Getty Eagles head coach Doug Pederson is on the hot seat in Philadelphia.
Nick Foles might be trying to leave the Chicago Bears, but his Super Bowl-winning coach appears ready to lend a hand in the Windy City. Doug Pederson was spotted at Bears’ practice on Friday and offered on-field instruction to the players.
It’s an interesting development for the unemployed coach who decided to take the year off after leaving the Philadelphia Eagles. Pederson was replaced by Nick Sirianni following a 4-11-1 season, his first non-playoff appearance since 2016. He went 46-39-1 (including playoffs) during his five-year run with the Eagles.
On the surface, Pederson’s surprise visit to Chicago could be nothing more than him checking on his friends. He maintains a close personal relationship with Bears head coach Matt Nagy – the two were on the same staffs in both Philadelphia and Kansas City – and there’s no denying his affection for Foles who serves as the third-stringer there.
“There were times where I reached out to Doug because Doug’s someone who’s a mentor,” Foles told NBC10’s John Clark in April 2020. “It was nothing to do with football. He’s someone that we’ve been through it, he’s been through it. There’s times where we need advice, we just need to seek good advice.”
Then again, Pederson doesn’t have a job and hinted that he was interested in returning to the NFL at some point. Is that point this year? Maybe. Nagy could easily offer him a senior assistant position or an advisor role, similar to what the Tennessee Titans did for former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.
And Pederson was wearing his trademark visor at Bears’ training camp on Friday while holding a notebook and directing traffic on the field. The 53-year-old Super Bowl champion looked to be coaching up the guys, with Foles clearly visible in the background in one photo.
Pederson joining the Chicago staff makes a lot of sense. Stay tuned.
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Sirianni Defends Decision to Hold Short Practice
Sirianni has come under fire in recent days for the length of Eagles’ practices. A typical training camp session has run approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes this year, which is a huge decrease from what went down under Pederson. His practices sometimes lasted as long as three hours.
On Thursday, Sirianni told reporters that the reason for conducting shorter practices had to do with keeping the players healthy. It was a joint decision made by himself, along with general manager Howie Roseman, trainers, doctors, and the strength and conditioning staff.
Said Sirianni: “It’s just organization, communication, to make sure that when we are out here for an hour and 15, our practices are an hour 15, hour 30, hour 45, whether that can go north or south of that any day just based off the day. But when you’re out here that you’re highly organized and you’re not taking any time in between periods.”
Not Enough Live Reps Prior to Week 1?
And no one is worried that his team won’t be ready for Week 1 due to a lack of live reps. Sirianni has full confidence in the hard work they’ve been putting in.
“The confidence is that just because they are not practicing for the amount of time, the three hours or whatever,” Sirianni said. “Two and a half hours with the walk throughs, we are full speed mentally in walk-throughs, okay, like we are still walking through, but it’s full speed to the snap. We are still meaning full speed, right. We are still connecting full speed when we are in there.”
Sirianni continued: “So it’s all these things like it’s just not — practice is one piece of the puzzle and it’s a big piece and there’s all these other pieces of the puzzle to get ourselves ready and we are doing those, you know, just like we would any other year.”