Doug Pederson on Eagles coaching changes: 'Ultimate decision is mine'

The Eagles' front office structure can sometimes make it unclear who makes what decision, but coach Doug Pederson indicated that he maintains final say on coaching staff changes. So the decision to fire Greg Lewis is Pederson reworking his staff.

"With my staff, obviously the ultimate decision is mine," Pederson said after Week 17. "We'll have conversations with that, but that's all part of the evaluation process at the end."

Pederson was not hired as Eagles coach last year until Jan. 18, relatively late in the coaching cycle. He was the last head coach hired in 2016 because of the Kansas City Chiefs' postseason run. That put a time crunch on assembling a coaching staff, which Pederson had not done before, and the Eagles announced most of their assistants within two days of Pederson's hire.

The front office, led by Howie Roseman, was believed to have helped with some of those decisions. Jim Schwartz came as defensive coordinator on Day 1 without having met Pederson before a pre-hire meeting. Pederson is more established in his position entering his second season, and he also has more time. The Eagles are earlier in the coaching cycle because fewer staffs are finalized.

There is more ambiguity when it comes to roster decisions. Howie Roseman maintains final say, but what role will Pederson have?

"As Howie and I get together these next few weeks and as the offseason goes, we'll kind of see where -- last year it was a little bit harder because I was putting in an offense, and so my time was spent more on the football side. So this spring we'll see exactly if that role will increase a little bit more on the personnel side," Pederson said. "But if not, listen, it's all about football, and we've got to make sure that our guys are ready to go come April 17th."

Roseman said the head coach-front office dynamic has been "great" and that Pederson is an "unbelievable guy" with "unbelievable energy." He said that management was not involved in playing-time distribution during the season, and that there is communication in the offseason about what the coaching staff needs at each position.

"He asks a lot of questions about things that we're doing, and we ask for his input," Roseman said. "We funnel down the information for him and his staff. But we need to know what they need. We need to know what it looks like for them at each position. They do a great job giving us that insight, starting with Doug and then funneling down to the rest of his staff."