Philadelphia Eagles: Doug Pederson could be losing the locker room
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson needs to get his locker room in check after these last couple of weeks.
Back in 2017, the Philadelphia Eagles were one of the most entertaining teams in the NFL. Since they had such a tight-knit group, everybody got along and clicked on a weekly basis as the team breezed through their opponents all the way to a Super Bowl title.
Then the following year, things changed. The Eagles weren’t winning as often and ended up finishing the year with a 9-7 record. They were struggling on both sides of the ball, and apparently, things were getting off-putting in the locker room as the team was reportedly divided.
The hope was that all of those issues were left in the past after a disappointing season, but apparently, that’s not the case. In fact, the Eagles could be facing problems that are much worse in 2019. And at this point, it’s beginning to look like Doug Pederson is losing the locker room.
The first signs
Last week, the Eagles were coming off of two-straight wins over the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets. As they were preparing for three-straight challenging road games, Philly was facing one of their most stringent tests to date.
With the Minnesota Vikings being their first opponent, Philly had a chance to prove they are truly a playoff-caliber squad. They ended up falling flat on their face, losing by 18 points. The defense was bad, and the offense continued to make mistakes all afternoon long.
You would think their loss to Minnesota would be a wakeup call, but it wasn’t. All it did was cause yet, another rift in the locker room. First, the Eagles released Zach Brown to set an example. Then, Doug Pederson guaranteed a win because he was “confident” in his guys only to backtrack hours later because he realized he might’ve made a mistake.
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And worst of all, the infamous ‘anonymous source’ came about once again. As ESPN’s Josina Anderson reported TWICE last week, there was a source who was frustrated with Howie Roseman, Doug Pederson, and none other than quarterback, Carson Wentz.
Now, the Eagles could’ve used all of this as motivational material to want to go into Dallas and lay the smackdown on their NFC East rivals. Instead, they came out looking flat, making the same foolish mistakes, and once again — getting destroyed on Sunday Night Football 37-10.
The response of the team
After the game, the Eagles were extremely unhappy as were the fans. Apparently, the locker room had tons of tension, with players who were angry over the loss. While every player interviewed pretty much gave generic answers to everything. One guy specifically revealed that there is much more going on behind the scenes, which could be causing issues.
Eagles’ right tackle Lane Johnson isn’t one to shy away from his words. So when asked about what will go down this week at the Nova Care Complex, Johnson might’ve revealed a little too much for the Eagles’ liking after the game, according to NBC Sports’ John Clark.
“Really, it’s probably going to be a callout session,” Johnson stated in regards to this week’s preparation for the next game. “Everybody will be held accountable. Little stuff that slides during the week, late to practice, late to meetings — stuff will be held accountable for.”
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Late to practice? Late to meetings? In Doug Pederson’s locker room? Shocker! Two years ago, none of those issues would’ve taken place — but it seems that over the last two years that has truly become the ‘new norm’ for the Eagles. This team has locker room issues, and there’s no other way to describe it. We’ll see how it gets addressed moving forward.