Just about everyone proved they understood the process of elimination when multiple reports came out Thursday that Doug Pederson will be named the next head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Since the Eagles were down to three candidates — Pederson, Duce Staley and Pat Shurmur — and the latter two were not announced already, the Eagles are waiting on Pederson’s season to be over. The team released a statement that their search was over, ostensibly making Pederson their choice.
If so, they are waiting for a disaster.
Pederson cannot be named head coach until his season is over as offensive coordinator with the Kansas City Chiefs, and since the Super Bowl comes on Feb. 7, that announcement could come as late as Feb. 8. There will be a lot of thumb twiddling and pencil tapping and nothing else getting done between now and then.
In reality, no one knows if Pederson will become a winning head football coach in the NFL. I don’t. You don’t. Future boss, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie doesn’t, and the same is true with his current boss, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. Lurie is hoping Pederson can win games as a head coach and hope is never a good forecaster. Ask the millions of people, minus three, who waited in line with the hope of winning a $1.5 billion lottery payout. Lurie is throwing a dart against the wall and hoping he can come up with a bulls-eye. Pederson never even called the plays in Kansas City, something Reid has done for his entire head coaching career.
With Shurmur at least, Lurie had more than hope. He had the hard evidence that the Eagles could rally behind him and win a NFL game, and they did in the final game of the season. Shurmur had the endorsement of his quarterback, Sam Bradford, who said that Shurmur being back would be a big incentive for the free agent to remain in Philadelphia. Pederson had no such endorsement. Hard numbers prove good quarterbacking is more important than good coaching to winning at the NFL level.
Shurmur could have rolled up his sleeves and started today or even yesterday. The Eagles will have to wait even to make a shirt for Pederson, and when he gets to Philadelphia, they cannot know how well he will perform his duties. That doesn’t sound like anything but a recipe for a disaster.
