memory of an era when the team won lots of games (but no championships) and when everybody pretended they respected the owner and his toady.
Andy Reid never missed one of Lurie’s Christmas parties. Chip Kelly had other priorities. That’s why Kelly is working in San Francisco now, and Doug Pederson will be head coach of his first team since he led Calvary Baptist Academy – a high school – in 2009.
When the Eagles finally introduce Doug Pederson to Philadelphia on Tuesday, Lurie will reach deep into his bag of tired platitudes to gush over his newest discovery – the next Andy Reid, he will suggest – but what he will not realize is that the focus of his fan base has changed since he picked Reid and Kelly.
Over all these years, the question has always been, will the Eagles finally win a championship with the new head coach. Now fans are pondering a more depressing issue: Does the team have any real hope for a parade with Lurie and Roseman running the team?
***
The San Francisco 49ers had to make an important decision last week: Who was responsible for the failure of Chip Kelly in Philadelphia, the man himself or the organization around him?
Then the Niners named Kelly their new head coach.
That another desperate franchise chose to side with their candidate over his former team is interesting, but not as interesting as the process that led to this determination. Unlike the Eagles, who closed their minds quickly about Kelly, the 49ers actually judged the situation objectively.
They were aided in this process by Tom Gamble, one of many former co-workers who had faced the wrath of Roseman, the once and future Eagles GM. Gamble’s firing one year ago directly led to Kelly’s power play here, and ultimately the coach’s dismissal.
Now a senior personnel executive in San Francisco, Gamble told his bosses that Roseman was the problem in the Eagles hierarchy, not Kelly. He referenced all of the other co-workers – Louis Riddick, Marc Ross, Jason Licht, Joe Banner, Andy Reid, Ed Marynowitz, Chip Kelly – who were alienated by owner Jeff Lurie’s pet.
Kelly made the decision easier for the Niners by asking for no say over personnel, noting that his power play last year was inspired only by a lack of faith in Roseman, not in his own desire to be a GM. In the end, those 10-6 records his first two seasons proved more persuasive than any concerns over Kelly’s people skills.
For the Eagles – and especially Roseman – Kelly’s ability to find another job before his former team could find his replacement is a potentially embarrassing scenario because it provides an immediate means of comparison between Kelly and new Eagles coach Doug Pederson.
With rosters that are equally flawed, which coach will have a better first season, Kelly or Pederson? And how will Eagles fans react if Kelly outperforms Pederson?
The 2016 season is already shaping up as a humbling one for Howie Roseman.
***
Something extraordinary happened with the Sixers last week, and just about everybody missed it. For the first time in his three years here, GM Sam Hinkie actually included an element of time in his forecast for his ever-rebuilding team.
“I think if you zoom out a little bit,” he said, in his typically stilted style. “the summary of what we’ve done is plant seeds for a harvest, and it’s not out of the question to think that the harvest could come in even this summer.”
That’s right. Hinkie is talking about having a respectable roster as soon as this summer – as in, just a few months from now. Imagine that.
Now, a cynic might point out that the GM’s more aggressive new schedule might be connected to the hiring six weeks ago of Jerry Colangelo as chairman of basketball operations, a move that also coincided with the acquisition of point guard Ish Smith and other moves designed to improve the current state of the team.
Since I prefer to see only the positives in Philadelphia sports, I’m beginning to think Colangelo might actually be able to save Hinkie’s plan and Hinkie’s job at the same time. Think about it. The one thing the reclusive GM has been able to do is stockpile assets; Hinkie’s biggest problem has been figuring out what to do with them.
Well, now he doesn’t have to worry about that because Colangelo is here to cash them in for valuable prizes – maybe even a franchise player like LSU superstar Ben Simmons. Regardless, it’s clear that Colangelo is not going to sit around waiting for a miracle if he doesn’t win the lottery and get Simmons.
Joshua Harris has made one stupid move after another since he bought the Sixers, but – with the help of commissioner Adam Silver – the owner finally got something right. Jerry Colangelo is already having a major impact on the team, and even on his GM.
Sam Hinkie is talking about the summer, and respectability, and hope for the immediate future. Hey, maybe miracles do happen.
And finally …
• After 17 years as a head coach, Andy Reid still has no idea how to manage the clock. Can you believe, after he blew any chance to win Super Bowl XXXIX by taking too long on a late drive, his Chiefs did the same thing Saturday in New England? Anybody still wish he were back coaching the Eagles? No, thanks.
• ESPN has employed Ron Jaworski as one of their football analysts for a decade, so it’s bizarre that – after Jaws said he helped the Eagles pick Doug Pederson as the new head coach – the network rated the hire as the worst in the NFL so far. Does this mean they no longer see Jaworski as an expert? Then why should we?
• If you want to measure how bad Chip Kelly was at evaluating NFL talent, consider the cases of Riley Cooper and Jason Avant. Kelly dumped Avant a year after the coach took over, and kept Cooper for three underwhelming seasons. Avant is still making big catches in Kansas City. Cooper is still making big money – for nothing – here.
• Aaron Rodgers saved the season for Green Bay and turned in the most amazing play of his extraordinary career Saturday night – and then never got back on the field, thanks to the still-flawed NFL overtime rules. Does it really make any sense to stake five months of grueling competition on the flip of a coin?
• Now that the Eagles have reached into their past for new coach Doug Pederson, it’s not asking too much for them to add to their coaching staff another ex-player with talent and leadership ability. I’m talking about Brian Dawkins. It’s time for the Eagles to right a wrong, and to put their most beloved player back on the sidelines.
