Eagles interview Doug Pederson, former Birds QB and assistant
The Eagles interviewed Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson for the team's head coaching vacancy on Sunday. Pederson met with the Eagles' three-man search party - owner Jeffrey Lurie, vice president of football operations Howie Roseman, and team president Don Smolenski - in Kansas City.
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The Eagles interviewed Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson for the team's head coaching vacancy on Sunday.
Pederson met with the Eagles' three-man search party - owner Jeffrey Lurie, vice president of football operations Howie Roseman, and team president Don Smolenski - in Kansas City.
The Chiefs beat the Texans, 30-0, in the first round of the playoffs on Saturday. They will meet the Patriots in the divisional round on Saturday afternoon. If the Eagles have tagged Pederson as their next coach, they will have to wait until the Chiefs are eliminated from the postseason to hire him.
The team has confirmed five interviews - former Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase, who was hired by the Dolphins on Saturday; New York Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo; Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur; Eagles running backs coach Duce Staley; and Pederson.
Former Giants coach Tom Coughlin is scheduled to meet with the Eagles brass on Monday. He resigned last week after 12 seasons with New York. Coughlin didn't rule out a return to coaching, although it would be a surprise if the 69-year-old was Lurie and company's No. 1 target.
Pederson, a former quarterback, played one season for the Eagles and started nine games in 1999. After retiring from football in 2004, he was the head coach at Calvary Baptist Academy in Louisiana for four years.
He then was reunited with Andy Reid, his quarterbacks coach with the Packers and his head coach with the Eagles, in 2009. Pederson was an offensive quality control coach and then quarterbacks coach for the Eagles for four seasons.
He followed Reid to Kansas City in 2013 and has been his offensive coordinator since. Reid returned to play-calling with the Chiefs, but he has increasingly had Pederson call more plays this season. Reid's protégé also helps script the offensive game plan each week.
"I think it's great he has an opportunity," Reid said Sunday. It's a "compliment to the hard work he's put in, and he's done a nice job. He's ready to do that, and if he has that opportunity, more power to him."
Gase and McAdoo have been the only Eagles candidates thus far to interview with other teams. Aside from Miami, Gase met with the Browns and Giants. McAdoo also sat down with the Giants.
Of the five candidates, three - Pederson, McAdoo, and Shurmur - are represented by Bob Lamonte. Roseman and Reid are also clients of the agent, as is Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, whom the Eagles reportedly have requested permission to interview.
The Steelers knocked Cincinnati out of the playoffs on Saturday. The Eagles have not reached out to Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, who met with the 49ers and Browns on Sunday. Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott, who worked under Reid in Philadelphia for nine seasons, has not been contacted, either.
McDermott has interviewed with the Browns and also will meet with the Buccaneers.
The Dolphins are the only one of seven teams to fill their openings at head coach thus far.