Eagles’ new head coach Doug Pederson pulled in the reins at Monday’s practice. He called off the full-contact format of the drills and scrimmage. The players get a scheduled day off on Tuesday. What gives?
Is this a case of Doug “adjusting” to the reality of the modern concept of minimizing contact until it counts? Or is it the reality of a savvy head coach knowing how to pace his team for a long season?
There is another more diabolical theory out there— Pederson is in competition with the guy he hired to run his defense, namely Jim Schwartz, a former head coach who is out to make a new name for himself by creating an Eagles defense which is going to be a bigger factor in winning games than is the offense.
Is there a potential conflict brewing there? Probably not— but if the defense is balling out harder than the offense in full-contact drills, it gets noticed by all. Right now, that seems to be the case. And Pederson is putting a temporary stop on it.
Probably a good move, if true. No need to get anybody hurt out there in intramural contests….
But the whole idea raises the doubt— is Pederson’s mindset a bit too player-friendly?… and I don’t think being a player-friendly coach is a bad thing. The question is if player-friendly head coaches can win in this league, or with the current Eagles roster at hand?…
I think the friendly approach can work with veteran teams who have already proven they can win when the money’s on the line. The unfriendly approach is probably more suited to cajoling the best out of young unproven teams.
Therefore, I think Doug knows what he’s doing, as he has realized the 2016 Eagles are ultimately going to be about veterans reaching their top potential before they are judged as too old or too beat up to make a difference in the sport.
Andy Reid when he first came to the Eagles in 1999 was a hard-ass jumbo-sized prick who invented the “3 Days of Hell” training camp concept for the Eagles, a concept which Doug Pederson has just backed off from…
In Andy’s defense, he had inherited a complacent bunch of losers from Ray Rhodes.
Andy ran a very tough camp that season. It wasn’t pretty to watch.
Andy mellowed on TC torture only after his team started winning.
Here’s the difference in 2016— The Eagles which Doug Pederson has inherited are not as unmotivated or self-destructive as the group which Andy Reid took over in 1999. The “Dougie Eagles” in one form or another have been a part of an overall winning program since 2013. They just missed out on making the playoffs in 2015 by one or two games. Doug’s mission is less a complete makeover than a fine-tuning objective.
Andy Reid didn’t have that degree of subtlety available to him in 1999. The team he took over was a non-competitive mess.
So maybe it’s a good thing that Pederson has indicated by his actions in slowing down the physical intensity of Eagles TC that he understands the difference between a competitive roster on the brink of a breakthrough, and a noncompetitive roster that needs to have the crap beaten out of it.
Sports Illustrated’s Peter King was at the Open Practice on Sunday after he spent some time with Pederson. King has been on the record as someone who is bullish about the Eagles in 2016. He argued that Pederson is “facing the most pressure” of all the NFL’s new head coaches this season. One player who followed Pederson from Kansas City to Philadelphia explains why the players are on board with the new head coach.
“He’s putting himself out there way more here,” quarterback Chase Daniel said. “He’s connecting with the guys. He’s very much a player’s coach and he’s exciting. He’s almost more exciting than some of the players, and guys have really bought into that.”
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