Getty Bears coach Matt Nagy had an old friend sit in on practice today.
Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy and former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson go way back. Both descendants of the Andy Reid coaching tree, Pederson handed Nagy his very first playoff loss in the 2018 Wild Card game, but they coached together and have been good friends for years prior to that. Both were with Reid when he coached the Eagles, working together in some capacity from 2009-2012 in Philly before they followed Reid to Kansas City after that.
Pederson, of course, eventually went on to win Super Bowl LII with Nick Foles — who is currently the Bears’ third-string quarterback — and now, a year after being relieved of his duties as head coach of the Eagles, Pederson has been spotted on the Bears’ sideline on August 6, clad in team gear. Naturally, photos of the former Eagles coach sporting orange and navy began circulating via Twitter:
Doug Pederson spotted at Chicago’s training camp wearing Bears gear 👀
(📸 @NicholasMoreano)
In a few, he and Foles were seen in close proximity:
Nick Foles talking with Doug Pederson at Bears camp
Foles and Pederson chatting after practice
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Pederson Was Just Visiting Old Friend Nagy
According to Usayd Koshul of Bear Report, Pederson was just in Chicago visiting his old friend. Others backed that up, including SB Nation’s Windy City Gridiron.
While many jumped to conclusions because Pederson was wearing Bears gear, it doesn’t look like the ex-Eagles HC will be coming to Chicago in any coaching capacity. Nagy will likely be asked about it when he speaks to the media again on August 7, so we’ll see what he says.
It’s unclear whether Pederson is taking this year off, but after getting fired from his head coaching gig in Philadelphia after a 4-11-1 season in 2020, he has made it known he wants to lead a team again.
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Pederson Recently Said He Still Wants to Be a Head Coach
“The competitor inside wants to continue to compete,” Pederson said in June. “Hopefully, I get an opportunity to lead another football team and do the same things again and learn from the last five years—what a great teaching moment for me. I always talk about how we learn from failures and different things like that. I don’t want to say that this was a failure, but at the same time, I want to learn from the last five years moving forward in my next opportunity.”
Nagy and Pederson have always been advocates for one another, and the Bears coach credits their mentor for shaping each of them.
“It’s Coach Reid. It starts there,” Nagy told ESPN in 2019 about Reid’s influence on both his and Pederson’s careers. “He trusts you as a person, you build loyalty through him, and then he takes care of you. That’s what he did to both Doug and I.”
Considering his track record includes a Super Bowl ring, Pederson will surely land somewhere else in the not-too-distant future — but it probably won’t be the Windy City.
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Former Rival Coach Spotted at Bears Training Camp in Team Gear