Getty Eagles DE Brandon Graham tallied a career-high three sacks in one last year versus the Jets.
Doug Pederson’s homecoming is off to a flying start in Philadelphia. The Super Bowl-winning coach will walk by his statue on Sunday and into the visitor’s locker room to presumably give his Jacksonville Jaguars an inspired pep talk.
Pederson’s words are irrelevant. He’ll have his young Jags hyped, ready to run through a brick walk and right a wrong on the Eagles franchise that fired him. The game will play itself out the way it’s supposed to between the hash marks. That’s the nature of the beast, just like the inevitable comparison of the coaches on the sideline.
Pederson will be facing off against the man who replaced him in Nick Sirianni. Thirteen years separate the two offensive-minded leaders in age, but their styles are light years apart. Pederson is a stickler for tradition, a custodian of the old school style he learned under Andy Reid.
I think this goes without saying, but Doug Pederson shouldn’t receive a single boo from the Eagles crowd on Sunday. The man is a Philly legend.
Sirianni? He’s the 41-year-old poster boy for the NFL’s new generation, per Brandon Graham. And the Eagles legend prefers Sirianni’s style.
“I mean, two young coaches, I feel like they bring the energy. If we had to lose one I’m happy we got Nick because man it’s almost the same … but I feel like Nick is a little bit better because he’s just more open. I feel like Doug had Andy Reid so he kind of stood on certain stuff because of him being under Andy Reid, old school. Because that’s what I was on.”
Brandon Graham loves Doug Pederson, but he’s trying to beat him: “We know we’re going to say ‘Hey, get a love’ but it’s competition and we gotta go out there and we got to get after it. So, that’s always in the back of my mind, that Doug is trying to hurt us out there.” #Eagles
Graham spent his first three years under Reid’s watch, then Pederson turned him loose for five seasons. (Let’s ignore the Chip Kelly experiment).
Graham continued: “But I feel like Nick came in, he talks to the players a little more and he’s really open to how we really feel. And he’s not scared to just say, ‘You know what? Today we are going to do this, today we are going to do that.’ I mean, Doug was still good with stuff, but Doug was like, ‘No, we gonna still do this, we still gonna do that.'”
Doug Pederson Has Never Seen His Own Statue
It’s safe to assume that a large majority of the human population – if he or she was lucky enough to be cemented (or bronzed) into immortality – would have an ego. Not Doug Pederson. The 54-year-old has never visited his own statue outside Lincoln Financial Field.
“Personally, I’ve never seen it, in person,” Pederson told reporters. “And, obviously, it’s a great honor to have me and Rocky Balboa in the City of Philadelphia. And Nick Foles. It’s an honor, it really is – something we accomplished as a team, as an organization, in 2017 and 2018. It’s just a nice reminder.”
Graham Ready to Trash Talk His Old Boss?
Graham recorded 2.5 sacks on his old quarterback Carson Wentz last week. He earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors for his monstruous day. After the game, Graham joked about letting Wentz know about it without revealing what was said. This week, with Pederson in town, expect some more good-hearted trash talking.
“I’m going to have some fun with Doug,” Graham said. “I mean, I love Doug because I mean he’s a great coach. I’m sure them guys over there are loving him already. I can tell already from some of the videos that they loving him already, too.
“I know that he’s coming here trying to win, and it was a bad taste probably in his mouth leaving this place, especially after winning the Super Bowl for the Eagles and the way things went down. But we’re trying not to let him come in [and win].”
Doug Pederson’s high praise for Brandon Graham #Eagles